Candid conversations about using GPS and wireless technology for work and fun.
Posts tagged team building
TeleNav Lends a Helping Hand
Nov 19th
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The TeleNav Group Helping Out at Second Harvest Food Bank
If you read the blog last week, you may remember this post from Selena G. regarding the kick-off of TeleNav’s Season of Giving. As Selena mentioned, this year we’re supporting the efforts of our local food bank, Second Harvest, through a food collection competition among the various departments here at TeleNav. We also became an official sponsor of Second Harvest’s Food and Fund Drive, which helps to make sure everyone has food on their table during the holiday season.
In addition to the competition we’re having in the office, we decided to head out of the office to support Second Harvest’s efforts to feed those in our local community. A couple of nights ago a few of us headed down to their warehouse and joined a large group of volunteers to help pack up some food packages for families in need. The people at Second Harvest were great and we really enjoyed meeting all of the volunteers and getting to know each other outside of the office walls.
Hong C. Having Fun Packing Food
If you have some extra time on your hands this holiday season, I’d strongly encourage you to volunteer at your local food bank or one of the many non-profit organizations serving your community. They truly depend on volunteers to help those in need and I can tell you that it’s a great experience. It’s also a good team building activity, so you may want to suggest to your manager or HR department that your company get involved in a similar program. Those of us from TeleNav who volunteered had a great time and we’re already talking about the next opportunity.
Selena G. Working Hard at Second Harvest Food Bank
We’d love to hear stories you may have about volunteering as an individual or with your company.
TeleNav, On the Rocks
Jul 25th
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Author – Daisy Luu – Technical Writer
Langston Hughes writes in a poem entitled "Mother to Son":
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair …
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners …
Don’t you fall now –
For I’se still goin’,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
You try not to look down as you climb, focusing on the next handhold and testing your body’s balance as you make your way up the vertical wall. You mentally count, "one … two …" before releasing your foot to seek the next hold up. Halfway up the wall, your heart’s already pumping to aerobic levels, and you struggle for grip on a particularly narrow foothold, or a tricky, inclined handhold, hoping not to fall off and make your partner on the ground brake you as you drop.
On July 18, the Systems and Server Teams at TeleNav got together for a team-building event at Planet Granite, an indoor rock-climbing/belaying gym. After an hour-long lesson on how to tie specific knots and strap ourselves into harnesses and gear, we got to partner up and scale the cliffs, navigating our way up colorful handholds and footholds.
For belaying, the climber and belayer are connected by a rope held at the top of each cliff by a pulley. As the climber mounts, the belayer remains on the ground and pulls the slack of rope taut. Once at the top, the view is not of spectacular cloud-lined purple mountains, but for the beginning climber looking down, it still seems a pretty intimidating height. Especially so, since that is when the climber has to let go, lean back, and drop. On the ground, the belayer releases the rope to lower the climber back safely to the ground.
TeleNav Engineers Gauge the Cliffs
It takes a good amount of teamwork, trust and communication to take a climber to the top. The belayer is always at attention, watching the rope, suggesting climbing techniques, shouting encouragement. Partners then switch roles, giving the other a chance to climb. We trust ourselves to have the strength to make it all the way up. We trust our partners to catch us if we fall. And even though life may be no crystal stair, the corporate world is constantly wrought with competition, we still keep climbing, reaching for new heights.
Tag, You’re It!
Jun 6th
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Author—Daisy Luu – Technical Writer
I am in a maze with minimal light, pumping music, and a haze of fog blanketing my vision in ethereal white. My heart pumps against the heavy vest that I wear, from which trails a laser gun on a cord. The lighted sensor targets on my vest blink red and green in a frantic rhythm to match the strobe lights, and I pace my footfalls to the bass rhythm of the music in hopes to muffle the sound of my approach. When I am thrown in a hunt-or-be-hunted environment, everything changes. My senses become sharper; I crouch low and seek out blinking targets – aiming, shooting, fleeing, checking my back and focusing on the ground ahead to cover.
In May, I went with my team for a round of laser tag as part of our team-building activities. Our group of six hunted for each other in a multi-storied maze and aimed to score the most points by hitting the most targets. This game of hide-and-seek taught us this about team building: to rely on our instincts to lead the way. To sharpen our wits and our aim when pursuing a prize. To not miss what we set our sights on.
And to be humble despite how well we think we’re doing. So I came in 5th in a total of 6 places. But in the Laser Tag world, as in the corporate world, there is always room for improvement.
TeleNav Team Building (literally)
May 29th
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Author- Daisy Luu – Technical Writer
It isn’t every day you see blindfolded engineers stoop for paper cups on the asphalt. But then again, there’s rarely a dull day at TeleNav, where employees constantly strive to better ourselves – as well as the technologies we’re developing. To celebrate several successful product launches and partnerships with some of the nation’s top wireless carriers, employees at TeleNav headquarters recently gathered for some refreshments. And because there’s no point of being idle for too long, we played a few team-building games to strengthen our relationships with each other.
Activity #1: Team Building (literally)
Objective: Form a cube with live bodies
What We Learned:
1.) Foundations are made stronger through the support of partnerships and teams.
2.) TeleNav engineers could live off being Matrix stunt-doubles.
Activity #2: Collecting Cups
Objective: Employees form teams of four with one person being the blindfolded ‘cup collector.’ The rest of the team must create a system of communication WITHOUT using words or touch to guide the cup collector through a field of randomly-strewn cups. The cup collector must pick up as many cups as possible in one minute.
What We Learned:
1.) Effective communication is the key to success.
2.) There is a difference between listening and hearing, and sometimes you must learn to do the former and not simply be content with the latter.
3.) Headquarters can become a wildly entertaining place with some engineers emitting quacks, beeps and screeches while others meander aimlessly around a parking lot littered with cups.
Team Building at iFly
Dec 12th
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Author – Daisy Luu – Technical Writer
When you’re on your belly with 150mph winds rushing up at you, when you hear nothing but its roar in your ears as your surroundings become a blur of vertigo, you become lost in a cocoon of weightlessness. Though gravity threatens to pull you down, adrenaline works to buoy you up. You struggle to hold your body perfectly aligned: chin up, back straight, legs slightly bent, arms out, and palms cupped downward . . . working to catch the wind drift and experience the gift of flight.
On December 7, I went with a small group of members from the Server Team to an indoor skydiving adventure called iFly. This was the first of a series of planned activities meant for team building. Each of us got two sessions of one minute each in a wind tunnel encased by clear, hard plastic. Spectators waiting their turns stood outside, watching as we bounced off the walls of the tunnel, our facial skin flapping goofily against the wind’s velocity.
So what did this even teach me about team building? The struggle to reach new heights is like the fight to get ahead of the competition, like the daily struggle to better myself in everything I do. The journey to the top is met with much resistance, but you make use of the brief time that you have to see how far you can take yourself.
Each one-minute flight session is roughly equivalent to a tandem skydive—time enough to do, not think. The moment you lean forward into the wind is like stepping out of a plane. You don’t obsess over wondering if your parachute will open. You’ve already decided to take the leap—now all that’s left is to trust instinct to see you safely back to the ground. Like how jumping at the opportunity of a business deal can sometimes prove more fruitful than hanging back for careful, strategic planning. First shoot, then aim.
Finally, there’s nothing like a unique outing to strengthen the camaraderie spirit. We left iFly chatting and joking as if we’ve been through a momentous event together. We each flew at different paces and reached different heights. But it’s nice to know that, two feet from the ground or 10 feet above it, we can all still find our way.
The TeleNav Server Team at iFly (from left: Daisy Luu, Xiao Ming Tang, Harry Feng, LeQing Zhou, Anda Zhao)
