Our FAcilitator, Sasi KUMAR, is now a Certified Master Facilitator®. The title Certified Master Facilitator® is a mark of excellence in facilitation. It distinguishes someone as having achieved the highest certification available in the industry.
The certification process assesses candidates against a rigorous set of competencies. These competencies were developed based on input from over 450 FAcilitators and clients. The result, a certification with the distinction of quality, integrity, talent and service, is one that FAcilitators can aspire to achieve and clients can have confidence in.
With this latest certification, Sasi is now able to deliver more Process FAcilitation programmes that do not just stop at the teambuilding session but go further with stakeholders to develop their teams or achieve effective meetings results using tools such as LSP – LEGO Serious Play, World Cafe, Open Space Technology and many other Process FAcilitation tools.
Find out more about the types of advanced programmes that can be offered here:
FOCUS Consulting
Leaning on technological breakthroughs, we have proudly made some changes to the delivery of programmes to align with our sustainability vision. We have gone ZERO WASTE for two of our popular programmes; The Rollercoaster Challenge! and The Incredible Race Challenge!
For The Rollercoaster Challenge! instead of giving participants straws and balloon sticks, we have invested in rubber tubes that can do the same job but are reusable! This means that after each programme for The Rollercoaster Challenge!, we are able to reuse 100% of the materials!
For The Incredible Race Challenge! We used to print hard copies for our participants. But we have since moved to have participants’ using their mobile phones to access race content via the e-forms. This has made the activity efficient, interactive and participative for all members of the team! A “leaderboard” is also created electronically via the links where teams can view other teams’ performance in real-time!
Emergenetics is a tool used to achieve a profile of the person’s behavioural and thinking characteristics.
The theory behind Emergenetics is people are already born with thinking and behavioural traits. The environment and social surroundings then modify and alter these traits and behaviours. Essentially, a person has genetic traits that the environment affects.
The emergenetics test is a self-assessment questionnaire that maps the thinking and behavioural traits of an individual. This profile is broken down into seven emergenetics attributes; four thinking attributes and three behavioural attributes. When each attribute is given a colour, the Emergenetics profile becomes a palette of colours mixed together that paints a picture of one’s personality.
Since the turn of 2022, we’ve tightened the sails and steadied the helm to cruise through a challenging but rewarding year, with organisations yearning to shake off the rust of COVID-19 times.
In the last 2 quarters, we have delivered 199 number of programmes for MNCs, SMEs, Government Agencies and Non-profit Organisations.
Reviewing the data and experiences, we observed four focus areas of teams who have walked through our doors in 2022:
Referencing Bruce Tuckman’s Team Development Model, there are five stages in a relationship – Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning. The model states that everyone will start from the Forming stage when there is a new relationship. From there, teams move progressively towards the Performing stage where they are then able to execute with synergy.
The Covid Babies
The turbulent covid times threw the workforce into disarray with huge turnover, redefining of workplace roles, and murky confusion matching skills and productivity. New hires coming into the scene went straight into working from home and though they were comfortable, a good portion could still feel the jitters.
Many organisations saw themselves back to the Forming stage with these new members joining in, with the challenge being to claw their way out of the Forming stage and cruise into the Storming stage. The lack of physical interaction meant that teams were unable to have face-to-face conflict resolution opportunities.
This phenomenon has created two scenarios, 1) everyone stays at the Forming stage and remains ineffective as a team and 2) teams having a pseudo Norming false preset that they are all working together well.
The lack of physical interactions had eliminated the Storming stage and left teams stagnant.
The silver lining is that some leaders have recognised this phenomenon in the early stage and they started creating small group gatherings virtually and/or physically. They created mentorship programmes for onboarding processes that allowed the new hires to feel welcomed and created a sense of belonging.
Since Apr 2022, we saw an influx in teams coming for physical teambuilding, it was evident that many organisations needed to break away from the Forming stage to become effective and efficient
To combat a lowered sense of belonging and purpose, organisations have started to return to physical teambuilding.
Being a teambuilding provider, our role is not to make the team members feel the sense of belonging or give them their purpose. We have customised and curated programmes to get teams to acknowledge what is lacking and formulate action plans. The outcome of the programme is for the teams to acknowledge the gaps and to have them derive their own action plans to move forward as a team.
Through the interventions, we have noticed that leaders have acknowledged this phenomenon and made arrangements for the individuals to have the sense of belonging to the Organisation, such as arranging team dinners, having team retreats and arranging for face to face sessions to build their purpose to align with that of the Organisation again.
The observation of the team moving back to the Forming stage, they are forgiving for mistakes and each other’s different perspectives.
Seniors are more patient and willing to help out the juniors. Interestingly some juniors could have been with the organisation for nearly three years now, and getting this excellent treatment makes the working atmosphere pleasing.
Yet, this forgiving nature could be temporary since everyone is still in the Forming stage. The actual test happens during a Storming stage when people become comfortable working with each other and start sharing their opinions and emotions.
One of the interventions we did in FOCUS Adventure was to quicken the process from Forming to Storming at least by the end of the programme to ensure that teams do not stay in the pseudo-norming stage where everyone thinks that they are performing well as a team, when in fact the lack of storm creates silent frustrations which might build, and explode with time.
Finally, we have seen how the new employee has been bold and willing to build bridges with the seniors. In the olden days, juniors would not take the step to take this action but silently followed instructions. This created the phenomenon of the “Monkey Experiment”, where sometimes people don’t know why they are doing what they are doing. But today’s new hires are well aware and came prepared with the “Why” question.
This “Why” question they asked is not to put down their seniors in the organisation but to build bridges, to understand the seniors and the organisation better.
Some teams welcome this movement as it gets everyone to move into a new dimension and start thinking differently. But there is also the team dominated by the seniors, who still have the older mentality of “listen to instructions first before giving ideas”.
Of course there is debate as there is no right or wrong, the answer depends on the situation that we are in. What matters is to see the other perspective and to remember that at the end of the day, to build bridges between individuals.
This year has been exciting, with teams back physically. The question now will then be, is this new phenomenon helpful and effective?
For 7 consecutive years from 2015 to 2021, FOCUS Adventure has been awarded the Best Teambuilding Vendor of the Year by Human Resources. During the pandemic, we are proud that the Team has continued to deliver high standards to be recognized by the industry.
Selamat Hari Raya from the CSR team! Even though we are all unable to go out to meet our relatives and friends during this time, Hari Raya is still worth celebrating. It is not easy for the malaysians who are stuck in Singapore as most of them cannot afford to go back home due to the current situation that requires 14 days quanrantine in both Singapore and Malaysia. As such, they are unable to celebrate Hari Raya with their families. To lift their moods during this period, we have managed to raise over $900 to do something for them and food was prepared by Free food for all (FFFA).
The CSR team along with some amazing volunteers helped with this event. We started early to prepare and also ensured that social distancing markings were up. They were really happy and surprised by our lunch arrangement! Following that, we continued donating the food to low income families residing in rental flats. It was not easy for our volunteers but we really appreciate everybody who helped in making a difference to those who are less priviledged. The mission is never over and we will continue to fight on! We successfully delivered 350 packets of food to those who really need it by the end of the day. Thank you to everyone who made this possible!
