Saturday was the Caterpillar Suzhou Outdoor Teambuilding Event (拓展训练）at the Wanghua Training Base near Taihu Lake. This was one of those classic work-together, trust each other, corporate boot camp experiences that helps people get to know each other and value their colleagues. Of course this one had a distinctly Chinese flavor to it and was particularly interesting, as the entire experience was conducted in Chinese. We had quite a large and enthusiastic group of about 80 people which was most of the office employees.
The instructors divided us into six teams and we spent a couple of hours each on a big ladder climb, water balloon catapult construction, and trust falling. In between each activity, we had a discussion session where we each shared what we learned - again mostly in Chinese. Finally, the whole group got together and we had to help each other scale a 15 foot wall by climbing on our colleagues shoulders and being pulled up from the top.
Kathleen had a good time laughing about the poor Chinese employees who had to catch Tony, the 100 kg American, on the trust fall. Most of the people on my team weigh less than I did when I was eight years old.
The experience gave us a chance to spend some time with the many new colleagues that we have hired this year and I can tell you that the employees loved it. The smiles on peoples faces and the excitement during the activities was really quite something.
The instructors divided us into six teams and we spent a couple of hours each on a big ladder climb, water balloon catapult construction, and trust falling. In between each activity, we had a discussion session where we each shared what we learned - again mostly in Chinese. Finally, the whole group got together and we had to help each other scale a 15 foot wall by climbing on our colleagues shoulders and being pulled up from the top.
Kathleen had a good time laughing about the poor Chinese employees who had to catch Tony, the 100 kg American, on the trust fall. Most of the people on my team weigh less than I did when I was eight years old.
The experience gave us a chance to spend some time with the many new colleagues that we have hired this year and I can tell you that the employees loved it. The smiles on peoples faces and the excitement during the activities was really quite something.
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