Why Team Building
Social interaction is normally believed to have a bearing in the way we behave and exhibit certain characteristics. Though genetic factor have got an influence too, the environment we are brought up in as well as our interrelationship with others contributes significantly in shaping us either positively or negatively. Being social and intelligent animals, we are better placed to moderate and to some extent change our behavior depending on the path we want to follow.
For many years dating back in my elementary school, I have always hard problems of perceiving others as being of lesser importance to my life. This habit I picked when I and other few, whom we thought we were very influential and better placed than others in the school. We could harass and bully others whenever an opportunity presented itself. For man years, we extended this habit which made us being reported to authority very frequently. Due to our cunning behavior, we would deny and even came up with better ways of making sure no evidence could be brought against us. It is at this height of excitement that I felt like a hero since all students knew me, not in positive way but rather a person they could not want to associate with given a chance to choose. Being an aggressive and self confident individual, this did not bother me at all. As a result, I performed poorly in my studies which pissed my parents so much. In their effort to help their child, they organized how I was to attend a team building course.
This behavior did not continue forever, since in June 2005, I happened to attend an adventure and team building course which was ten days long. The group was composed of people we have never met before, thus the challenge of not being with my usual group. This month will remain of great memory since it was the turning point in my life. Upon arrival, we were divided into groups of 10 participants per patrol (group) where we were informed that we were to operate as a unit until the end of the course. The course per-se was aimed at imparting team-working skills as well as leadership too. Being whom I have always been, a non-cooperative and boastful individual, I tried to extend the same to this group. I remember one time after the discussions; facilitator noted by behavior and had a counseling session with me. He explained in-depth why in life we need one another and why we need to respect other people’s opinion since we need to be accommodative, flexible, time conscious among many other attributes. Though after the talk I started changing my perception, I did fully embrace the element of teamwork.
On the fifth day of team-building, we were given maps and compass for navigation. I came to discover later this activity was meant to see how well we had grasped the teamwork spirit and how well we could put it into practice. We were given instructions to navigate as a team, accommodating the slow walkers. The route we were to follow was in a thick forest infested with buffaloes and elephants as well as other cat family animals. To be honest, the group was very slow and after the first 3 kilometers, I broke up with the group and decided they will find me in the camp. The truth of the matter is I got lost, and there were no net work coverage. For a night, I spent in the forest not knowing what to do. I panicked, blamed myself for my actions and wished I could have stuck to the group. During that cold night, I just wished there could be someone to talk to, but there was no one. I was saved the following morning by the forest guards who during their patrol found me and took me to the camp.
I would say this incident really changed my life since after it; I have always regarded people with a lot of respect considering the person who saved my life was a stranger who dedicated his time and effort to take me to the camp. I tried to reach as many people I had wronged before for apology. Since then, I have been able to have genuine friends whom we assist each other a lot. I have even improved drastically in school performance and hope to continue performing even better. For sure, we can not survive on our own and interaction skills are important in that we need collaboration in order to succeed (martin, 2005).
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