“Great things in business are never done by one person, they’re done by a team of people” –Steve Jobs.
This simple quote by Steve Jobs encompasses one of the vital values at SISH Institute – collaboration. We are a forward-looking school that focuses on nurturing the finest hospitality talents through a holistic approach of learning. Our success is achieved through the multiple efforts of our hard-working staff all year round and SISH Institute is grateful for their endless dedication. Annually, SISH Institute has 4 company social sessions a year; one in particular is organized by a group of staff members. The preparation of this annual event is rotated amongst departments. Last year, the student services organised a run and this year, the marketing department planned a fun-filled afternoon with team bonding games.
The staff members were split into 4 teams of 3; each consisting of a representative from different departments. The theme of the afternoon was ‘How well do you know your colleagues?’. These games were played in chronological order: 2 Truths and 1 Lie, Desk Thief, Quiz, 5-second rule, I Can’t Hear You and Back-to-Back Drawing.
The quiz was particularly interesting because an SISH Bonus round was included where the questions related to their colleagues or their office surroundings. It is surprising to see how oblivious the human eye can be to features that we see every day such as the brand of the office refrigerator. The whole afternoon was filled with jokes, smiles and laughter but the game that made everyone cry from laughter was the I Can’t Hear You game. Within their teams, one person put on noise-cancelling headphones with loud rock music playing in their ears. Their team mate then said a 2-letter phrase out loud to them such as ‘Prata House’. It may sound simple but lip reading is much more difficult than you think it is! All of us were laughing until we had stomach cramps from some of the ridiculous words that the person with headphones came up with. Overall, there was high praise from all the staff members about how much they enjoyed themselves and everybody also managed to learn something new about each other.
We concluded the staff bonding event with a steamboat in the office where we all ate like there was no tomorrow. It is safe to say we all had a great Friday evening in each other’s company and we look forward to what the academic team has to offer for their staff bonding event next year.
