My Views on Team Exploration


    I still vividly remember two-day team exploration in JiuXi, Hangzhou, all kinds of activities leaves me unforgettable memory in my life. I was arranged in Team Dream, led by Alex. Since the very beginning, each member had showed their collectivism and democracy on the team naming, team logo & team song finalization. The first activity on the first day was: Island Survival.
     Our team was assigned to the BlindIsland, which made us understand what’s the real difficulties of a blind man is. There are 3 teams, activity rules as below:
 1). one team assigned to the DumbIsland
 2). Our team was assigned to the Blind Island, every team member had      to wear a blinder and not allow to see the activity tasks in      their hands.
 3). The third team was taken as wholesome team and assigned to the      PearlIsland.
     Each Island would be allocated with tasks and necessary tools. When all of the three team members gathered in the PearlIsland means mission accomplished.
     This activity trained the managing board how to leverage the tasks on their hands. Though our team failed the mission, we come to know the importance of the team working, and management balance. The main reason of our mission failure was we weren’t well aware of what’s the most important things and what’s less important, for instance, the man saving should be more important than egg packing, time wasting was also the main reason led us to failure.
      Each team represents different classes of the company: The team on the Pearl Island stands for high class, the team on the Dumb Island stands for middle class, the team on the Blind Island stands for the low class, each class had their own meanings: Like the high class, they have to utilize current man resources to complete each task, for instance, guide middle class (Dumb Island) to make right decisions or to authorize the middle class to complete the tasks by themselves. As a member of high class, they have to consider issues as a whole from the perspective of team targets, adjust the focuses of the tasks, willing to cooperate with other department; low class members didn’t have the capability to direct the company, the high class shall cultivate low class’ enthusiasm to complete one of the key tasks. This philosophy can also be applied in the actual working environment, the managing board shall fully authorize employees to do some important tasks, find ways to cultivate employee’s enthusiasm. A sound plan is necessary for the mission tasks, first of all, we have to set a goal, confirm the main tasks and their priorities, which parts can be authorized, and define each tasks’ leadtime. Communication is also very important in the tasks, we have to communicate with each other in order to clarify each tasks.
     Due to the bad weather, we came back to the hotel after the Island Survival. At the evening, we had a party with Lesmo HZ colleagues, during which time we narrowed the distance between team members and enjoyed a great time, all of these would facilitate our future works.
     The first activity on the second day was Back Wrestle, which was set to train member’s responsibility.
     The most impressive activity was the Cross Saving Wall, which made me know the importance of sacrifice. It was very difficult for the last ones to cross the wall by themselves in particular, anyway, they overcome it at last. This activity fully embodied the spirit of “All for one, one for all”. Team members increased the collective glory and encourage everyone to exert “collectivization”. In the course of the mission, though some of the members got hurt, they still hanged on for they well understood of the team goals, all of which make us become a strong and efficient team.
     The most exciting activity was Grasp Hanging Stick in the high air. In our daily life, we would face some dilemmas, sometimes there will the conflicts between Principle with facts, Responsibility with relationships, whether to go ahead or backward in a project, how to select, all of which challenged us so much and cultivate a sense of believing. This activity just put this philosophy into practice. When standing in the 8 meters high, I was really frustrated to fetch the sticks in the air. But I told myself that I could do the same things that other people could. At the time I was going to grasp the stick, I worried about the far distance between stick and me and asked the coach to put it a little bit nearer. To my surprise, he put it further. At last, I overcome the fears and grasped the stick in the air. The activity made me believe that we have to challenge ourselves constantly in order to get succeed.
     I have heard about the team exploration before attended this one, it seems there are great differences between what I heard and what I had experienced, just like the words goes: Experienced makes experience. I have concluded below experiences through two days team exploration: 　　
1．Team member’s collectivization moved me in each activity。Everyone has the aspiration to win the glory for their team, no matter who you are.
2. Mutual trust and team work are so important. Our team members come from different departments and there are little chances to communicate with each other, but this team exploration brings the chance for all of us to talk and work with each other, two days team exploration makes me know that there are so many excellent colleagues around us. “Back Wrestle” is the game to establish our trusts in the team. If one doesn’t have the faith, how could he/she keep backward falling from 1.5 meters high stage? How could he/she cross 4 meters high wall, how could he/she survive in the Isolated Island. The team work importance clearly represented us in the activities, which made us unforgettable.
3, The importance of leadership.” On the basis of team, professional quality is the most important.” I strongly advocate this sentence before attending this team exploration, but since after of that, I come to know the great importance of the team leader. Leader is the core center in a team since the team foundation, development, expansion, though it also needs team member’s cooperation. Napoleon said: A group of sheep led by a lion could defeat a group of lion led by a sheep. What kind of leader is a good leader? What kinds of quality a leader must have?
First of all, a good leader must be a good model, when gathering around, he must stand at pointed place; in the activities, he has to go the front, when break-taking, no complaints at all.
Secondly, To be a good leader, one must possess below capabilities: 1), A good leader shall arm with knowledge and capable of furthering learning, which can lead his/her team to overcome incoming problems, then to succeed. 2),trust his/her team members, communicate with them; The leaders shall know their team members well and collect team members good ideas and viewpoints, make a summary, encourage team members to find their own potentials. Sometimes, leaders have to learn how to authorize, allocate tasks. 3), a good leader must have self-confidence and personal charms which can provoke the team with activity. 4) a good leader must have authority in the team. The authority can be divided into two sorts: one is position authority, another is Wisdom authority. Position authority refers to that all of the team members have the absolute trust on their leader and obey the orders assigned by the leader; wisdom authority means a leader must have a sober mind, with sound judgment, solve emergent cases in a proper way.
       We all learnt a great deal from the activities in the two days, it made us believe if we want to get succeeded, we have to make our customers succeeded firstly, the returns from the customers will realized our dreams, then we share the happiness together. When we failed, we have to calm down to analyze the reasons behind failure; when succeed, we also need to find the reasons what make us succeed.