Case Studies
Bridging the Divide - A Case Study for Team Collaboration and Communication
Programme: Bridging the Divide
Location: Hong Kong
Client: Sun Life Financial
Outcome: Focus on the client, sharing best practices and team collaboration
Leading financial services company, Sun Life approached Team Building Asia with the task of customising an activity on how to provide excellent client services. This called for Bridging the Divide, a unique team building activity where participants and teams are both the supplier and the customer at the same time. Their task is to design and build a giant elevated circular bridge. To add further challenges, teams were only allowed to communicate with their customers by conference call and human email.
Teams were assigned specific parts of the bridge. They were given instruction manuals, the materials and tools required to build their respective portions. Various roles were quickly assigned and resources assessed to ensure a building plan was clearly drawn out.
Teams communicated their plans and collaborated with each other on building adjoining portions to ensure all sides match up – not an easy task when the bridge was purposely designedwith angles and elevations! Teamsmade full use of conference call and human email communication tools to exchange data and to clarify and verify information.
As the deadline drew near, teams hurriedto clarify final details and addedfinishing touches to their portion of the bridge. At delivery time, teams broughttheir finished portion to the“client” who verifiedthat it had beenbuilt according to plans. Excitement mountedas the bridge was assembled and laughter eruptedas some portions didn’t turn out as expected.
After a short debriefing session to share experiences and key initiatives from the afternoon’s activities, teams came back into the room to test the bridge structure. The CEO of Sun Life was given the honour of driving the remote controlled truck on the bridge. Cheered on by the delegates, the truck successfully madeits round withsounds of excited cheers and laughter.
The activity promoted the need provide a “Can-do” attitude to clients and to clarify and verify regularly to meet their specific needs. The whole event signified what can be achieved by working together towards one unified goal, as delegates posed for a group photo with the magnificent circular bridge. In line with TBA’s Green Charter, the bridge was then disassembled and the cardboard recycled.
