First published as a cover story for Glo Life, Globacom's staff/customer magazine in November 2019
By John Awe
Teamwork makes the
dream work
But then a mail went out
in the tail end of April to 100 staff members informing them they would be participants
in the first of a series of team-building events that would form a basic
component of an elaborate staff engagement strategy. The strategy was being
spear-headed by the Executive Vice Chairman, Mrs. Bella Disu.
Now, the jigsaw puzzle
was falling into place. Indeed, there had been a foundation; an enchanting New
Year missive sent directly to every staff from the desk of Mrs. Disu. That,
too, was a bolt from the blue; first of its kind.
In that mail, Mrs. Disu
had expressed the commitment of Globacom’s management to develop “our most
important asset: You all”. That message signposted the beginning of a new more
interesting chapter in the history of Nigeria’s fastest growing telecom company.
The team-bonding idea
interlocks firmly with that inspiring January email, promising renewed drive
towards staff development and empowerment.
“I got the invite and
said ‘Wow! Is this real, or is it some mistake?’”, Ayotunde Olaoye of Admin
told Glo Life. “I honestly wasn’t exactly sure it was going to happen until I
got there and saw the unmistakable Glo buttons everywhere.”
The D-day was April 27th,
at the upscale Upbeat Recreation Centre, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos. Kick-off time
was 10 am. Early birds started clocking in from 8am. By 10 am, the main hall of
the recreation centre was bursting with enthusiastic Glo staff members drawn
from all Globacom departments across the country.
The facilitators were a
combination of internationally-certified life coaches from the Olusola Lanre
Coaching Academy (OLCA), arguably the number one firm of life coaches in
Nigeria, and the coaching crew of Upbeat Recreation Centre. While the OLCA team
handled mainly the cerebral aspects of the exercises, the Upbeat coaching crew
took care of the physical exercises.
By 10:30am, registration
of participants, anchored by Mrs Jumoke Aduwo, had been concluded and the much
anticipated team-bonding experience began with the introduction of the OLCA
General Manager, Tolulope Afonja by the Head of Human Resources, Mr. Wole
Ayanleke, supported by Mr. Femi Kolawole .
Brief side conference to agree final event details. |
Mrs. Afonja gave a brief introductory talk and launched the class into its first activity tagged ‘Know Thyself’. It was an exercise designed to find out things about your colleagues that you would not know in the course of a strictly formal official interactions.
Participants were
required to learn as much as possible about the most number of participants in
the shortest possible time.
To achieve this, a worksheet with various adjectives or descriptions was handed over to every participant. The adjectives or descriptions included Multilingual, Foreign, Owner of Dogs, etc. Participants were requested to find colleagues who matched the adjectives or met those descriptions and get such participants to write their names on the sheets and sign. The participant that could get all the descriptions signed the quickest was assured a gift.
The hall exploded in an
orgy of excitement. Everyone wanted to complete the task in the shortest
possible time. What followed was some 20 minutes of delightful bedlam. If you
easily knew a colleague who was a foreigner, it was not so easy to know one who
had a dog. You needed to work hard to get that one. Participants hopped from
one to another, asking questions.
Soon, a winner emerged
in Mrs. Jumoke Aduwo.
However, at the
screening stage, one of the people who signed Mrs. Aduwo’s paper didn’t quite
meet one of the descriptions. So, the lot fell on the staff with the second
best time, Amaka Oruche of Legal. She was adjudged the winner.
Thereafter, Life Coach
Chukwuemeka Ezeogu of OLCA, gave a brief presentation, entitled “Effective Team
Dynamics”, which dealt with the basic components of functional teams.
Done with some theory, the team poured out into the field for some live action. As the American philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson, once opined, an ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.
On the pitch, the early morning
sun was not enough to deter participants from having fun with music-aided
aerobics. It was a delight to see staff working out together regardless of
cadres or designations. It was one big happy family.
For the purpose of
group-based activities, the staff had been divided into four colour-coded
groups, namely, Blue, Orange, Purple and Green. Each participant was branded
with a matching ribbon representing his or her group for easy identification.
The first group-based competition was tug of war.
Team Orange was pitted
against Team Blue. Heavyweight in Team Orange’s line-up included the heavily-built
Ayotunde Olaoye of Admin, chiselled-torso Pastor Ike of Technical, athletic
Akin Akinsanya of Enterprise Business, towering Mustapha Omotayo of Gloworld, barrel-chested
Dipo Olusanwo of Sales, and the sprightly Temitolu Temidara of Events, among
others, while Team Blue boasted formidable figures such as the bubbly and
sturdy Dolapo Samuel of Advertising, among others. Team Orange won effortlessly.
Next, Team Purple
squared up against Team Green. Purple boasted heavyset Omotayo Seriki of
Marcoms, dainty Seun Adesunmi of Business Unit, athletic Emmanuel Bello of Mrs
Disu’s office, and energetic Kunle Bamgboye of Technical, while Team Green had burly
Femi Opadere of Media and sporty Ugoje Oghenemaro of Gloworld, among other fit
athletes. Team Purple won.
Blue and Green squared
up, Blue won to take the third place.
In the final showdown,
the two winners squared up against each other to decide the first and second
place winners. Basking in the euphoria of an emphatic trumping of Team Blue
earlier, Team Orange filed out in their winning formation. Hefty men such as
Pastor Ike and Dipo Olusanwo stood like concrete pillars at the front. Ayotunde
Olaoye provided solid reinforcement somewhere in the middle while the rope was anchored
on Omotayo Mustapha in the rear. This team looked intimidating.
Team Purple came out in their
own winning formation as well, anchoring the rope on Omotayo Seriki. Consequently,
by some serendipitous arrangement, it became a battle of the Omotayos, each of
them determined to win the day for their respective teams.
Seriki, with an army
camouflage face cap perched on top of his head cut the picture of one
determined to take no prisoners. He wrapped the rope around his waist and
adopted the pose of a professional sumo wrestler. One swift tug later, it was
all over. Many of the Orange men were prostrate on the pitch. Pastor Ike’s six
packs and Dipo Olusanwo’s huge biceps were unfortunately of no avail in this
instance. That Purple team had the towing force of a Ford Expedition!
The Glo team had a number
of other interesting physical activities, including the one called ‘The Web’,
anchored by internationally-acclaimed Coach Kolade Stephen from OLCA. The
activity emphasised the importance of collaboration in execution of tasks by
teams.
Back upstairs, the team
indulged in many other fun activities, including jumping on trampolines, competing
in a foam pit race and so on.
One of the high points
of the experience was the award of N50,000 gift vouchers each to about 30 staff
members who had distinguished themselves in the discharge of their duties. On
hand to present the gifts was Mrs. Disu. She was assisted by Miss Shade
Mike-Adenuga and Mrs. Maria Svensson.
The team subsequently
listened to an OLCA presentation on the importance of listening in effective
communication before calling it a day.
Many of the participants
described the totality of their experience as ‘awesome’.
“I have learnt a lot about
team-building. I’ve learnt a lot about collaborating. It has been an amazing
experience,” said Amaka Oruche of Legal.
Dipo Olusanwo of Sales
described the experience as ‘wonderful and one of a kind’. He said he met and
interacted with people who had been in the company with him for 16 years
without them meeting.
Indeed a cross-section
of the participants expressed their gratitude to Globacom for organising the
event and prayed that more of the exercise be carried out in the future.
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