"What direction do you want to go in?" |
|
 |
|
|
On the Ropes Imagine yourself standing at the bottom of a cliff, staring straight up. No way, you tell yourself, can you ever reach the top. Now imagine yourself, an hour later, looking back down the way you came, knowing you and your fellow team members have just accomplished something you once thought impossible. It could make your whole day. And for an increasing number of businesses and organizations, such hands-on team-building makes year-round economic sense… Called by several names, including experiential education and adventure training, this hands-on approach to corporate team building – though not a new idea – has caught on rapidly in recent years. The Adolph Coors Company of Colorado has been using the outdoors to build employee teams for 25 years… The details differ from program to program, but the underlying principle behind this type of training is the same: people learn best by doing. Picking up where inspirational lectures and seminars leave off, the adventure-oriented activities provide the essential hands-on, how-to element… Though many first-timers approach the idea with some apprehension, their fears are groundless, says Bob Callahan, co-founder of Adventure Alternatives, a Virginia Beach-based training company. “People set their physical and psychological limits too low. Their limits are much higher and stronger and more dynamic than they know.” …corporate team-building of this kind is not some kind of endurance-based survival training, nor is it first cousin to a military boot camp. “An obstacle course with a drill instructor is not what it is,” Callahan emphasizes. “You don’t go straight to Mt. Everest.” Programs start slowly, developing confidence and basic skills, and gradually build toward greater challenges. Needs assessment, goal-setting and on-going progress evaluation are part of every program. Specific activities are selected to match each group’s differing needs and circumstances. By the end of the day, inhibitions and fears have bee left behind, and people are doing things they never dreamed they could… Callahan and his partner Tim Robinette recently returned from leading a group of executives through a four-day canoeing adventure in Ontario. Other expeditions have taken the company to the Everglades and the Outer Banks. Both men have more than twenty years of experience in the outdoor training field… Since success depends on the whole team working together to accomplish each task, trust and cooperation are fundamental to the process. Participants typically come away with increased problem-solving and planning skills, as well as a significant boost in self-esteem. And once the adventure is over benefits continue to accrue, as companies harness new attitudes and new skills and put them to work within their own organizations. Some programs, of course, are more physically demanding than others. Adventure Alternative’s programs frequently include sea kayaking, climbing, and caving, sometimes all in a single three- or four-day trip. Other programs favor a go-home-at-night approach, with day-long events at a single location. “We can do our activities anywhere,” Callahan says, “in your backyard, in our backyard, in a conference room.” Programs are tailored to the individual group. In planning a simple ropes and initiatives course, for example, facilitators can choose from 60 or 70 different activities. Even for the lengthier outdoor adventures, athletic prowess is not required… Participants may find themselves dangling at the end of a rope, but they’ll never find themselves out of reach of a helping hand. Many activities are designed to be impossible for one person to complete alone. In these circumstances, team work is not just helpful, it’s necessary. Striving together, drawing on member’s individual strengths, the team works as a cooperative unit to get all of its members through the activity, whether crossing a log bridge or traversing rope bridges strung from tree to tree. The team succeeds only when all members succeed. And they do. “We’ve had people from age 14 to 80,” Robinette says, “under and overweight, and everything in between, and we’ve never had anybody have any particular difficulty.” As teamwork develops, skills such as leadership, communication and planning emerge… “Nature is our partner,” Callahan says. He and Robinette both started out with business degrees and have more than 15 years of experience as probation and parole officers. Callahan …designed a wilderness program for the courts system, as well as staff and training retreats. The two met in the ‘70’s when Robinette attended one of Callahan’s ropes courses. By the mid ‘80’s, they were doing corporate training together… Adventure Alternatives, which works extensively with juveniles, has a growing list of corporate clients that include the cities of Hampton and Chesapeake, the Department of the Navy, General Electric and several hospitals… Both small companies and major corporations can benefit from the results of action –oriented team building programs… “Everyone needs it,” [Callahan] explains. “Everyone needs doors opened in their life.” Most people walk away from a course, he says, thinking “if I can do this, I can do anything.” And that’s the whole point. |
| Home | |