Spartan (GUI)

Contributed by Mandy on Workplace in 2018

Hi everyone!

This week, Xing Kai Sim (NYC) and I decided to try out Spartan framing for our course as we are both Spartan racers and felt that our participants’ OBS experience can be tied in together with the journey of a Spartan Race.

We only introduced the framing to them during our expedition briefing on Day 1 night as both of us wanted to get a sensing of our participants first before diving straight into the framing.

We first asked them what do they know of Spartan Races and replies such as “going through obstacles, tough, muddy, sandy, strong” were words that came out of them.

We shared the brief history of Spartan and how Spartan Races came about before sharing with them our personal journey of why we chose to join Spartan Races.

We then shared with them that the OBS journey they are about to undertake is very similar to how a journey of a Spartan race will be like.

There will be numerous obstacles they will face -

Physical: Physical stretch during expeditions and fatigue.

Mentally: Ability to plan, work together as a team and accepting one another.

The participants’ interest were piqued and they buy in to the framing easily and named themselves “The Chosen Ones” partly due to the filming we have this week as well.

The idea was to get them to design their OBS team medal (front and back) that they’ll earn after each expedition day.

The medal was divided into 3 different sections to represent each expedition day (3D2N).

In the real Spartan Race, Sprint (Red) stands for 5KM, Super (Blue) for 13KM and Beast (Green) for 21KM.

At the end of each night, we would have a circle to debrief about the day and their team performance before they illustrate their medal.

On the first night, we used the Beauty and the Beast framework to bring out their first sharing.

Beauty - Something beautiful you have observed/seen about the mobile.

Beast - Something hideous you have observed/seen about the mobile.

P/S: This Beauty and the Beast framework is not linked to the Spartan framing but just a spur of the moment idea XingKai came up with as we pow-wowed and observed our pax profile.

We also shared The Human and Scorpion story at the end of the circle to link relevance to what we have observed about their individual nature.

They managed to successfully complete and were awarded the first 2 pieces of the medal (Red and Blue) for the first 2 days of their expedition. However, things changed the moment they set off for sea expedition from Passion Wave Sembawang to Camp 1 on Day 4. The team started to crack. Despite many debriefs and attempts to get the mobile to work together, the team still remain divided. This continued all the way till the end of the night and to Day 5 morning.

Eventually, we decided to frame it as a failure because they were not able to clear their very last obstacle, which was to set aside their differences and learn to work together as a team. Hence, the last part of the medal (Green) was not awarded to them.

We used the values found on the Spartan holder - Courage, Competition and Camaraderie to talk about why it was not awarded to them.

Courage - To stand up and face the obstacles instead of backing down. (Begins with oneself)

Competition - To compete within oneself and bring out the best in one another. (Building the team up)

Camaraderie - To forge beautiful memories and bonds with one another. (End product of a team)

Instead of designing the last piece of the medal, they were tasked to reflect upon themselves and their actions and contributions to the team over the past 4 days and write down a commitment they wish to change about themselves after leaving OBS.

We then introduced the stages of group development model to them after sharing the 3Cs and got them to share which stage they think they are in. This eventually lead up to the last stage of the group development model - Adjourning.

We proceeded to tear the instructors’ copy of the course photo in front of them to share with them how the team is going in different directions and things will never be the same when they leave OBS.

We wrapped up the course and ended it with Kintsugi, a form of Japanese art.

/"As a philosophy, kintsugi can be seen to have similarities to the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, an embracing of the flawed or imperfect. Japanese aesthetics values marks of wear by the use of an object. This can be seen as a rationale for keeping an object around even after it has broken and as a justification of kintsugi itself, highlighting the cracks and repairs as simply an event in the life of an object rather than allowing its service to end at the time of its damage or breakage./

/Kintsugi can relate to the Japanese philosophy of "no mind" (/無心/mushin), which encompasses the concepts of non-attachment, acceptance of change, and fate as aspects of human life./

/“ Not only is there no attempt to hide the damage, but the repair is literally illuminated... a kind of physical expression of the spirit of mushin....Mushin is often literally translated as "no mind," but carries connotations of fully existing within the moment, of non-attachment, of equanimity amid changing conditions. ...The vicissitudes of existence over time, to which all humans are susceptible, could not be clearer than in the breaks, the knocks, and the shattering to which ceramic ware too is subject. This poignancy or aesthetic of existence has been known in Japan as mono no aware, a compassionate sensitivity, or perhaps identification with, [things] outside oneself."/

By sharing this with the kids, we hope that the team is able to accept their own "failure" and flaws they’ve displayed during OBS, and wish that they will come back up stronger after leaving OBS.

SIDE STORY!!!

In the photos attached, you will see our pax fixing up ventilation vent and washing of toilets at GUI.

Long story short, this was not planned and both of us decided to come to a common consensus with the staff of GUI to use this as a learning opportunity to teach the participants about helping out the community.

We’d like to thank Nur Abidin Bin Suleman (NYC) and Desmond Kao (NYC) for sharing their inputs and giving us guidance on how we can better facilitate and bring out this fantasy framing to our pax.

And Abidin for the complete Spartan Trifecta medal  and holder as well. 🙂