FTS Interpersonal Skills Seminar and Team Building

           

            In a class, it is expected that not all of us would hangout together. It is divided into groups. Each of us will find someone or be in a group, which is usually based on our personality, or how long we know that certain person. As time goes by, we tend to mingle with the other groups of the class because we are comfortable enough to bond with them. However, there are many things that we do not know on that certain group of people. 

            One thing to make the group know each other is have an activity that involves cooperating and working with the other people of the other groups, and that activity is commonly known as team building. By definition, team building refers to a wide range of activities, presented to businesses, schools, sport teams, religious or nonprofit organizations designed for improving team performance. Team building can play a great role in all types of groups. It can be used in sports teams such as baseball, hockey, tennis, and volleyball. It can also be used in school projects and in corporate settings. Managers can use team building exercises between employees to see the strengths and weaknesses of each team member. Trust and communication issues can also be noticed from team building exercises; leaders can address these issues and find ways to overcome the obstacles before working on the team project. Team building is known to improve performance in teams; members will remain motivated and can easily overcome indifferences to see the strengths in all team members. Team building can improve communication and improve motivation. Communication can be improved through team building between members of the team, or between leaders and members. The style and method of communication can be established during team building exercises, so that informal and formal communication is recognized and not misinterpreted. Motivation can be improved through bonding with the team, as team members get to be familiar with each other, they can find ways to push each other to go the ‘extra-mile’ and work harder. The familiar environment that the team has can also motivate the team to build trust between members.

            Students that are enrolled on the subject Field Trip and Seminars like me are required to have an interpersonal skills seminar and team building by our facilitator. I have stated the reason earlier what the benefits of having this activity are but now I am going to discuss it further. I am going to tell what we have done on that seminar and relate the things that we have done in there to the situations that may occur during our field trip. 

            On our first activity, we were grouped by five and as expected, the members of each group are all mixed up. This is to ensure that we will work together with the people that we do not usually interact with. After we were grouped, we are instructed to assign a leader for each team. It is the most important thing to have in a group. This is the first step of making the participants work as a team. The group will choose wisely who fits in that position. Surprisingly, I was chosen to lead our group. All of my group mates suggested that I should be the leader of the group. I do not know what they have seen in me, but I think it is because I have more self-confidence than the other members of the group. I am not boasting but I think my group mates made the right choice. I know there are other members of our group that is more capable of being a leader but since the instructed said that the leader will going to represent the group for a short introduction, a person with great self-confidence is needed indeed. So after we are done choosing the leader, the next thing we are going to do is naming the group. I have suggested that we should name our group “Team Bangan” (derived from the Filipino word “timbangan” which means scale/balance, as in the one that you are using to weigh things hehe). For me it was just a joke but my group mates seemed to like it. Not because it was a clever pun but it actually resembles something. When you think deeply, it resembles the balance or equableness of our group and coincidentally, we have four boys and four girls in our team. Therefore, our team name is somehow perfect. After naming the group, we are going to write down our expectations and contributions on a piece of manila paper. We have discussed what are we going to right and as far as I remember, the things that we have written on expectations are, ahm, oops I think I forgot what we have written there. I even forgot what we have written on the contributions but I am sure that I still remember the thought of what we have written. On the expectations, the thought of what we have written is we are going to build self-confidence and be able to work with the other teams and the thought of what we have written in contributions is the cooperation, skills and talent. Obviously, this is the primary target of this seminar, but how it is needed on going to a fieldtrip? Working with other teams also means being confident interacting with other people. This helps a lot during the fieldtrip because there is a tendency that we will only enjoy the day with our close friends. We could apply it on hotel room assignments too. By having a team building, we are able to be comfortable with our roommates and we are able to know them more right before we have shared a room with them. Meanwhile in the contribution, skills and talent could be applied most probably on unexpected situations. For example, we have encountered a dinosaur as we walk down the street; we are able to know who are capable of dealing that kind of situation because we had already shown our abilities before. Yeah do not take so much time where the dinosaur came from, as what I have said before; there might be unexpected happenings that will occur during the field trip. Who knows what is going to happen next? Now let us get back to the story. After we have written on the piece of manila paper, we are going to present, I mean I am going to present what we have written in front. I am the leader remember? So after some of the groups have presented in front, I am next to present. However, it was not a big deal actually, as I said before I have self-confidence so presenting in front of people is a piece of cake. The point is, the seminar also boosts self-confidence of the participants.

            The next thing that we have done is the activity called “Paper clip story”. Obviously, we are going to use paper clips but what we are going to do is bend the paper clip into anything that we want that symbolizes ourselves. We are going to discuss in the group why we have made such a thing like that and after that; we are going to combine all what we have made into a single object, which is we are going to explain also and present it in front. I had a hard time thinking on what thing that symbolizes me and could possibly illustrated though a paper clip. One of my group mates formed a pencil, which means that we could write down our own destiny and erase the mistakes we have committed. The other one formed a key, which is to open something. The other one formed a musical note, which was cool. The other one created a straight line, he did not created it intentionally, he just formed it because ha thought nothing and poof, artwork. The other one created a paintbrush, which is actually somewhat cool too. The other one formed a heart, pfft, mainstream. I am sorry but I was looking for more stylish, creative or just plain clever hehe. Hey, guess what I had formed? It was spaghetti. Yeah it may sound funny but it actually has a deep meaning to me. Besides that spaghetti is my favorite food, spaghetti noodles are versatile in terms of cooking. There are many recipes that you can cook with spaghetti noodles and that is how it is related to me; no not being versatile in cooking but being versatile in life. I could easily adapt on situations and be able to blend in a certain situation. This does not mean that I just let myself flow with the mainstream but find a way to make myself suitable. I do not actually have the right words to say right now but I hope that you people got my point. Ok so let us move to where we are constructing a single object out of the things that we have made. After of minutes messing around and joking with each other we have decided to form the objects into a “timbangan”. This is because not only we stood up by the name of our group but also it actually makes sense. The type of personality that was the basis on forming the object was categorized by two: the soft side and the strong side. We noticed that the personalities were balanced so a scale is the best object that will describe our work. After we have created the object, one of the members will present our work in front. This time, the leader is not going to present in front but the other member instead. The point of this activity is to show how creative we are as individuals and how are we going to combine our ideas so that we could make something.

            After the paper clip story, we were given an individual activity. In a piece of paper, we are going to create an illustration of our family dinner table when we were 12 years old or younger. I know this activity is somehow very sensitive to other participants because not all of us have experienced or lived in a complete happy family. Some of my fellow participants are very emotional while telling the story about what they have drawn. If you were asking what I have drawn, it was just a normal illustration, not as creative as the others have made. However, the simplicity of my work actually means something. As a kid, I was not close to my parents unlike the other families. I find it boring when I am in our house so that is the reason why there is nothing interesting about my drawing. I tend to discover things on my own. I ask questions to myself and find answers with myself. I do not know if that was healthy but I have seen some advantages on spending childhood like that. I felt freedom and made me more curious about the world. It is very exciting for me to answer my own questions because it improves my knowledge and skills. The point of this activity is to raise awareness and understanding what are the personal problems that our friends have experienced before. It is also good that we are able to share our childhood experience about our family and know that there are other people that have experienced worst.

            We also played games, which was uhm. Let us just forget about the games, but the point of playing games is to establish teamwork, creativity and application of skills.

            The final activity that we have made is to write down the things that we will start to do, continue to do and stop to do. It is like a self-intervention. By writing this, you will be aware on the things that you have done and evaluate if you are doing good or not. Sharing it with other people also helps you understand the essence of it.