Phil Jackson once remarked, “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”
Often, in the chores of routine office work and struggle to meet deadlines, peers and colleagues at an institution/organisation do not find time for interaction and conversations. With the aim of facilitating healthy interdepartmental exchanges and instilling nouveau skills through capacity-building and team-building programmes, the Staff Development Cell (SDC) was constituted at the institute in April this year.
In the chain of programmes that the Cell had been running for the past few months, the SDC organised an Outbound Training Programme for the staff members on December 2. Titled “By Leaps and Bounds”, the programme brought people from various departments together and attempted to break the monotony of official routine work. The objective of the programme was to forge and sustain better communication and working relations among colleagues and peers at IITGN.
Around 50 staff members attended the programme organised in the jungles of Parvati Hills, on the outskirts of Himmatnagar, with great zeal and rigour. Located around 90 km from campus, the venue proved to be an exciting escape for the participants. The people, their conversations, sports and games ensured that the participants had an opportunity to delve into building healthy peer-to-peer relationships.
True to its name – By Leaps and Bounds – the programme helped in leapfrogging the camaraderie and communication among peers by ‘leaps and bounds’. A gamut of games was organised as part of the team-building and trust-building exercises. The games were planned in a manner that would facilitate experiential learning through activities. These contests also ensured that even the slightest of the inhibitions were shed and everybody participated with rigour and complete involvement.
Several other activities viz. trekking and adventurous obstacle course targeted at pulling out the IITGN staff members from the bounds of official codes and pushing them towards some light-headed fun and enjoyment. The outbound programme proved effective in nourishing the interpersonal skills, nurturing personal, intergroup & interdepartmental relations, helped improve teamwork abilities and encouraged better partnerships & alliances.
Mr P K Chopra, Registrar, IITGN expressed his delight over the participation and involvement of staff members in the programme. He shared, “This was the first-ever outbound training programme that we conducted for our staff members. Such an exercise had been on our mind for a long time and we are glad that we finally organised one. The kind of participation and feedback from the participants has been encouraging and delightful. It has been such a delight to see the ‘other’ side of our colleagues and witness unprovoked laughter and smiles. We will look forward to similar activities in future.”
Very useful programme for the unity among the staff members. It was refreshing and will be remembered for a long time. Thank you IITGN and SDC.
