Special Projects Teambuilding

11 March 2009

It has been almost 5 months since I started working with RasGas in the Special Projects team. I must say that my relationships with the other members in the team are strictly professional. I have no major problems interacting with anyone of them, but I can feel that there is a gap between us. Nothing malicious, but rather you do your thing I do mine kind of feel. We came from different backgrounds and nationalities with age difference sometime as big as a generation. We have representatives from Venezuela, Britain, India, United States, Qatar, Lebanon, Italy and Me Malaysia. So the idea of organising this team building programme is to be applauded. It will provide a platform for us to interact with each other outside the work environment. We must overcome our cultural differences if we were to be a dynamic team.

We departed to Qatar Bowling Centre from Ras Laffan at 1.30pm after a short briefing. Marwan was kind enough to give me a ride. I had a chance to chat and get to know a little bit more about him in that one hour trip south. A safety briefing was carried out to start off the programme. It is common in any oil and gas companies to pay extra attention to a point of being obsess when it comes to safety. I believe I have inculcated this culture in me now.

To achieve the objective of the programme, each team of four players must satisfy 21 out of 27 questionnaires collectively. To scout for team mates was already an eventful affair. I ended up with Yash, Rashid and Venu. It surprised me that these guys were actually fun and friendly, a total 180 degree turn from their characters at work. 

Some questions of the questionnaires were:

Age between 25-35 (That’s me, feel so young)

Know the capital city of Mauritania (I hate myself for not knowing this)

Flown on a helicopter

Able to swim 1400 meter (Yes, easy peasy)

Eaten some Greek food which I have forgotten the name

Plays tennis

Own a continental car

Own a motorbike

Own a house in a countryside

Speaks four different languages

Experience working in four different countries 

Never bowl before

I won the first game with a meagre 157. It was a good fun since we all did not take the game very seriously, and it was not all about winning. Some of these guys were never even bowled before, and some has not held a bowling ball for ages.

Here comes the funniest part. In the second game, we have to switch teams according to our ranking from the first game. I was in a team with Mike Wright, Ken Holland and Adrian Becerra. In this game, we had to follow certain rules on each frame.

I was not happy at first. Just imagine we had to bowl with some weird rules like using both hands while facing backwards through legs. But I later found it amusing looking at how other people at the bowling centre looked at us as if we were some aliens on their excursion trip to planet earth. Everybody, even the bosses were very cooperative. Well even with the weird rules I still won the game with 97 pins (Maybe because I took the game very seriously, being competitive as I am). Now they know that Malaysia is a power to be reckoned with in ten pin bowling. 

We also had other games like foosball and table tennis.

Next on our agenda was a dhow cruise and dinner which was a great way close the programme. What is better than a sumptuous meal with a view of the city from Doha Bay aboard a traditional Arabian dhow with hindi songs in the background.

More pictures here and here