The Synergy Challenge

S.Y.N.E.R.G.Y.

Whatever it means. It's one of those buzzwords I often hear in my office, along with "INNOVATION".

I couldn't find the word in my pocket Oxford Dictionary. But a search on the on-line Merriam-Webster dictionary defines Synergy as follows:



And I thought it's the name for a brand of engine oil. How ignorant of me. Now I know it's really a name for TEAMWORK, something I've known since I started work more than 20 years ago.

But what exactly is Teamwork? Well, to create Teamwork awareness, my office devoted a week from 3 to 7 July to what it called the SYNERGY WEEK. It organised activities to promote teamwork and to make us workers understand what Synergy is all about. The bottom line? To increase productivity by "connecting" people, I guess.

Teamwork and Productivity. Cliche as these words may sound, I do think that these are two elements a successful office could not do without.

Well, it was SYNERGY galore alright. First, lunch times movies were screened at the auditorium, not just any movies, but movies such as 12 Angry Men and Antz that teach us the importance of working as a Team.

There was the Charity Relay Run, and it was heartening to see colleagues and bosses in every shape and size trying to raise money for the Handicaps Welfare Association (HWA).

Then there was the photography competition to showcase the talents of budding photographers in the office (shucks, I forgot to snap those photos!) The shots with the best depiction of teamwork win handsome prizes.

On top of this, new books related to the topic of Teamwork were made available in the office library, courtesy of the National Library Board.

All very exciting, I must add. So exciting, in fact, that there was no volunteer for the Synergy Challenge segment. The organisers of the Synergy Week had asked for volunteers and when it suddenly hit them that nobody was coming forward, they panic and started to arrow. It was two days before the Challenge. Much time had been wasted. I hate to say that I was one of those arrowed.

Back to the Synergy Challenge. You could say this is the climax of the Synergy Week. Teams from different sections were given an area space of 5x5 tiles at the office Glass Atrium. Our mission? To construct a structure that best depicted the sections' Teamwork Quotients or TQ (yet another fanciful buzzword). The structures should mostly be made of newspaper and magazine and the aim is to get as many people in various sections to participate in building their respective structures as possible. During the competition, a representative from each section would have to tell everyone the theme of their structure, why he thought his team's structure is the best interpretation of Team Spirit and why his team should win.

Many of us were duly impressed by the creative and thoughtful art structures conjured up by the various sections. Who said civil servants are all squares and lack creativity? We could give those sales executives in advertising a run for their money. Take a look at these art works:

The Stadium

Looking at the structure, this team was apparently influenced by the World Cup craze that has left many of his team members looking like zombies. But I must say the idea was brilliant and you could see a lot of hard work and teamwork involved.

A close-up of the Stadium

The footballers, made of handicraft straws

The Spectators

Another creation by another section:

The Rocket
Notice rings of staff holding hands depicting teamwork and unity? It was about the time when North Korea attracted the wrath of the world for having test-fired her missiles, hardly a source of inspiration. But that did not stop this team from creating what I think would appeal to my 8-year-old son.

The bikini girl beckons...
How ingenious? Did you see that? No, not the bikini-clad babe. The dish drainer on top of the rocket.

I like it that the rocket team even made their structure "interactive". Yes, they had prepared cut-outs clothes from magazines to allow participants to pin them onto any of the paper staff on the rocket that caught their fancy. To some, it was sweet revenge. I mean how often do we get to cross-dress our bosses? And with bikini at that. ROTFL.


Here is one called "Pyramid" by another team. If you look closely, you could see namecards, representing individual in unity pasted on the pyramid.


And another, with the handprints showing unity.

Here's the structure by my section. We called it "Our Fortress".



And we adopted the theme "TEAMwork". The boxes in different sizes represent each unique individual in my section. The fortress also bears the handprints of everyone in the section, signifying cohesiveness and unity. The four columns T,E,A,M represent the pillars of strength. Put them together, it's really an acronym for Togther Everyone Acieves More. Neat, huh?

More picture on "Our Fortress":

Together

Everyone

Achieves

More

But we didn't win the Challenge, though many agreed that we had the best structure with an equally good story on why we thought we should win, all eloquently put across by VT. VT is, after all, a man of charisma, with a booming voice and puckish sense of humour to match. Our hopes were high.

We were disappointed. But then winning is really secondary. What's more important is the team spirit that we've witnessed in the process of building the structure, and how we got everyone together to wrap the boxes with newspapers, and how we rally around everyone to get them to have the hand imprinted onto the boxes.

It's one event after another. Hot on the heel of the SYNERGY WEEK is the Inspiration Award event. We're looking for someone in the office who is an inspiration to all, a role model whom we could look up to, someone who is exemplary in everything that he or she does. Nomination is open. I think I have someone in mind. He sounds a lot like Victor. Hmmm.....

Category: Office