A Surreal Amazing Race in Phuket
There was a time in 2021 when Thailand’s Covid-19 infection rate was very low and, as soon as restrictions were eased and group events allowed to take place once again, our client took the opportunity to get some much needed team building into their meeting schedule.
Our client, an industrial laundry firm, flew ten department heads to Phuket from their headquarters in Chonburi. So, as Amazing Races go, it was a pretty small group. An energetic CEO helped keep energy levels high throughout the program as two teams set off from Hotel Indigo and hit the streets of Patong.
The streets were unusually quiet of course as Thailand’s borders were still closed. There was not a tourist in sight. Shops and businesses were closed. The main shopping centre, Jungceylon, was closed as were most of the 7-11s. It was weird.
What was perhaps even weirder was that two teams were noisily making their way around town in the midst of a team building adventure, fully masked and social distancing. Certainly one of the most unusual races we have operated.
Following the program, we conducted an insightful debrief and facilitated some in-depth discussions on the topics of conflict resolution in the workplace. I guess everyone was a bit stressed out during lockdown and workplace conflict may have been on the rise. Hopefully we were able to shine some light on a few issues and offer strategies to help overcome them.