There is no "I" in team, but there is one in "bite me"
Today we had a special super fun motivational speaker who helped us hone our team-building skills. It was very underwhelming. We began at 7 a.m.-shortly after I realized I had no chance of having a cup of coffee that wasn't full-on Indonesian coffee. (Coffee grounds, unfiltered, mixed with water. Chewy!) Not pretty.
The motivational speaker was practically impossible to understand...some of our Indonesian colleagues with lower English skills asked him to translate into Indonesian for them. Fair enough...but could someone have also translated his English? The man made no sense. Normally I wouldn't complain about someone's English ability here-Lord knows my bahasa Indonesia is wretched. But this guy was hired as a professional public speaker, whose audience works in an English-speaking environment. Ack. Anyway, we listened to him talk at us for a while, then we got into groups and had to play a counting game. I wanted to kill things.
After the neato counting game, we split into smaller groups and went off to play team-building games. These games were actually kind of fun at first-one involved a ropey obstacle course thingy and another involved blindfolds, pencils and glass bottles. (My, that sounds disturbing...but I promise it isn't!) I liked most of my group-my coworkers are, for the most part, very cool people. I had a good time chatting and laughing with them, so the games weren't bad.
When we came back from the games, though, is when the unfun really started. Lunch was delivered at 11:15, takeout from Hoka Hoka Bento, a Japanese fast food place that is pretty darn tasty. We didn't get to eat then, though. Nooooooooo, we had to sit and listen to Mister Motivation for another HOUR AND 45 MINUTES. The man went ON and ON and ON about teams. Team this, teams are not groups, groups are not teams, groups that, groups are different, we are a team, buzzwords buzzwords buzzwords. I think he used the word "dynamic" about a kajillion times, but I can't be sure because I barely understood him. Finally, I think when he sensed we were about to change over from team mentality to group mentality and start smacking him around, he shut up. I'd have filled out the evaluation he gave us, but it wasn't really so much in English. It had English words on it, but...not in any particular order.
Am I just crabby or are motivational speakers almost always universally underwhelming? We had one yesterday that went on and on about how people couldn't believe how awesome he was. I felt motivated to throw my water bottle at him.
Thankfully, the rest of this week should be mostly time to get ready for the students to arrive on Monday. Meetings and whatnot make me twitchy, and I'm just good and ready to see my kids again-quite a change from last year, I know! But bring on the middle schoolers, I'm ready. However, if we have any more motivation thrown our way, I may just pack up my stuff and go live in a van. Down. By. The river.
The motivational speaker was practically impossible to understand...some of our Indonesian colleagues with lower English skills asked him to translate into Indonesian for them. Fair enough...but could someone have also translated his English? The man made no sense. Normally I wouldn't complain about someone's English ability here-Lord knows my bahasa Indonesia is wretched. But this guy was hired as a professional public speaker, whose audience works in an English-speaking environment. Ack. Anyway, we listened to him talk at us for a while, then we got into groups and had to play a counting game. I wanted to kill things.
After the neato counting game, we split into smaller groups and went off to play team-building games. These games were actually kind of fun at first-one involved a ropey obstacle course thingy and another involved blindfolds, pencils and glass bottles. (My, that sounds disturbing...but I promise it isn't!) I liked most of my group-my coworkers are, for the most part, very cool people. I had a good time chatting and laughing with them, so the games weren't bad.
When we came back from the games, though, is when the unfun really started. Lunch was delivered at 11:15, takeout from Hoka Hoka Bento, a Japanese fast food place that is pretty darn tasty. We didn't get to eat then, though. Nooooooooo, we had to sit and listen to Mister Motivation for another HOUR AND 45 MINUTES. The man went ON and ON and ON about teams. Team this, teams are not groups, groups are not teams, groups that, groups are different, we are a team, buzzwords buzzwords buzzwords. I think he used the word "dynamic" about a kajillion times, but I can't be sure because I barely understood him. Finally, I think when he sensed we were about to change over from team mentality to group mentality and start smacking him around, he shut up. I'd have filled out the evaluation he gave us, but it wasn't really so much in English. It had English words on it, but...not in any particular order.
Am I just crabby or are motivational speakers almost always universally underwhelming? We had one yesterday that went on and on about how people couldn't believe how awesome he was. I felt motivated to throw my water bottle at him.
Thankfully, the rest of this week should be mostly time to get ready for the students to arrive on Monday. Meetings and whatnot make me twitchy, and I'm just good and ready to see my kids again-quite a change from last year, I know! But bring on the middle schoolers, I'm ready. However, if we have any more motivation thrown our way, I may just pack up my stuff and go live in a van. Down. By. The river.
posted by Erin @ 5:39 AM
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