Soul Searching on the Hills
Something about the hills and the mountains has acted as a magnet for those who seek to transform their state of thinking and dwell upon the very essence of their existence. It need not be just an individual endeavor but can be a corporate one too. The Transformation team of IFMR ventured into the mountains of Yelagiri for a four-day trip to be a case in point.
An ideal state for a company would be where each employee takes responsibility for self and the team and self-governs their professional conduct for the betterment of the organization. The four-day exercise aimed at taking stock of the status-quo and things to do individually and as a group to transform the status-quo across the organizational spectrum. This involved understanding how the different organizational dots make the whole, chalking out clearly defined goals for the self and the team, brainstorming ideas to foster in a culture of openness and excellence across the board and spreading a sense of pride in what we do.
Involved in Pictorial Goal Setting – Sriramakrishnan & Rasmirekha Biswal
A member of the Human Capital Team in action
If it all sounds as if the sessions were intense, which sure they were, but not just with work but also with activities aimed at team-building, personality development and fun.
The “Four Worlds” mechanism which Dave Wallack and Prof Vijayalakshmi aka Prof Viji presented dwelt on different states of existence of an individual’s thoughts and the dynamics of body language which says lot more than words could ever – irrespective of language barriers.
Charts used for Four Worlds training
Apart from this, screening of movies “Crimson Tide” and “12 Angry Men”, Cricket matches, visit to the nearby lake and morning walks were also part of the four-day sojourn.
Special Chai after morning walks
Whoever said cricket was largely a man’s game!!
Avinash Singh June 17th
As the bus left from Cenatoph Road office people sitting in the bus were initially sitting in their comfort zones with their friends, colleagues and people whom they knew and had earlier interacted with. Once, we were done with our breakfast session, we sat in the bus and everyone went back to their respective seats when Madhuri Ma’m got up and decided to start the 1st activity of making people sit in relation to their birth month and introduce their Partners and I knew that this was just the ice breaker. Everybody now knew each other by name and the course of the trip started to change or should I say, the transformation had just begun from individuals to group to Team, what we all fondly called in 4 days as Transformation team.
After a tiring yet joyous journey of almost 7 Hours ended on the hills of Yelagiri and Hotel Landmark. The Team was welcomed by a combination of Dr. Viji, Dave, Cyrus and Welcome drinks. Quickly we were given room keys by Merlin and we all went in the room and gathered in the conference room post Lunch. Where Dave addressed all of us and made the motive clear for the offsite. An emotional interaction by Dave set the mood of the room, which firmly felt together and if only thing which was remaining was some inspirational songs to be sung by the team marking the coming together but that was very soon helped by the change in climate which turned very exciting to say the least and that we all were raring to go, set goals for ourselves, come together as a Unit and ensure that we bring the positive change was voiced by the stormy breeze and thunderous lightning. WE WERE READY!!! WE WERE ALL SET FOR THE CHANGE!! I think this was something which was understood even without words being exchanged.
David Craige June 17th
props on editing up the pictures nicely. it looks good.
looking forward to the next offsite as well. that place is beautiful.
Shikha Thaman June 17th
And I never knew that hitting a four was so easy !!
Savio charles June 17th
Thanks David…
Madhuri Menon June 17th
Team 'bonding' has become such a cliched word that people grimace at the very mention of the word…. And yet HR all over the world keeps trying to come up with newer ways of doing that!!
An off-site that was stretched taut and yet would give people 'insights' into not just goals and plans, but each other as living, breathing, thinking, feeling beings was the objective. And i believe we did go down that road a long way. Great team, great interaction – and some great action as well- an uproarious cricket match, some fabulous movies and a lot of sharing and caring. May the bond grow stronger.
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