elite - cause of teams

While I was teaching the BMS guys I stumbled on something very interesting. On a lark I started the elite class. Basically just took a bunch of kids (completely optional) and called them on Sunday morning at 7. We then ran for some time. Did some elementary yoga, did a lot of games, gave them some real ragda (basically tough excersie / punishments) like frog jump, duck walk, monkey crawl etc. All this followed by a wholesome discussion on something or the other. God alone knows why they came. That too on a Sunday morning. Their parents were wondering what happened to them. One kid’s dad insisted on dropping her off, as he was sure she would be the only kid present there on a Sunday morning. I think he was surprised to the crowd. Hahaha. Take that daddies, who thought kids won’t get up on Sunday mornings, for something completely optional and not related to studies and more so… had lots of physical exercise and horror of horrors – we even had book reading. I guess the real reason kids came was – they had fun. I don’t think they cared enough to bother if they were learning or not, they just wanted to have fun.
And for some reason the kids who attended it somehow got a bit closer to me. They keep talking a lot about elite and how they miss it a lot. well I miss it too… I dunno why it stopped, but obviously time constraints from me were top of the list.
That bit taught me a lot about kids. There ability to laugh through shit, their ability to push themselves when needed, their ability to stick out from the ordinary. I tried building a team there, who shared some “PRIDE” in coming in on Sunday mornings and doing what no body else was doing. I fell somewhere, they were proud of what they doing, I don’t think they knew it but, it stayed on in their head for a long time to come.
Which brings me to corporate stuff. We have these team building offsites. A complete waste of effort and energy if you ask me. It’s a good picnic and that’s that. I have a belief that if you want teams to come closer they need to do much more stuff together. When you are physically tired, your true mettle will come out. It’s not easy to hide emotions when you are exhausted, and there is a destination to go to. Try being nice to colleagues when you are freezing or suffering from leg sores. Trekking for atleast 3 – 4 days through not so benign conditions. That’s one offsite I want to see. Well knits teams will separate from the loosely held ones. It’s the same in cricket. Tough matches show true team mettle and leadership. You need to go through something that should leave you proud of your experience else you WILL not get much from it. Definitely not team building.