Orientation Week: Outdoor Team-Building Day 22-24 July 2009

The exercise is not exactly novel. Not at CTI, not elsewhere. What characterizes the team-building activity organized on the 3rd day of our Orientation week this year is arguably the degree of responsibility given the students who have just joined CTI and the time constraints imposed on them. Their challenge was to plan and propose a team-building activity in 24 hours and do so within the budgetary confines of the Institute.

And they did not disappoint. Groups, eager for the proposed project to win, came up with various proposals, each more creative than the other. A choice had to be made, however, and students and lecturers alike opted for the 'Lost Tourist' theme which took us to Black River and offered the challenge of simulating a group of tourists who, after a day's outing had to deal with a bus breakdown. The only way to return home to safety was to advance through the various team- building activities.


The event left the group exhausted by feeling satisfied that they have developed the kind of relationships conducive to the group learning they will be called to engage in. "By the end of the day," says Tatiana Leite, an international student who hails from the U.S., "we discovered that making a team successful takes a lot more co-operation and flexibility than we could have imagined. Allowing every voice and idea to be heard is a goal that continues to challenge and confront us. I am sure that every time we work in groups in the future, we will continue to learn what it is to be a team."

 

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