Building A Team

As part of my staff enrichment, I organized and facilitated a 1-day team building exercise for my staff in my rural health unit. The objective was to "bridge the gap" between the medical staff and the field health workers. Most of my activities were taken during my experience as a campus peer minister and during my seminar under the Zuellig Foundation's Health Leadership and Management Program.

My first activity was the Human Bingo. Each participant was given a BINGO matrix but instead of numbers, each square contains a physical attribute or characteristic. The objective is to let the other participants sign in each box corresponding to a physical or behavioral attribute which best fits that particular person.




The second activity was a lecture on Stephen Covey's 7 habits of Effective People, which was followed by an activity I learned from my HLPM training: Sardines. The big group was divided into two groups and each group chose a leader. All the members of the group were blindfolded and grouped together and tied by a rope or masking tape. The objective was to gather 3 specific objects as instructed through verbal instructions of their leader. The group must remain intact while doing the activity.



The third activity was an exercise on Johari's Window. During the activity, they were very surprised how their fellow participants perceived them to be. They were discovering their hidden potentials as well.

We had agape lunch and after lunch we resumed with an Ice Breaker which I would usually give during my CPM days: the Hep Game. The big group was divided into 4 smaller groups. They were to sit together with their group mates, forming a big circle, linking arms with the rest of the participants. Each group was given a name. I used the names of the barangays in Candoni. The big group was also given a name: Candoni. The rule was as soon as the group's name is called, the particular group would stand together quickly, shout "Hep!" and sit again. It was a fun ice breaker.

The afternoon was spent on exercises on communication. One activity we had was the CHAIRS activity. The group was divided into 2 smaller groups and each leader of the group was given a task. One group was told to "Bring all the chairs near the window". The other group was told to "Bring all the chairs outside of the room". The scene that followed was truly hilarious. It was actually an exercise in conflict resolutions.



Another activity was solving a polygon puzzle. The big group was divided into three small groups and each group was given shapes which were supposed to form a puzzle.

The last activity was called the MINE FIELD. Each participant was to find a partner. One partner was blindfolded. The other partner was to stand outside of the room near the windows. The objective was to navigate the blindfolded partner through verbal instructions inside a room filled with chairs which represented LANDMINES. The blindfolded partner should not touch any of the chairs or else they would "die".



The team building session ended with a simple activity of affirmation. Participants formed two circles and faced each other and would complete the following two sentences, "I like you because..." and "I am thankful for you for...". Many of the participants cried. During the sharing, they told the group how much they felt appreciated by their fellow participants.



They then wrote their pledge or promise individually and submitted it to me, symbolic of their commitment to serve in our small organization.