While darkness creates fear and anxiety in people, it can also offer opportunities to build trust - something that has become the trump card for a new development training company in Beijing.

The Dark Workshop, a Chaoyang-based company that provides development training for staff members and senior business managers, claims to have been the first company in the country to introduce "development training in the dark".

There are a few companies in Beijing providing outdoor development training, but Dark Workshop is the only one that bases its indoor training on using darkness, a technique it introduced to the market a year ago.

The workshop uses darkness to explore not only the physical potential of participants but also their mental and spiritual potential, according to Wang Suying, the company's operations director.

It is very easy to build a sense of trust in an unusual environment such as total darkness, according to Wang, whose development training program usually has two parts: experiencing darkness in a specially built room and discussing the experience later in the light. The process takes about half a day.

"In the dark, people tend to rely more on each other and are more willing to help each other. Most of our participants start to walk hand in hand before they even go into the black space," Wang told METRO.

Being in total darkness is a new experience for people and encourages them to bond with other team members and to learn to communicate effectively without direct eye contact. Wang's workshop also provides tailor-made services for companies that have different requirements, such as leadership training or team building.

During the sessions, participants have about an hour to brainstorm before starting a series of training exercises in the dark. Without revealing too much about the content, Wang gave an example of one session in which small groups of participants must build models with Lego bricks.

"We only show the team leaders what the models look like before we dismantle them and get the groups to rebuild them," she said.

"The first team to build the models back to what they were wins."

Wang said the success rate for the rebuilding is very low.

After the darkness training, the coaches, usually blind people, host a joint session, which lasts at least 90 minutes, during which participants share their experiences of working in the dark with the other team members. Most people enjoy these sessions because they have formed stronger bonds with each other after attempting a series of challenging tasks, which force them to use all their senses except sight.

Since the darkness sessions began in April 2010, the workshop has provided training for several well-known enterprises in Beijing and several provinces. The sessions also build teamwork for the workshop's staff members.

A few weeks ago, Wang and her team provided training sessions for a company in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province. There were 10 people (including six part-time workers) in the team and all except Wang were visually impaired.

"Before we went we all realized it was going to be a challenge, but we were very excited that we finally made it," she said.

Wang's visually impaired staff members have worked for associations for disabled people or other charity organizations, so their contacts have mostly been confined to other visually impaired people.

Xu Jia, a woman in her 20s, rarely heard cheerful conversation when she worked for a charity organization in Xicheng district, as visually impaired people are usually quiet.

"Now I can chat with smart people, and I can teach them something. It's unbelievable," Xu said.

China Daily

(China Daily 04/28/2011)