Teambuilding event South Sudan: “one team, one goal”

Last April a teambuilding event was held for our staff working in South Sudan. It was the first time since HealthNet TPO started its activities in South Sudan that a workshop like this was organized. The aim was to stimulate team spirit and add a positive element to the daily tasks of each staff member; tasks which are mostly performed under difficult conditions.

The 3-day event was held in Wau, with 34 participating staff members of the South Sudan team (out of the 59).  The workshop was given by the Dutch consultant Jackie van der Kroft with support of co-facilitators from the HealthNet TPO team. Participants came from different locations (Juba, Wau, Nyamlel, Raja, Kwajok, and Mapel) projects and positions. In general it is not easy to meet each other due to difficult road conditions, insecurity, long distances, expenses etc., which made this event extra special. (Also for this workshop, until the last moment it was unclear whether it could take place, due to the security situation.)

The objective of the workshop has been identified as follows; to address what the staff is able to do themselves to increase good teamwork. The event enables staff to share experiences and knowledge with their colleagues and think and discuss ways of improving their teamwork. Keywords of the workshop therefore were:  active and interactive, contribution and participation of everyone, identifying areas of improvements, mix of methodologies, joint facilitation, hard work, and overall to have fun together.

The workshop consisted of several elements, of which some are summarized below:

• The workshop started with a session to get to know each other, each other’s motivation and dreams. Many beautiful names, motivations and dreams were shared with each other.
• To ensure the team is aware of the various HealthNet TPO activities at each location, representatives of the various locations explained what kind of activities HealthNet TPO implements at that location.
• To work on team spirit and a good outcome of the workshop, each participant was asked to list what they find important, and then share it with their subgroup and present it afterwards to the whole group with different colored cards on the so-called Blue Sticky Wall.
• Each of the 4 subgroups listed ingredients for having a good team and then visualized it in a creative way, by using pictures. The pictures were used in a power point presentation.
• Everyone received a flower badge and post-it notes. The post-it notes were used to write down a compliment and to stick it onto the clothes of each member of their subgroup. After each person gave and received compliments, they wrote them on their flower badge. This session ended with people walking around with many colored post-it notes on their clothes, a flower badge full of compliments, big smiles and lots of laughter.
  

The outcome in short can be described as follows: Participants were made to understand that team building is a process that includes good communication, conflict resolution, respect for each other, to be able to admit mistakes and to have good cooperation in the team and in the organization as a whole.  

We think it is very valuable to let our teams meet once in a while; after all we are all working for the same organization, with the same objective and often the same difficulties.