Brunei: Cross-Team Give-Back—Park & Beach Clean-Up Day

Cross-Team Give-Back—Park & Beach Clean-Up Day, Brunei

Context: Kampong Spirit in the Office

In Brunei’s local lexicon, gotong-royong – known in the Bruneian dialect as bermucang-mucang – describes a noble tradition of people coming together to help each other, be it building a neighbor’s house or cleaning the village mosque *. This “kampung (village) spirit” has bound communities for generations, reflecting the Malay adage muafakat membawa berkat (“unity brings blessings”). It’s a heritage of all-hands cooperation passed down from ancestors, credited with strengthening bonds among families and friends *. Today, some Brunei-based organizations—especially larger enterprises and government-linked companies—are translating that grassroots ethos into workplace rituals. By trading office attire for work gloves and tackling projects for the common good, they’re finding that what held kampung communities together can do the same for corporate culture.

Meet Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP)

Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP), the nation’s largest energy company founded in 1929 amid the oil fields of Seria, offers one visible example of this blend of tradition and teamwork. With deep roots in local communities, BSP has long encouraged employees to see themselves as family with a duty to society. In 2020, the company launched #BSPCares, an initiative empowering staff to plan and participate in volunteer projects year-round *. One flagship event is the annual “Brunei Day of Action,” where BSP teams trade their desks for the outdoors. On a recent Day of Action, 70 staff members from all ranks – from fresh graduates to senior managers – rolled up their sleeves together to clean up a beachfront park alongside 80 schoolchildren and orphans in the Belait district *. The company’s Corporate Affairs director led by example with a rake in hand, underscoring that in true gotong-royong spirit no one is too important to pitch in.

These volunteer days rekindle the camaraderie of a village working bee within a modern enterprise. Employees split into mixed-department crews, often teaming engineers with accountants or HR reps with offshore technicians. Donning matching BSPCares t-shirts and sun hats, they tackle tasks like clearing trash, painting community facilities, or planting mangrove saplings. A 150-person BSP brigade even joined forces with residents of Kampong Sungai Teraban to spruce up a local school and beach, cutting overgrown grass and unclogging drains in a collective blitz *. Seasoned staff report anecdotally that they have seen interns and executives laugh together more when they are mud-splattered and racing to fill the next garbage bag. The ethos is clear: when everyone sweats side by side for a shared mission, hierarchy fades and “company” starts to feel like community.

Gotong-Royong Day — Step-by-Step

Minute	Scene	Purpose
0–15	Morning Muster – Volunteers gather at site; a team lead briefs everyone on safety and goals	Align on mission; energise group commitment
15–45	Task Teams – Groups spread out (beach clean-up, painting, planting trees) with mixed roles and seniority	Break silos; peers collaborate equally
45–60	Hydration Huddle – Water break, local snacks, and banter under a tent	Rest & informal bonding across departments
60–90	Final Push – All hands finish remaining tasks; collect and pile waste for disposal	Shared effort toward a visible accomplishment
90–100	Closing Circle – Group photo with dirty gloves held high; a senior thanks everyone and the community leader says a few words of appreciation	Recognition, pride, and a unifying memory

(Schedule within paid work hours and avoid overlap with Friday congregational prayers, and conclude with thanks and any opt-in photos taken in line with consent and privacy policies.)

Why It Works — From Village Bonds to Team Bonding

There is a clear ritual arc—separation at muster, liminality in mixed crews, and incorporation in the closing thanks—alongside social-psychological processes behind the camaraderie. Social scientists note that humans evolved to cooperate in tribes – raising barns or harvesting rice together – because working toward a common good releases oxytocin, the “bonding hormone,” in our brains *. Modern neuroscience confirms that when colleagues engage in prosocial deeds like volunteering, the brain’s reward centers light up and oxytocin levels can surge by as much as 50%, triggering a mellow “helper’s high” that reinforces trust and friendship *. In plain terms, working side by side on a meaningful task helps teams feel more connected. Mixed-status crews tackling a visible communal task with leaders participating visibly can signal humility, create a shared identity, and foster relatedness and reciprocity that support trust and coordination back at work. Junior staff suddenly feel more equal and heard, while veterans see fresh leadership spark in younger teammates wielding wheelbarrows. BSP organizers report anecdotally that some shy employees become more confident during gotong-royong as they contribute shoulder to shoulder. The act of collective service also imbues a deeper purpose: teams aren’t just hitting KPIs, they’re improving their community. That shared pride becomes emotional glue back at work, the “glow” of doing good together forming what one expert calls “the tie that binds the team” *.

Outcomes & Impact

The ripple effects inside and outside the company are palpable. Colleagues who might barely nod in the hallway form genuine friendships after a morning of hauling driftwood and cracking jokes over leaf piles. As a simple measure of impact, compare brief pre- and post-event belonging and psychological safety scores and track cross-team replies or help requests and median time to resolve cross-team tickets in the two weeks after the event. If you use pulse surveys, analyze anonymous, aggregated team-level data with minimal retention, clear opt-outs, and Legal/HR oversight, and interpret any short-term changes cautiously alongside behavioral indicators. Such anecdotes align with global research linking employee volunteering with improved workplace climate and engagement, but use first-party or peer-reviewed sources and document methods when citing statistics. In Brunei’s tight-knit society, the goodwill is also a business asset. After the Kampong Teraban clean-up, the village head publicly praised BSP’s staff for caring about the community’s well-being *, bolstering the company’s reputation as a rakan kongsi (true partner). Younger employees, especially locals, cite the gotong-royong culture as a reason they “feel proud to work here” – it shows the company walks its talk on social responsibility. And while it’s not the primary goal, these efforts double as informal leadership training: coordinating logistics with volunteers and villagers is a crash course in project management and empathy for every organizer in the pipeline.

Lessons for Global Team Leaders

Principle	Why It Matters	How to Translate
All Hands, No Ranks	Bonds form when everyone rolls up their sleeves equally. Senior leaders gain trust by working alongside junior staff.	Pick activities where titles vanish (paint brushes don’t know job grades). Leaders should visibly participate, not just attend.
Service with Purpose	Helping others taps intrinsic motivation and group pride, far beyond what a routine off-site can do.	Tie team-building to a local cause – whether it’s cleaning a park or mentoring youth – to give teamwork a meaningful mission.
Local Cultural Fit	A ritual framed in familiar cultural terms (like gotong-royong) feels authentic, not imported or forced. This boosts buy-in.	Adapt the concept with respect by consulting local culture-bearers, crediting origins, and avoiding rebranding specific cultural terms; for example, consult local advisors before naming any initiative and ensure benefit-sharing with community partners.
Cross-Team Mixing	Volunteering scenarios mix people who seldom interact at work, sparking new connections and breaking departmental silos.	Intentionally shuffle the groups: ensure each team has a diversity of roles and seniority during activities.
Celebrate & Reflect	Closing the loop reinforces the value. Recognition and storytelling turn one-time acts into living culture.	After each event, share photos and personal takeaways only with opt-in media consent and in line with privacy and retention policies (e.g., blur or exclude minors and delete raw files after 90 days), include who/where/when and consent context in captions, and have Legal/HR review communications before publishing. Invite volunteers to describe what they learned, and thank participants publicly.

Implementation Playbook

Start with one day scheduled within paid work hours, avoid Friday congregational prayer windows, coordinate with shift leads to comply with working time and overtime rules, and provide multiple time slots including options for shift workers. Pick a half-day for a pilot volunteer event that aligns with a need in your community and either restrict it to adult-only partner sites or implement a safeguarding policy with written consent, vetted chaperones with ratios (e.g., 1:10), no one-to-one interactions, clear photo permissions, and defined staff training, and consider an on-campus litter pick MVP to minimize transport and costs. Coordinate with a local partner if available.
Get leadership buy-in by naming an accountable owner, a safety marshal, a facilitator, and a comms/data lead, and ask a senior executive to be the first to grab a trash bag. Have a senior executive champion the event and be the first to grab a trash bag. When the top brass models participation, others will follow enthusiastically.
Equip and brief. Provide the tools or materials (gloves, grabbers, trash bins, paint, closed-toe shoes, high-vis) and kick off with a safety briefing based on a site risk assessment that covers heat index thresholds and shade/hydration, a trained first-aider and kit, waste segregation and confirmed municipal pickup/permits, sharps and safe lifting protocols, emergency contacts, modest, sun-safe attire and gender-sensitive spaces as appropriate, clear task assignments, an incident log, and an estimate of time × loaded cost plus PPE/materials/transport per participant. Set the tone that this is fun and strictly voluntary, with a clear no-penalty opt-out and equivalent on-the-clock alternatives for those who cannot participate.
Mix up the teams. During the event, blend people from different departments or levels to work together in task groups of twelve or fewer with a leader-to-volunteer ratio of about 1:25, a planned duration of 60–90 minutes, a weather fallback plan, and a short facilitator debrief at the end. Encourage lots of informal chatting – this is where surprising ideas and bonds often form.
Make it a structured 6–8 week pilot with 2–4 teams and at most two events, with must-keep elements (mixed crews, leader participation, closing reflection), safe adaptations (site, timing, language), and clear success thresholds (+0.3 on belonging, ≥70% opt-in, and −15% handoff defects) with stop rules if <40% opt-in or safety concerns arise. Don’t let it be a one-off. Aim for a quarterly or biannual “give back day.” Over time, these will become a proud ritual employees anticipate – a part of “how we do things around here.”

Common Pitfalls

Making it mandatory. Compulsory fun isn’t fun. Invite people and inspire them with purpose, but don’t coerce attendance—provide an explicit opt-out with no penalty and equivalent alternatives during the same paid window.
Tokenism or PR spin. Treating a volunteer day as a mere photo-op or skipping the follow-up thanks will breed cynicism. Ensure authenticity by co-designing with community leaders, crediting gotong-royong’s origins in Brunei Malay culture, agreeing on decision rights and benefit-sharing, and being transparent about any PR use.
Ignoring limits. Not everyone is fit to shovel for two hours, so offer light-duty and remote roles (water station, photography, logistics, micro-volunteering) and plan for caregivers, remote and night shifts, and accessibility needs so all can contribute comfortably. Provide accessible transport, shade and restrooms, halal and vegetarian snacks with no alcohol, and schedule around prayer times so all can contribute comfortably.

Reflection & Call to Action

In a high-tech world, sometimes the most powerful team technology is an old-fashioned working party. A morning of gotong-royong reminds us that camaraderie isn’t forged in meeting rooms – it’s forged when people get dirt under their nails together, striving for something beyond themselves. Whether your “village” is a startup or a global division, consider infusing a bit of Bruneian kampong spirit into your team’s routine. Identify a cause everyone can support, schedule a volunteer huddle, and watch what happens when your colleagues see each other not just as co-workers, but as fellow human beings willing to lend a hand. As Bruneians say, muafakat membawa berkat – when everyone unites in effort, blessings (and performance boosts) flow to all. The next move is yours: time to trade that conference call for a community call-to-action, and let shared sweat pave the way to a stronger, more connected team.