As the cheery group got off the bus and took in the relaxing atmosphere of Selesa Health Farm Resort, Bukit Tinggi, Pahang, the team building event was off to a great start. The 88 team players were greeted by the course presenter, Licensed Hypnotist, Dr. Alvin Teoh, and his friend, Ninjitsu Sensai, James Lee, and introduce themselves to the anticipating Elabram staff. Each individual was randomly picked to join a group which would be their “Tribe” for the rest of the team building weekend. All 8 groups formed proudly showcased their “tribename”, “flag”, “motto”, “anthem” and “headband”, ready to compete and show-off their strengths.
What’s a team-building event without a scavenger hunt? The teams geared up to compete in a game of “Da Vinci Scavenger Hunt” where the twist is each team had to get their brain juices flowing to solve cryptic riddles in order to reveal the 10 objects that they need to collect from all over the resort. This event bought out the creativity and logical abilities of each team.
A number of other games were played later that day and by the end of the day it was highlighted to every participant that goals are even easier to achieve when each team member co-ordinates well and focuses on that one goal.
The following morning, the well-rested staff was led by James to a few warm-up exercises to get everyone’s blood circulating and concentration levels on par with the coming activities. The teams participated in a number of intermediate tasks where careful planning, leadership skills, and task delegation were put to test for each individual in each team.
The final and most critical task of the weekend event was the “Fashion Show”, where instead of competing against each other, the 8 teams had to work together in order to pull off a make-believe fashion show. Team members were separated once again into different fashion show workgroups – stage & runway planning team, room decoration team, hosting and MC team, and of course, the marketing team whose critical task was to get 5 outsiders as honorable guests for the final fashion show.
The challenge that everyone shared was that the planners were also the runway models themselves. Each group was assigned a special theme for their runway costumes which they had to create with very little resource, namely, only items that could be found in the room. The themes given were no ordinary themes – K-pop, Bollywood, Lady Gaga, Metal Rock, Hawaiian, to name a few, had everybody’s creativity overflow. It was total mayhem when costumes were being made out of random raw material ranging from chart papers to table cloths. Under a given time limit, all teams had to plan, co-ordinate, and delegate the work effectively and efficiently for the fashion show to be a success. And a success it was! A great sense of achievement filled the room when the honorable guests left the show feeling satisfied and entertained and Dr. Alvin congratulated everyone for doing a job well-done.
After patting each other on the back, everyone was all ears when Dr. Alvin recapped on all the activities done during the entire event and the lessons taught and goals achieved followed by the awarding of the training certificates to all its participants. After giving Dr. Alvin and Sensai James a chorus of thank you’s, it was time to board the bus again to head back. By the end of the day, everyone was enriched with knowledge and importance of the 3 C’s of teamwork – Co-ordination, communication, and compassion.
