Cardboard regatta, anyone?
Last week I went on a retreat with my division from work. There were the usual "here's what our team does and here's what we intend to do next fiscal year" presentations, as well as better-than-average hotel food. But the best thing about the retreat was the team-building exercise. We were asked to build a boat that would hold two people, but the boat was to be constructed out of four 4'x8' sheets of single-ply corrugated cardboard, twine, and two rolls of duct tape. We would then use our boats to paddle to the middle of a nearby lake to retrieve as many tennis balls as possible.
At first glance, we all thought "You people are out of your collective tree." To make matter worse (or more interesting, depending upon your perspective), we had to figure out a way to procure the materials that weren't cardboard via a complex system involving rope, gravity, and an upside-down blindfolded guy. Don't ask.
I was assigned to procurement detail. While I was off procuring, my teammates were hard at work designing something that had to be lakeworthy for at least 5-7 minutes. Rather than go for something particularly innovative or radical, we decided on the old standby: two largish boxes linked together. The thinking was that the more surface area there was, the more stable the boat would be. Other teams went for the "cardboard taco approach," as I called it, where they simply folded up the sides of the sheets and the taped the ends together. One team even produced what I nicknamed "the Huck and Jim Special," which consisted of rolling the ends of the sheets into crude pontoons and making a raft-like thing.
We were given an hour to complete our task. At the end of the hour, all of the teams presented their boats and the reasoning behind their design. Our team sang the theme from "Titanic" while one of my colleagues leaned forward while I held her by the arms. I then christened our craft using an empty Diet Coke bottle. (It was actually pretty funny, but I suppose the humor was location-based: you had to be there. Sorry.)
We portaged our boats to the lake in a grand procession. The crews took their positions. The Huck and Jim Special sank immediately. Our team ended up getting 12 out of 15 tennis balls, partly because of our boat design, but more likely because our crew included someone who'd actually been canoeing before, so she knew how to paddle and steer. Stupid as it sounds, our team really got into the competition. If you knew my colleagues, seeing them jump up and down while shouting "Tennis ball! To your left! Gaaahhh!!!" in a wide variety of accents would seem way, way out of character. It was really pretty exciting, though, but that may be due to the initial stages of heat exhaustion. I was nominated to give the debriefing for our team. I rambled on a bit about "best practices versus innovation," and "developing trust between colleagues," etc. My ultimate conclusion: You can never have enough duct tape.
At first glance, we all thought "You people are out of your collective tree." To make matter worse (or more interesting, depending upon your perspective), we had to figure out a way to procure the materials that weren't cardboard via a complex system involving rope, gravity, and an upside-down blindfolded guy. Don't ask.
I was assigned to procurement detail. While I was off procuring, my teammates were hard at work designing something that had to be lakeworthy for at least 5-7 minutes. Rather than go for something particularly innovative or radical, we decided on the old standby: two largish boxes linked together. The thinking was that the more surface area there was, the more stable the boat would be. Other teams went for the "cardboard taco approach," as I called it, where they simply folded up the sides of the sheets and the taped the ends together. One team even produced what I nicknamed "the Huck and Jim Special," which consisted of rolling the ends of the sheets into crude pontoons and making a raft-like thing.
We were given an hour to complete our task. At the end of the hour, all of the teams presented their boats and the reasoning behind their design. Our team sang the theme from "Titanic" while one of my colleagues leaned forward while I held her by the arms. I then christened our craft using an empty Diet Coke bottle. (It was actually pretty funny, but I suppose the humor was location-based: you had to be there. Sorry.)
We portaged our boats to the lake in a grand procession. The crews took their positions. The Huck and Jim Special sank immediately. Our team ended up getting 12 out of 15 tennis balls, partly because of our boat design, but more likely because our crew included someone who'd actually been canoeing before, so she knew how to paddle and steer. Stupid as it sounds, our team really got into the competition. If you knew my colleagues, seeing them jump up and down while shouting "Tennis ball! To your left! Gaaahhh!!!" in a wide variety of accents would seem way, way out of character. It was really pretty exciting, though, but that may be due to the initial stages of heat exhaustion. I was nominated to give the debriefing for our team. I rambled on a bit about "best practices versus innovation," and "developing trust between colleagues," etc. My ultimate conclusion: You can never have enough duct tape.
My colleagues are really, really young...
posted by Sasquatch at
10:22 PM
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