LogicBase Interactive Team’s Toughness Tested at Alomah’s Place – Team Building 2016

September 17-18, 2016, 2 days and 1 night at Alomah’s Place in Manolo Fortich Bukidnon were so far, the best times of LogicBase Interactive Family. Wanna know why? Then let me take you to a flashback.

It was just a week ago as of this writing when LogicBase Interactive rode for almost 2 hours coming from the city proper of Cagayan de Oro to the serene Alomah’s Place in Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon. The said ideal place for groups was the venue for LBI’s 2nd Team Building given the theme “SURVIVOR: Teamwork makes the dream work. Tough times don’t last, tough teams do!”

Upon arriving at Alomah’s Place, we directly headed to our rooms where we will be staying later that night and unpacked our bags. 16 of us, namely the three admins Sir Bryan, Ms Yani, and Sir Coy, the HR Ms Ethel, Web Developers Cliff, Patch, Ethyl, Leonard, and Joshua, and Internet Marketing Teams’ April, Jeff, Nikki, Paolo, Guilda, Joy and Daffodil, went on a quick walk around the venue. All of us wandered from the playground, to the mini lake with fountain, to where fresh greens are being grown, to a pond of Organic Tilapia. Alomah’s Place is not just a plain and flat ground, but is hilly that we got exhausted when we went back to the venue proper. But roaming around was worth it I tell you.

All of us were then gathered inside Alomah’s event hall, and just a hint, it is where most of the team building activities were held. Hosted by Ms. Ethel, she started the program proper calling April for the opening prayer. Followed by the opening remarks from Ms. Yani welcoming us all, presented the theme for the team building and hoped for the event to be fun and successful.

Excluding Ms. Yani and Ms. Ethel for being the activities’ organizers, 14 of us were then divided and grouped into 2. The first team who wore the orange bandana was Team Plate composed of Paolo, Guilda, Nikki, April, Daffodil, Jeff and Joy. The second team named Team Organic were Cliff, Leonard, Joshua, Ethyl, Patch, Sir Bryan and Sir Coy.

Before the very team building activity, both teams were provided enough lengthy pieces of cloth, paints and paint brushes. The provided materials were for each team to make their respective flags. It was supposed to be a race, however the paint given to Jeff of Team Plate was a bit stiff, making the game null and void. The silver paint given to Cliff of Team Organic was shared for both teams.

Then the first game was conducted outside the hall, near the parking area. Called “Ubusan ng Lahi”, both teams must decide what poses to use as “elf”, “wizard” and “giant” with their respective safe zones placed on opposite sides. The two teams were then asked to line up separately facing the opposite sides. The rule of the game is that elf defeats wizard, wizard defeats giant, and giant defeats elf. Since both of the teams were facing the opposite sides, they have to decide which of the elf, wizard or giant to pose when they are about to face the other team. When a team loses, the other team will try to chase them before they get to their safe zone. The team who have caught more members of the other team wins. And in this game, Team Plate won over Team Organic. The sacrifice made by Paolo was not put to waste.

Highlights of the Game: The game was about communication and to fight for the rest of the team members. Both teams were able to test how sharp their reaction times are.

Then it was lunch time. We really enjoyed the food, mostly the freshly picked red and green lettuce and specially-made sauce for dressing.

After that delectable and satisfying lunch, unexpectedly, it rained cats and dog like for straight two hours, thus prompting us to think for a game to kill time. Introduced by Cliff, we played the “Arrest the Killer” game which only involves winking and lifting eyebrows.

Then it was time for another team building activity designated as “Search by Sound”. Both teams were asked to determine who will be their captains and decide what sound of a specific animal to use for each team. For Team Organic, Cliff was chosen and they’ll be using the sound of the fox “ning-ning-ning”. While for Team Organic, Jeff was chosen and the whole team will be using the sound of the lion “raaaawr”. All of the participating teams were then asked to go outside while the organizers scatter and hide toothpicks at random corners inside the hall. The rule of the game is all of the members will excitingly call their respective captains using the animal sound they chose to use whenever they spot stashes of toothpicks. Unknowingly, the organizers hid the source of the toothpicks near the videoke machine in which Team Organic’s Patch was able to locate, winning over Team Plate. But wait, there’s more! Using the toothpicks, both teams must construct the figure of their animal based on the sound they used. With their teamwork, Team Organic won.

Highlights of the Game: The game made both teams determine who were good at finding, and in imaginative constructing.

Followed by the game “Know Your Colleagues by Birthday”, two members from each team were called in front and blindfolded while the remaining members lined up. The mechanics of the game is for each team to arrange themselves according to their birthdays. Members in front must be the celebrant of any of the earlier months. With the blindfolded members, they must walk themselves to the group and find their place in the order. For those who do not know the other’s’ birthday are sure to fail. Team Organic won with the right order of their members’ birthdays.

Highlights of the Game: The game taught how important knowing your colleagues are even the simplest and smallest of details.

The next game was “Hot Chocolate River” which by far, the most challenging, mind-boggling and troubling game among all of the games. Before the game started, the organizers first laid down on the floor 2 lengthy ropes on far opposite sides. Then the mechanics was translated to both of the teams. The middle of the ropes represents the running hot chocolate river, with the ropes as the edges and where the members of the teams must try to cross. Each of the teams will be given 7 pieces of newspapers that will serve as marshmallows, to be stepped on by the members until they can get to the other side of the river. In the game, the marshmallows get stuck once dropped in the hot chocolate river and swells after 10 seconds, thus, it can no longer be moved. And since the river is running, the marshmallow will be swept away that it should be held once dropped. The goal of the game is for all of the members to cross the river using the marshmallows while following the aforementioned rules. Both teams struggled and even tried the game thrice but unfortunately, the game was unsuccessfully executed. Until the organizers did it for themselves and showed to us how it really works. Simply, the marshmallows should be held once dropped, and as each member moves on, there should be a member stepping on every marshmallow to prevent it from being swept away. All of the provided marshmallows should be utilized and can only be used once, thus teams must make sure that they can already reach the other side with the given number of marshmallows.

Highlights of the Game: Both of the teams were able to showcase their different strategies on how to execute the game, prompting each member to really participate. May have failed thrice, however, both teams showed determination to do the game.

Then the game “Magic Carpet” followed. Each team were asked to select their best 5 members. Paolo, Joy, April, Daffodil and Jeff represented Team Plate while Cliff, Patch, Leonard, Ethyl and Joshua for Team Organic. Both teams were provided a square of tarpaulin each which served as the magic carpet, and were asked where they’ll be heading. Team Organic chose Syria (maybe to help combat the ISIS) while Team Plate chose Korea (not sure if North or South). Flying 100 feet in the air, the goal of the game is for each of the teams to successfully flip the carpet upside down. It was not an easy task for members of the teams must be able to flip the carpet while stepping on it. However, Team Plate was able to flip their own carpet making them win the game. But it didn’t end there, for both teams must fly back to the Philippines. The same thing, same rules and same goal. At the end of the game, still, team Plate won over team Organic.

Highlights of the Game: The game tested how each of the team works as a team. Flipping the carpet while being on top of it was challenging which really called for trusting each of the members and being able to be comfortable with each other.

After that sequence of games, sure our tummies were asking for a refuel. And dinner was served.

Then there was that game where all of the team members must sing a song without looking at the TV screen for the lyrics. The first rule was for the other team to choose a song for the other team to sing. Team Organic went first, so Team Plate chose an Abba Medley song. However, with the karaoke machine not giving the right score, the organizers decided to move on to the next song which was Lea Salonga’s “Friend of Mine”. Ms. Ethel sang the first 2 lines then passed the microphone to the Team Organic. Due to unfamiliarity of the first song, they proceeded to the next song which was Bee Gees’ “How Deep Is Your Love”. Started by Ms. Yani, Team Organic continued and successfully finished singing the song. Then, it was Team Organic’s turn. Ms. Yani entered the first song which was Air Supply’s “Lonely Is The Night” and started the first intro of the song. Same thing happened, it wasn’t successfully sang by the team, thus proceeded to the next song “Aray” which turned out to be the other unfamiliar song and not the version that we know. It was time for the third song when the videoke machine ditched us, thus ended the game with no winner. Team Plate thought that they’ll win the game for the third song was supposed to be Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” which most of the members are familiar with.

The very activity we looked forward to that evening was the “Bonfire Party”. It rained very hard earlier that afternoon which made the ground wet and moist. Thus, lighting up the bonfire needed more effort. It took us a while before we successfully lit up the bonfire.

While surrounding and facing the bonfire, feeling its heat, we did the Praise game. We divided ourselves into 4 groups. Everyone was provided with a sheet of paper and were asked to write down the characters that we don’t like to ourselves, folded it lengthwise then let the other members of each group write down one characteristic that they like about the owner of the paper. Each group then prompted to choose a member to read aloud what was written on his/her paper. In the middle, we munched on bonfire-roasted marshmallows.

That concluded our first day.

After a good night’s sleep, some woke up earlier than the waking up time of 6:00 AM. Welcomed by a warming sunrise, the LBI family held its exercise and zumba session led by Joy. We really needed that stretching.

Breakfast was then served.

All were revved up to play second day’s activities. Starting up with the game “Alien Invasion”, team must pick two of their members to be blindfolded, another two as the noisiest and the remaining members as the quietest. Being the teams captured by aliens, the consequences was brought up in case members will try to escape or call for help. The quietest are the members who can’t talk but have a lot of ideas, thus, they must relay their ideas to the noisiest through body language. The noisiest are the members who have no ideas but can talk, thus, they’ll be relaying the ideas from the quietest to the blindfolded. The blindfolded are the members who will do the task. The main task is to drop an egg without breaking it. Each team were asked to collect at most 5 materials to use to wrap the egg. Materials such as bag strap, towels, jogging pants, plastic bag, newspaper were just some collected. And the game started. Funny since the blindfolded members don’t see how they wrapped the egg, but still, the eggs were wrapped impressively. Ms Ethel then tested both teams’ wrapped eggs and dropped them thrice at a height of about 3 meters above the ground. Both teams won the game.

Highlights of the Game: Communication and trust were the main points in doing the game. Without the two, the execution of the game may have failed.

And we’re down to the last team building activity which was the “Egg Pass”. 5 members for each team were asked to line with partially folded strips of illustration boards on hand. The said boards will be used as a platform for the egg to roll down up to a half-filled tub provided for each team. The goal of the game is for the eggs to successfully make it to the tub without breaking. For Team Plate, Paolo, Jeff, Joy, and Nikki participated, while Patch, Leonard, Ethyl and Joshua played for Team Organic. Since there were only 11 eggs, teams must race to roll 6 eggs in order to win. Both teams were able to drop and break an egg each, however, Team Organic won with 5 eggs successfully rolled to the tub.

Highlights of the Game: The game tested each team’s teamwork, focus and agility.

The awarding then commenced, still, hosted by Ms. Ethel. Winners for each of the team building activities were handed with prizes. For the game “Ubusan ng Lahi”, Team Plate won. For the game “Search by Sound”, Team Organic won. For the game “Know Your Colleagues by Birthday”, Team Organic won. None of the teams won the “Hot Chocolate River” thus proceeded to the “Magic Carpet” game won by Team Plate. For the singing and “Alien Invasion” games, none of the teams won. And finally for the “Egg Pass” game, Team Organic won, thus making them the overall winning team for LBI Team Building 2016.

And to recognize those who have excelled and did well at work, Perfect Attendance and Employee of the Month for May, June and July were given to the awardees. Perfect Attendance for May were awarded to Paolo, Jeff and Nikki. And for the months of June and July, Perfect Attendance were awarded to Paolo and Jeff.

Then Employee of the Month awardees were called. For the month of May, Nikkis was given the Employee of the Month. Followed by Patch who was awarded Employee of the Month for the month of June, and lastly, Paolo for the month of July. Congratulations!

And the program was formally closed by Sir Bryan. Before we headed home, Ethyl blessed us with a closing prayer.

As we went home, we brought with us the lessons we learned from the said team building. Some even brought Alomah’s fresh lettuce greens. And the laughter we shared, the games we played together, the realizations we relayed to each other, and the roasted marshmallows, were unforgettable and surely will be treasured.

For this year’s team building, we were able to execute more team building activities because of the huge venue for since there were only us, with another group having their campout, we had all of Alomah’s Place in ourselves. Really, it was an ideal place for team building and other recreational activities for groups or organizations. With regards to the activities we performed, we struggled at some, confidently and successfully did some, but the most important thing is what we have learned. Teamwork, trust, knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses, realizing the responsibility as a team member and to become comfortable with each other are just some of the things we brought with us home for these are not only applicable in team building activities but also at work and in our everyday living. It was really meant to make our team tough in preparation for the tough times that we may encounter in the future. For more team building activities together!