Pakxong District, May 10, 2015
Employees at THPC have discovered a way to help a countryside village while at the same time improving their own professional performance. Two trips in May and April brought the THPC staff to Champassak, where they combined team-building activities with practical assistance to a rural community.
In late April a first group of about 120 THPC employees travelled to Pakse to spend two days on activities designed to help them communicate and work together better. In May a second group of around 150 personnel repeated the program so that every staff member had the chance to participate.
The first day was spent building new classrooms for Ban Boun Secondary School. THPC has joined together with the provincial education authority and the villagers of Ban Boun to co-fund the construction of four new classrooms at the school, located in Pathoumphone District.
As well as fund
ing the construction, THPC staff spent two days at the school laying cement-block walls and concrete floors for the new classrooms. According to Jyxiong Juevaxaiki, THPC’s Corporate Support and
Services Manager, this exercise showed the people of Ban Boun that THPC staff were serious about serving the community, and also enabled the company to speed up essential work ahead of the wet season.
“We had well over 100 labourers and some experienced builders on the site for two days, so we were able to accelerate the construction,” explained Mr Jyxiong. “At the same time, our staff benefitted from having to work together in random groups and an unexpected setting. This gave us a valuable team-building activity while helping out the school and village”.
The team-building theme was continued on the second day of both trips as the THPC staff travelled to the Etu Waterfall Resort in Pakxong District for an all-day session of outdoor bonding exercises. Divided once more into random teams, staff were put through a succession of activities designed to make each group organize, elect leaders and find ways of co-operating to complete various tasks. These physical and mental challenges required trust and team coordination as participants were in turn blindfolded and tied to each other while given problems to solve.
The two days of activities left almost the whole of the THPC staff physically exhausted but emotionally rewarded. Asked if they wished to repeat the exercise next year, almost all 270 participants replied with a resounding “Yes!”
