Midway White Beach Resort

As mentioned in my column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer I had this inspiring conversation with Borge Echavez who owns the  Midway White Beach Resort along the coastline of Tubigan, Initao, Misamis Oriental. It was the venue  for the Team Building Program  for the start-up plant of Philip Ong in Cagayan de Oro  named Pro Natural.

Midway White Beach Resort is just an hour away from Cagayan de Oro City . It has white sand and relaxing wonderful views.  Water sports include jetski, kayaks, banana boat. It also has a zipline that starts at the top of a tower on the shore and ends with an exciting splash into the ocean. The children of Borge, though still young monitor the performance of these facilities.

The workshop had twenty or so very talented participants, mostly young in their twenties and thirties and participants from head office in Manila. They were actively engaged in the program that   involved team building exercises to bond the group. It also included cross functional dialogues to  ensure quality internal customer and supplier relationships inside the plant. The evening ended with my doing executive coaching for the plant manager to manage her entry into the group.

I took the lead as facilitator, ably assisted by Mike Puangco (seated on the left front row), my eldest son who managed the team activities.

One challenging exercise is the 10 ball race. How does one manage to transport ten balls that will touch all the palms of the participants present. See picture of participants in action.

Saturday was a free day for everyone (it was also the company outing). After going to mass in the morning, Jenny Maniego (who's a program coordinator in Santeh foundation) and I went to market to buy sports clothes (in plain speak t-shirt and shorts). I was not prepared for a resort. Then we took the zipline, Jenny first. Then I followed. It was an adventure in managed risk. I noticed the safety precautions undertaken by the resort staff who prepare you to zip  (head gear, hooks etc.). Afterwards, Jenny  (shown in picture below in blue shirt ) and I (left in white shirt) rode the banana boat pulled by a jetski. What was different from the other riders, we gave strict instructions not to dump us into the ocean. They showed us how to ride (pretending that one is in horseback)  and not to tilt one’s weight to one side. It was our responsibility to keep ourselves in balance, We enjoyed the ride. 

Then we had a sumptuous lunch that included a tasty lechon!