While our Friday, August 16th boat trip may have involved a bit of daytime revelry and mayhem, it ended up being a truly effective team building experience in the end.
The Process
To determine our team activity, we held an afternoon meeting in early August to brainstorm together as a group. Members were asked to introduce themselves and propose an idea or two to the rest of us, which was a nice way of getting everyone involved.
After a couple rounds of voting, it was determined that we’d rent a boat and use the extra budget to buy stuff at CostCo. Everyone interested in something specifically from CostCo was given the chance to add their request to a shopping list, which would then be taken care of by a small group on the day of the activity.
Due to some scheduling issues in September, we also voted to have our boat trip in mid August, which made us the first (of four) groups to do their team building at Taroko (which was exciting).
CostCo
The small group whose mission it was to buy goods at CostCo was the Kelly-Cindy-Mollie-Geoff-Jimmy squad (of which I’m a member, of course).
Together, we left the office at high noon to begin collecting all of the tasty delicacies and beverages on our team shopping list. However, time was a bit tight — with the boat departing promptly at 2pm, we needed to get in and get out fast.
Fortunately, after a frantic trip running around collecting each requested item (Mollie and Kelly literally did run at one point), we packed the goods in the back of our Uber XL and made our way to the river.
Nothing brings people together like good food and drink, so the effective completion of our CostCo mission was a key part of the entire team building experience.
The Boat
We arrived at MeiTi Wharf around 1:30pm with all of the food/drinks, and the rest of our team arrived shortly after.
It was a sunny day with a bit of cloud coverage — perfect for an afternoon out on the river. After boarding the boat (shoes off!), we were given the ship rules by the captain and soon began eating.
Activities (Eating, Cards & More)
Pizza, avocado salad, prosciutto, blueberries, fried chicken, red wine and more made for an interesting diversity of snacks and drinks for everyone. There were a couple rounds of tequila shots as well, which certainly livened things up a bit.
The boat looked great and seemed newly remodeled. There was some nice outdoor and indoor space for everyone to enjoy (including leather couches inside, and fake grass plus a swing chair on the roof), and Andy brought his DJ equipment to enhance the good vibes.
As the boat slowly floated down the river, colleagues who normally don’t have opportunities to interact were able to chat with each other, which is a big part of why this outing felt like a success.
There was only one activity everyone officially participated in together, but we made the most of it. “Cards Against Humanity” was truly hilarious — especially for those of us who tried explaining in Chinese what some of the more vulgar cards meant.
Overall, time flew by quickly as we got to better know our coworkers from different departments. And before we knew it, we were docking at Dadaocheng Wharf with the sun beginning to set in the distance.
Last but not least, we took the remainder of our CostCo bounty to some tables near the water to see if we could finish eating/drinking it all. While some of us stuck around for a while later to chat and relax, members of the team slowly began to head their separate ways to enjoy the weekend by 6/7pm.
If our goal was to get to know our colleagues better in a non-work environment, then the experience feels like a resounding success.
