IS Team Bonding Day
On the 5th of August 2009, our team met at the rooftop at Vivo City for our first ever session. Although we’d to meet quite early in the day, no one was late! The day first started off with ice-breakers, followed by a briefing by our team leader about the plans ahead, before some team-bonding games and a mass takeaway lunch (makeshift alfresco dining!) to end the session off
First up, ice-breakers! We were each tagged on our back with a label written with name of a famous person/character - be it a cartoon character, politician, or celebrity - without our knowledge of who it was. And, we were supposed to find it out by asking others questions before getting into a group with similar people/characters. The last group to get together had to complete a forfeit. Following that, each group also had to perform a short skit in relation to their group’s category (e.g. cartoons or politicians).
The forfeited team having to do seven wonders!
Since we’re left with just 3 months to our Service Learning trip, without much delay, we moved on to briefing on the project and job allocation. Calendars and timelines were given and duties were explained.
With our much efficient and effective discussion, we wrapped up this section shortly, and continued the session with some team-bonding games!
The first game was to get the team to cross a line marked on the ground in the shortest time possible. It seemed quite straightforward at first, but it dawned upon us after several tries that we had to work as a team and strategise properly. Although it was just a straight line, we took quite a while to reduce our timing as close as possible to our team leader’s standard. But we still managed to do it together as a team and we’d fun in the process!
For the second game, the team was split into two groups and each group was required to form a specific shape (triangle/diamond) using the twine on the floor with their eyes closed. We were given time to strategise.
But once the game started, the twine on the floor was actually taken away or had an end untied by the programmers. Each group ended up feeling lost as they could not find the twine or had problems with the untied twine.
“Where’s the rope? Where is it?”
This team even had time to take photos while the other was desperately trying to form the shape…
At first, we did feel cheated. But later, we learnt the good intentions behind the game. It is to prepare us to face uncertainties and the unpredictable situations we may face along the way throughout the planning phase and actual trip. We may have fantastic plans, but what if the project did not go parallel with our expectation? Do we still follow the plan set? Or do we change according the real situation? The objective of the game was to prepare us mentally, so that we won’t be upset if our plan was not applicable to the real situation.
The last game of the day was to get the team to stand in a circle. Each person had in hand the end of a twine, which had the other end with another person opposite him/her.
We were asked to form a knot as big as possible by each holding on to our twine and just going all around in no order. So we happily went around trying to get the knot larger and larger…
…before being told by our team leader that we had to untie the knot while still holding on to our twine.
It was difficult to, but we still did it under the time limit! Great job, everyone!
Family photo for IS 2009!
Last but not least, here’s a special shout-out to Jesslyn for making our family photo possible! Nice pose there haha :)
All in all, the IS team bonding session was a successful one. Not only did we, the IS family, grow closer, we also picked up some know-how in confronting obstacles that might come in our planning. All the games were well-designed for each of them carried important learning points with it. I hope that through this bonding session, we will be able to work well as a team and not be afraid of challenges that may head our way. We look forward to the trip to Vietnam.
Stay tuned for our more upcoming events…
(Written by: Lynn)
