The Institute of Informatics and Development (IID) held a residential team-building workshop for all staff from 13–15 December 2025 at Matir Maya Eco Resort, Sreepur, Gazipur. The three days offered space for learning, reflection, and renewed connection through games, creative tasks, and team exercises.
The workshop was facilitated by Dr. Motahar Akand, a gender, human rights, and team-building specialist, who also serves as a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Peace and Justice (CPJ), BRAC University, and as Chairperson of Rights Centre Trust. Through a hands-on agenda, he helped IID colleagues explore what keeps a team strong, how trust grows across roles, and how individual strengths can turn into shared performance.
On 13 December, the session began with a brief opening that set a friendly tone, followed by group discussions on team spirit, bonding, and shared responsibility. One key activity asked teams to create the longest and strongest paper chains using colourful paper cuttings as a symbol of teamwork and cohesion. Later, everyone connected the chains into one, as a simple picture of one IID. When the group raised the full chain together, some colleagues could not reach it. That moment made a clear point: without fair opportunities and support, some people get left behind. The facilitator stressed the need for equity in practice, so those who try to reach the chain also receive the support that helps them reach it.
Later, the team moved into activities that connected workplace behaviour with professional growth. A balloon-based tower task brought out the need for coordination, patience, and shared discipline, especially when pressure rises and time feels short.
In the afternoon, attention shifted to productivity and collective efficiency. A coin game showed how results improve when a team lead assigns roles with care and when teammates back each other up. The activity also reinforced a simple idea of efficiency: a team can gain more with the least possible effort when it works smart, stays coordinated, and gives timely support, instead of depending only on speed or extra labour.
The last activity of the day was a skills-mapping exercise that helped colleagues notice strengths across the organization and build a culture of appreciation. Each person wrote their name on a large, colourful sheet, listed at least twelve skills, and posted it on the wall. Others then walked around and added up to two notes to each sheet, reflecting the strengths they genuinely saw in that person. The exercise surfaced hidden capacities and reinforced a simple lesson: stronger results come from knowing one another well and valuing what each person brings. Dr. Motahar Akand closed the session with a shared sense of deeper understanding and stronger cohesion, both within teams and across IID as a whole.
On 15 December, the team-building work continued with a session led by IID CEO Syeed Ahamed and Education Adviser Khandaker Lutful Khaled, with a focus on turning team values into day-to-day practice. The session began with an interactive office video that showed how a lack of planning during emergencies can quickly create confusion and chaos.
After that discussion, staff formed five groups under senior management guidance and worked on short solution videos based on real workplace issues identified before the workshop. Each team took one core value, Agility, Simplicity, Innovation, Happiness, and Greenness, and created a three- to four-minute video that showed practical ways to respond to the problem through that value. The activity brought creativity, teamwork, and accountability into one task, while also making IID’s values feel real and usable.
Overall, the residential workshop carried a simple message: strong programs rely on strong internal teams. Throughout the three days, IID colleagues strengthened trust, practiced equity in action, and renewed a shared commitment to collaboration, respectful communication, and collective responsibility.