The strength of a team

 

“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team” Phil Jackson.

Todays focus was “Me the team worker.”

We jumped straight into working together as a team with the challenge of building an igloo. For the majority it was a new experience, but something we had all hoped we would have the opportunity to do. We were placed in teams and were assigned specific roles, according to Belbin's theory of how to have an efficient team.

These roles were rotated around the group every ten minutes. This allowed us all the opportunity to experience roles within a team which we previously may not have got the chance to try out in a safe and productive environment.

During this challenge we were able to learn from each other and by taking on each role we were also able to learn more about ourselves and our strengths as individual team members. Two out of the three teams managed to finish their igloos.

 

Despite the other team being unable to complete their igloo, each one felt a sense of accomplishment and achievement. They felt a strong sense of teamwork in a landscape many had not experienced before this week. There was a lot of giggles, laughter and singing and the odd dump of a shovelful of snow down their backs and over their heads.  

 

 If anyone had been walking around the Chalet, they would have got to hear the Guide and Scout snow versions of “If you're happy and you know it” and “We are the Champions.” 

“If you're happy and you know it,

pack the snow. If you're happy and

you know it, build some bricks...”

Over a cup of tea and defrosting fingers, we reflected on the morning's events and how we felt about each of the individual team roles which we were assigned.

To begin the afternoon we had a quick energiser game where we went to 2100 where everyone was robots. Following this we had a session on “Conflict Transformation.”

This involved looking at possible ways to overcome situations of conflict which we might encounter as an individual, team member or leader. During this session to keep everyone awake and alert after a tiring morning we started a game of bingo containing words which the facilitators often spoke, and methods they used throughout sessions this week.

 This made us all sit up and pay attention to what they were saying, keeping an ear out for the specific words on our sheet. This is a typical example of Guides and Scouts being their usual creative and imaginative selves.

We then headed outside to film something special for Earth Hour which you will all need to keep an eye out for on Saturday.

We ended the afternoon sessions with the beginnings of our action plans for the projects which we'll implement when we all get home. At the end of the session before dinner we finally heard bingo and had all the facilitators wondering what we were up to.

Following dinner we were treated to a Swiss night. A local man came to provide the entertainment for us all. He played a traditional Alpine horn and the Accordian. He also treated us to a sample of yodelling. Four of the participants then performed a short play about a Swiss hero, Wilhelm Tell. This had us all highly entertained and there was a lot of laughter.

Following this we were treated to the Swiss Our Chalet version of a popular game called Jeopardy. We were split into our patrols and had to answer questions. After this the Swiss experience was completed with some chocolate fondue and fruit.

Patrol: Sustainable Six.

Celine Anderson, Geanina Alfaro Mora, Lerato Seluke,

Henna Peltoniemi, Shauna Flynn, Arianna Chamberlain.