This small group of 12 came to me from a well-respected software company and requested two days of team development training for their Asia regional marketing team. The event was to be held at their corporate offices in Bangkok and would welcome participants from Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Philippines.
The focus of this two-day event was to strengthen bonds between team members and develop further understanding of each others’ personalities and working styles in order to promote greater team productivity and reduced conflict.
Day One. Team Building In Bangkok.
It was a small group so we only had two teams in this mini version of our Amazing Race. It’s a slightly compressed version of our full race and is perfect for those occasions when time is limited. Of course, they had some serious meetings to attend to also! So, it was a 3-hour race around the streets of Bangkok.
Starting from Le Meridien Bangkok, teams travelled across the city competing directly with one another in our rather amusing and highly engaging Amazing Race. This type of team building program is always so much fun in Bangkok. It’s such a busy place of course and there is always so much to see and do.
The race ended at their selected restaurant for an evening of good food and celebration for team members who work closely together online but only get to see each other in person every year or two. These types of get-togethers and away days are crucial for team bonding.
Day Two. DISC Workshop and Assessment.
A DISC assessment and aligned experiential workshop is an incredibly powerful way to strengthen a team. An individual DISC assessment for each participant first identifies each team member’s personality and working style. We look at each profile’s strengths, weaknesses, motivators, and stressors. Understanding your own and your colleagues’ working styles is the first step towards greater collaboration.
This particular team had a certain warmth about them and, during the break, deliveries came in of mango sticky rice, croissants, cookies, and a chocolate birthday cake. I have never seen so much food in a team development workshop before. There was so much food that there was an in-depth conversation about how best to pack the leftovers for transfer to various Asian countries the following day and whether customs had any rules about the cross-border shipment of mango sticky rice. We thought that there probably would be, especially in hand-luggage, but that it was worth a try.
After everyone could eat no more, the workshop continued by looking at ways in which team members can adapt their behaviours in order to fit more closely with different styles. This is the whole point of DISC. How we can use our knowledge of others to adapt our own working styles to minimise unproductive conflict and improve collaboration.
Once the four-hour workshop had finished and mangoes packed discretely in suitcases, it was time to head to the airport for several team members. Room for a croissant or two?