China is a unique country that stands out from the rest. They catch on in technology better than almost anyone in the world and try to do better every time. When we were approached by a world renowned organization for a team building programme, we were over the moon and took the opportunity to work with them. It was definitely an honor to work with such a prestigious organization known worldwide. But one must question, how does this prestigious company function in China with the Great Firewall? We look at it as the company’s best trait – their determination to try again after past failures.
We ran a Chain Reaction programme for this well-known search engine which our team has specifically customized for them to end with an outstanding finale. Think domino effect, but bigger and better!
The Objective
To experience team work firsthand and learn to see a positive light despite the harsh reality in the business world.
What went on?
Any organization who has gone through a bump in the road will know that it’s never easy to get out of it unless they have a great team to help each other out from the sticky patch. Nothing is impossible when you have a great team to help. But when a team has been through a lot in the past year, a team building session is great to remind everyone what being a team means again.
This international world renown internet search engine was briefed of what they were about to do and all 24 participants were noticeably interested. It sounded simple enough for them to plan and place dominos to form an interesting flow to match up to the last completed table of dominos.
Each participants were divided into small groups to work on their section. It was great seeing each team work, teasing one another on whose creation was better. The unique part of this is that teams are encouraged to create a contraption that combines nicely with the blocks they put up.
The Chain Reaction programme is a great example in reminding this search engine company that no matter how hard they’ve stacked those dominos neatly, someone would accidentally (or intentionally) knock into a table or hit one domino that would cause a reaction. One would sigh in frustration because everyone would need to stack it up all over again.
The Finale
In the real world, anything can affect any related company whether it may be a disappointed user, reader, or just an error made internally can cause a big blow-up. Despite how simple Chain Reaction is, the meaning goes far deeper than arranging a few blocks and tipping it to see if it would fall in a flow.
Once everyone was ready and careful not to knock on the tables or kick any blocks on the floor, our lead facilitator called out for a volunteer to do the honor of making that first flick to create the reaction. The block travelled with a little hiccup here and there, but with a little help from the teams to continue where it stopped, the blocks flowed down the creation of contraptions all the way to the end. A ball triggered one last domino which was the surprise element. A little pop and the company’s banner unfolded. A nice little touch to reminding them that they’re an amazing team and they should never ever doubt each other!
The feedback was great. The Google China team enjoyed every single bit of the activity as it allowed them to unleash their creativity as well as bond well with their team.
