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Thursday, October 27, 2011

Team Building at Sariska


My Monday blues disappeared when I received a mail nominating me for a Team Building Programme at Sariska Palace, Alwar from 16-17th of September.


We were a team of 32 colleagues from various departments. We started on 16th morning from office. It had rained heavily since the night before and roads were waterlogged. It took us about six hours to weave through the traffic, but a sumptuous mid-way breakfast made up for all the stress.


Sariska is a known for its Tiger Sanctuary. Just Adjoining it is Sariska Palace, built by Maharaja of Alwar and presently been converted into a heritage hotel with all the modern amenities. This is also the location where the Bollywood movie, “Karan Arjun” had been shot.



Our trainer, retd. Major Subhash Mahajan, joined us on the way.



Allotted rooms and roommates, we quickly freshened up and gathered for lunch.

It was raining ever since we arrived, so our activities were restricted indoors.



We were divided into four teams with 8 members each, and the trainer gave us a problem to solve. He had created a model, which we needed to study to visualize the problem.



The rain had stopped by then, so we could venture out a bit. The trainer made us stand in a circle and explained the games he had planned for us.



The adjoining picture shows one of the many games where four blindfolded representatives had to collect coins strewn on the floor, guided by respective team members.






The post-tea session was very challenging. We were divided into three teams this time, handed a piece of cloth, two colours and a paintbrush. We not only had to name our team, we had to frame a motto, design a flag and compose a 12-line song without repetitions!



The theme was “Mera Ujjwal Bharat” and we were given an hour to complete the task.



We were imparted a crash course on first-aid training during emergencies.



It was actually fun!







We assembled in the evening on the outdoor podium for a cultural evening presented by the staff.


When the dancing began, we all joined in.


The next morning began early in the Conference Hall. We discussed our ideas on what the Organizational Values of DIMTS should be.



We had almost transformed into arguing politicians in the Parliament, so much brainstorming was done!





We got to showcase our creativity when we were asked to make a gift for our room-mate, and tell everyone about the person we spent the night with… someone we didn’t perhaps know well enough before!








We had a rapid fire session of sketching our imagination on paper : the only challenge being a team member sketches after the other, without any prior discussion.



The oraganisers had something planned for us too. They selected three men and asked them to decorate three girls with ornaments made of newspaper.



The makeover was indeed innovative.



The last activity was almost like a blind date with toilet paper. We were asked to take as much we wanted to.. and then one had to share equal number of true and false facts about his own self.



The leading “hoarder” was required to share as many as 93 true and 93 false facts about himself.




We started on our return journey, right after lunch.



We played “Dumb Charades” all along the way, our enthusiasm outweighing our fatigue.



It was indeed a trip to remember, where we made many new friends.