Workshop Facilitation In Phuket
I had received a brief from the Managing Director of the Singapore branch of an international construction company that their departments were not working together quite as well as they should be. While the team members knew each other pretty well, there was some tension developing between the different functions and he felt that collaboration was suffering.
We agreed on a 2-day team building retreat at Four Points by Sheraton Phuket Patong Beach Resort with the afternoon of day one focused around a facilitated workshop and day two offering a fun team bonding experience.
Collaboration Is Key
“How can we improve team collaboration?” is one of the most common questions I am asked. That makes sense because a team without collaboration is like a car without wheels. It’s pointless.
Over 4 hours, teams from sales, engineering, operations and finance (24 pax in total) participated in a range of group exercises and discussions designed to surface existing issues, communicate requirements to the other departments, and share ideas and action steps towards improved collaboration.
As facilitator, it’s not my role to pass judgment or offer up my own ideas. What I did was create a safe environment in which participants felt comfortable to talk openly and then guided them through the learning process with exercises that followed a clear path from “where are we now?” to “where do we want to be?”.
The participants took the opportunity to open up and share their thoughts and the levels of engagement were extremely high. After all, every participant wanted the same thing – to be able to do their jobs better.
Day 2 was more about the team bonding but it was no less challenging. In fact, the challenge I had set was incredibly difficult and involved one shared goal for the entire team. With one hour to go though, I’ll admit that I was a little worried. I didn’t think they’d make it. But, somehow, in the last 15 minutes, everything fell into place and the end result was particularly satisfying.
When they returned to the office the following Monday, they returned with a clear path forward.