Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post are purely personal and does not reflect the views of the organization I work with. I have made a sincere attempt to collate all the learning I picked up during our team outing. For most part of this post the pics are gonna do the talking while its author hunts frivolously for those charming one liners!
Ever since I joined this wonderful team, I was looking for an opportunity to know my team members and understand them better. The opportunity finally presented itself in the form of a team outing to Value Lanes on 16th April 2008.On your mark @ MTV Banashankari - (6:35 am - 6:50 am)We were asked to assemble at MTV at sharp 6:35 am. But people kept trickling until 6:45 am. We finally pushed at 5 minutes to 7 am. Everyone appeared really excited and all set to have a gala time. Little did they know that value lanes wasn't a resort! 
Did someone really say "smile please!" I can't quite recall...
Did they know that it wasn't gonna be a joy ride altogether?Ek Do Teen and wheels went rolling... (7 am - 8:45 am)
The bus we had hired was a 20 seater and was almost jam packed with excited souls. The driver gave the journey just the perfect start by playing some really good songs from the movie Gaalipata. The title track for sure left everyone enthused and geared up. After a while we all decided to play dumb charades. It was funny to see people at their creative best trying intemperately to convey the name of the movie. How can I forget my own desperate attempt to convey the word 'life' of the movie 'Life is beautiful'? It was simply superb!
Value Lanes ki daire main: (9:00 am)
We finally reached our dream destination at around 9:00 am. We were pretty hungry. Col Arun Dhar and Major Vibhav Kapoor received our team. The weather showed all signs of being unmerciful for the rest of the day. What seemed to be yet another bright and sunny day, was soon gonna show us true colours of a typical day in summer! After serving themselves with the morning breakfast and nimbu pani/ tea/ coffee, everyone relaxed in the shade for a while.
Ah! You guys got a challenging day ahead. So you better buckup!Thodi si briefing and thodi si sneak peeking! (10:00 am - 10:30 am)
Soon after assembling at the specified venue for an introduction, we were given our chest numbers and a cap! Then we were split into 2 teams. Major Vaibhav Kapoor asked for two volunteers to lead the first event of the day. Venkat and Abhilash came forward to volunteer. They went with major Vaibhav Kapoor for a briefing on the first task. In the meanwhile Arun Dhar shared with us the story of how Value Lanes was conceived and also the success story of various organizations who were benefited by this corporate Training and Development venture of theirs. After 20 minutes, Venkat and Abhilash came back with Vaibhav Kapoor. They seemed very eager to explain to the team what the first challenge was. Arun Dhar left us with the task of discovering one fact about each team member which no one in the team knew about.
Dynamic Obstacle Course (DOC) : (10:30 am - 11:40 am)
Our first task of the day! All we had to do was to move a bucket of water from one end of the course to another by overcoming the dynamic obstacles. Both the teams agreed to complete the task in 45 minutes. The record time was 33 minutes. After planning and building a killer strategy for 10 minutes, we were all set to rock. We finally got going when Vaibhav Kapoor blew the whistle. The task seemed to be a child's play in the beginning. It was only after the actual execution began, we realized how over confident we were. After grappling really hard with time and resources we had, we only managed to complete the task half way. Even though we had asked for an extra time of 25 minutes, we weren't able to complete the DOC challenge completely!
Key takeaways from the exercise:
- Plan while you plan and execute while you execute. Don't mix them up!
- Always make notes while gathering the requirements. Don't rely only on your memory power.
- A great leader is one who can bring the best out of every team member.
- Situational leadership is the sign of a healthy team. Don't curb it.
- Avoid resource idle time.
- Even the best laid plans fail. Always have a plan B.
- After a failure it is extremely essential to do a route cause analysis.
- Make the best use of the most important resource you have. The human resource!
Time for some feedback and not to forget The Johari Window: (11:45 am - 1:10 pm)
After finishing the first task of the day, it was time for some analysis. We were all eager to know how we had fared in the challenge. Dhamu and Vaibhav Kapoor shared their observations with us and gave us some valuable feed backs. After that Major Vaibhav Kapoor briefed us about how to give and receive a feedback. A few things about feed back.
Key points on giving a feed back:
- Give a feed back only if the other person wants it.
- Validate your feed back with immaculate data and specificity.
- Convey the impact the current behavior on you.
- Avoid sounding advisory in tone.
- Never give feed backs in public. They should always be given one to one.
- A feed back can also be positive!
- For heaven's sake avoid passing judgments while giving a feed back.
Key points on receiving a feed back:
- Receive a feed back with an open mind.
- Never take comments made in the feed back personally.
- Look for patterns in the feed back. May be you might have a grey area that needs an urgent attention.
- Always look for the source from where the feed back is coming. If you feel it is genuine, then go ahead and work on it!
We all know that every team invariably involves a great resource called
human resource. It becomes essential to deal with this valuable resource with utmost care and diligence. Having an insight on a resourceful tool like '
The Johari Window' really helps.
Johari Window - A cognitive psychological tool Lunch Break: (1:15 pm - 2:00 pm)After what can be arguably described as an excruciating first half, we all deserved a good lunch. So we hurried towards our rooms to freshen up a bit and off we went to serve ourselves an awaiting déjeuner. After relishing the luncheon, I had a couple of glasses of nimbu pani. I must confess at this point in time. I never had these many glasses of nimbu pani in a single day. (Nope! Not even on ram navamis...)Keyboard: (2:10 pm - 3:00 pm)Post lunch session promised to be more 'hot' and 'happening'. We were again divided into 3 teams. Three from each team viz. Deb, Laxmi and Vidhya volunteered to lead this event. They were briefed quite in detail by Vaibhav Kapoor. After gathering the requirements, each of the team leads went back to their teams to explain the task.The task assigned involved punching 40 cards (serially numbered from 1-40, without duplicates) sequentially in 30 seconds. A warning whistle would be blown at the end of 25th second after which the teams would be expected to evacuate the place, failing which entitles them for a disqualification. After 3 attempts, we were able to punch a maximum of 19 cards. The other teams managed to punch up to 25 cards. But one good thing about each team was they improved after every attempt. In the end the three teams entered the place together and managed to punch about 33 cards in 30 seconds!Key takeaways from the exercise:
- Meticulous planning always helps. Failing to plan is planning to fail.
- Divide the task in to sub tasks so that you get tangible touch points to quantify your goal.
Managing the time and resources at disposal is quintessential for the ssuccessof any project.
Rapelling - When I bid farewell to the acrophobic in me. (3:30 pm t0 4:45 pm)
In this task, each one of us would be rappelling from a height of 65-70 feet. This activity mainly aimed at building your self confidence. It was an extremely good exercise which helped everyone to discover the unknown adventurer in all of us. Okies... The pics will do the rest of the talking!
After that, there was no looking back...
Joy - The satisfaction of a job well done :-)
Key takeaways from the exercise:
- Every task seems big and daunting in the beginning. It is only when you get into it, that you discover that it is do-able.
- Everyone enjoys to be in the comfort zone. But it takes a hell lot of courage to step out of it and perform in zones of discomfort as well.
- Joy is best described as the satisfaction of a job well done :-)
Rafting in manchinbele lake - (5:00 pm - 6:15 pm)
This was allegedly the last challenge we had to complete. We were divided into 2 teams and each team was asked to present the design of their raft in 10 minutes. Our team lead by Suhas and the other team lead by Parthipan submitted the design within the specified time.
After the final approval from major, we went ahead with the actual task of building the raft, which was allotted a time slot of 25 minutes. Our team (Mermaids) built it in 24:14 minutes. The other team (Columbia) built the raft in 24:32 minutes.
Major finally blew the whistle indicating the beginning of the challenge. The rafts were carefully guided in to the luke warm waters of Manchinbele lake. We had awesome fun rowing the rafts built by us. Both the teams completed the task satisfactorily. It was a thrilling experience to row the the raft.
Rafting - Columbia v/s Mermaids (trailing)
Yep! We did it :-) K
oi h
ain j
o h
umse t
akkar l
ena c
hahega?Key takeaways from the exercise:
- Trust your team members. It can work wonders.
- Give your best shot in what you are assigned. The rest will fall in place.
- Always try to minimize the resource idle time.
Time to windup: (6:40 pm - 7:15 pm)
After serving ourselves with some snacks, we assembled back at the place where we had begun the day. Arun and Vaibhav summed up the days learning. Dhamu shared with us his observations during the raft building activity. He was as articulate as ever. After that the teams were asked to jot down what they would take back as a learning and implement them at their work place. Every team explained in brief the key take aways from this team outing.
But one task was still left over. It was the task of discovering a fact about your teammate that no one in the team knew about. Arun gently reminded us the task and asked us to complete it on our way back home. With heavy hearts and mind full of learning, we left the place at aapproximately7:30 pm.
On the way back, each one in the team shared with the rest, a fact that no one knew about them. I must say that it provided just the perfect ending to a great day. I got to know my team members from really close quarters! Thanks a lot to the c2 team for organizing such a wonderful outbound learning activity.
PS: Ma'm was absolutely right when she had mentioned during our previous outbound learning activity; it is during team outings that people shed their so called 'concious IT sheaths' and show their real self. I, for one tried to be so! Hope the same happened with others as well. ~IT's My Life
