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The Adventure Team Challenge with GO-Adventures

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The Adventure Team Challenge

The following video shows a group engaged in a few activities available in the Adventure Team Challenge – a self-led, station-to-station, rotational team building event that is ideal for large groups whose goal is fun recreational team building. GO-Adventures will select activities that enhance communication, focus on problem-solving skills, and build trust between the members of the team. Following some of the more intense activities, there will be the opportunity for a short debrief to relate the lessons learned through the activity back to the job.

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Here are a couple of activity descriptions to explain what you are seeing in the video:

Airlock
Time Frame: 25 minutes to complete the challenge

Introduction and Guidelines
Your entire team must work together to build a structure that will allow a ball to be rolled from one side of the blue nylon sheet to the other.

  1. Only two participants can be inside the boundary at a time.
  2. A participant must close his/her eyes and hold their breath for the entire time inside the boundary.  Once you run out of air, you must exit the boundary.
  3. Teammates can give direction from outside the boundary, but cannot otherwise assist the participant who is doing the construction.
  4. Once the bridge is complete, the team will roll the ball from one side to the other.
  5. Be sure to completely dismantle the structure before moving on to your next activity.

Hint:
Plan ahead and remember that the more you hold your breath, the more difficult it becomes to complete this problem-solving activity.  Be sure that team members take turns!

Debrief:
What went well?
What could have been improved?
Who stepped up as a leader? What was it about their leadership style that made you want to follow that person?
How is “The Airlock” activity like working within your organization?
What can we take away from this activity about how to more effectively run projects and communicate with one another?

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Minefield

Time Frame: 25 minutes to complete the challenge

Introduction and Guidelines
Working in teams of two, a sighted partner will describe to their blindfolded partner how to safely traverse an area that is littered with obstacles.

Rules:

  1. Divide your group into pairs – one partner wears the blindfold, and the other partner tells him/her how to accomplish the task.
  2. Two blindfolded partners will begin at opposite ends of the minefield (long ends), attempting to cross one another without contact, and continuing to the opposite side of the perimeter.
  3. The sighted partner will communicate to the blindfolded partner how to traverse – however, they can only use verbal commands, and cannot use English (or any other commonly recognized language).  The partners must come up with a new, unique language.
  4. The consequence for touching an obstacle is “losing a limb” – either an arm or a leg becomes immobile.  If you lose all four limbs, you are frozen.
  5. Frozen team members can only be un-frozen when another teammate enters the obstacle course and steps on the rubber chicken.

Hint:
Communication can be any sound that is useful, other than words in English or another common language.  Think of ways to communicate any type of movement – forward, reverse, left, right, long step, short step, etc.  Keep in mind that there will be other teams working at the same time as yours, so things might get a little loud!

Please note:  If a participant has difficulty maintaining his/her balance when wearing the blindfold, the sighted partner can help stabilize the partner from outside the circle – leaning in and giving a hand.

Debrief:
What went well?
What could have been improved?
What were some of the challenges with trying to communicate with your partner and within your group?
For effective communication to take place, what was required of the partners and the team?
How is “The Minefield” activity like working within your organization?
What can we take away from this activity about how to more effectively run projects and communicate with one another?

Beach Ball Bop

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Here’s a fun Energizer activity that anyone can try .

Beach Ball Bop gets participants moving around, working together, planning, communicating and adapting all in one fun and fast-paced game!

What You’ll Need:

  • a flat, grassy area, big enough for the members of your group to move around.  Size of space is dependent on the size of your group.
  • an inflated beach ball.

Setup:

  • Have everyone stand in a circle and introduce the rules of the game.
  • After the game begins, participants can move about to work their plan.

Rules:

  • Everyone in the group must participate.
  • The group is trying to tap the beach ball as many consecutive times as possible without dropping the ball.
  • No “double taps” – each person can only tap the ball one time before someone else hits the ball.
  • The ball must stay above the waist.
  • The ball must remain in motion.
  • If the ball hits the ground, you must start over.

I use this fun activity as a warm-up before getting into more intense problem-solving and communication-focused team building initiatives. Beach Ball Bop introduces components of good teamwork, while remaining fairly relaxed and requiring little trust from the members of the group.

First Rule of Mountain Biking Mastery

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After teaching mountain biking skills for the past 12 years, I’ve come to realize that every skill I teach stems from one underlying principle. Without this one key ingredient, very little can be achieved.

So, if you are getting ready to try mountain biking for the first time, here is my first rule of mountain biking mastery.

Number One Rule – Ride with Confidence

Whether you call it being cautious, nervous or afraid, the hesitation that inevitably follows can give new (and experienced) mountain bikers trouble. The first and last thing I tell new students when they get ready to hit the trails is the importance of being confident. Mountain biking is extremely dynamic. Tight turns, hill climbs, steep descents, rocks and logs – the varied terrain of a typical single-track course means you need to be ready for anything. Split second decisions followed by immediate action/reaction makes the difference between a good day and a bad day on the trail. Get it in your head that you are “a gnarly MTB ninja, who knows all and fears nothing.” Whether it’s true or not doesn’t matter – if you believe it, you can become it – and at the very least you will ride with confidence.

Benefits of Riding with Confidence:

  • When you are confident, you remove the trepidation that can cloud judgment. You anticipate the obstacle that is just around the bend, and you act/react more quickly.
  • Confidence frees us up to ride faster, which makes the rocks less bumpy, creating a more comfortable riding experience.
  • Confidence makes us more likely to try new things, overcome bigger obstacles, and ultimately improve our riding skill.
  • Confidence makes mountain biking more fun!

If you ride with confidence, you WILL BE a better rider.

Remember – “You are a gnarly MTB ninja, who knows all and fears nothing!”

See you on the trail.

GO-Adventures Team Building and Adventure Instruction

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We have gone through each of our team building options and tried to focus on and fine-tune the activities and programs that are most beneficial to our clients. We want to make sure that we are giving you the highest return on your investment as well as giving you a program that will fit your goals and your budget. Here are a few of the highlights:

The Adventure Team Challenge was created for teams whose goals are recreational team building with a small budget. The program works best with teams who already work well together or who are just coming together for the first time. If you are adding a few staff and you want to achieve instant buy-in without the need for deeper team development, then the Adventure Team Challenge is a great fit. Getting ready to begin a new school year, and want an energizer? The Adventure Team Challenge is the team building option that will fit the bill.

PORTABLEteamchallenge

The PORTABLE Team Challenge brings the team building to your location or to a park or retreat center near you. The Portable Team Challenge is a facilitated team building experience – our expert facilitators will sequence activities that are not only fun and challenging, but relevant to your goals, needs and group dynamics. Following most activities, your facilitator will lead the team in a debrief that relates the lessons learned in the activity back to the ‘real world’ of work dynamics and interpersonal relationships.

ROPESchallenge

The ROPES Challenge combines the facilitated team building of the Portable Team Challenge (getting-to-know-you activities, problem-solving initiatives and trust-building exercises) with the individual challenge of the high elements (challenging climbing, traversing or leaping activities that take place up to 40 feet in the air) to create a uniquely powerful team building experience. The accomplishment of the high element portion of the day is often the most memorable and individually satisfying component.

NEXTeamsdevelopment

The NEXTeams Process begins where traditional team building programs end. Designed for teams whose goal is to get to the root of organizational dysfunction and build a foundation of trust that will foster commitment, innovation and higher performance, the NEXTeams Process bridges the gap between team building and ‘teams working’. NEXTeams is “The NEXT Step” in team development. Check out our other professional facilitation services at The NEXTeams Companies website: www.nexteams.com.

Learn more about our different Team Building options…

Marketing a Teambuilding Program Through Social Networks

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As a small business owner, one of my biggest responsibilities is making sure that I am promoting my business to the right people. The goal of course is that this self-promotion will deliver a message that resonates with these people, who will in turn become my clients. Once I have delivered my outstanding service to them, I have no doubt that they will not only continue to work with me, but will be likely to promote me to their own network of friends and business associates. This type of ‘social networking’ should be the goal of every small business.

The greatest challenge I have faced is finding the method that delivers the initial contact with relatively little investment of time or money – the tool that will spread my message to potential clients.

Here are a few of the tools that I currently employ:

  • Facebook – I have a Facebook Page where I post pictures and videos of our wonderful clients.
  • Twitter – Our Twitter account shares links to other resources that we find of interest, in addition to sharing our blog posts, status updates and the occasional humorous anecdote or observation.
  • Blogging – We not only have our own GO-Adventures Blog, but also occasionally write guest blogs for friends and associates.
  • Article Submission – We have recently begun submitting our blog articles to different websites.
  • Online Profiles – In addition to Facebook and Twitter, there are other online profiles that we have tried out, including:

There are undoubtedly hundreds more social networking tools that can help spread the word about our programs, and we’d love to hear from anyone who has had good experience with any of them.

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section

ROPES Course Fun with 7-Eleven

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I facilitated a team building ropes course with a group of distributors from 7-Eleven yesterday, and the program was great fun. I never tire of seeing people bonding over a shared experiential training program. Building cohesion, fostering trust, and simply getting to know one another in a novel environment can be so rewarding – sure beats meeting for drinks after work! (although that always seems to be the follow-up event – go figure!)

Here is a short video of a few of the activities – enjoy!

Learn more about our ROPES Challenge team builder.

Build Trust in 20 Minutes or Less

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As a teambuilding facilitator, I am constantly asking my clients, “what are your goals and expectations for your teambuilding experience.”  Almost without fail, the answer is “increased trust between the members of our team.”

Building a foundation of trust has lasting benefit, long beyond the teambuilding experience.  Trust leads to cohesion, cohesion leads to an environment where team members are willing to take a chance with their ideas and suggestions.  Those fresh ideas often lead to innovation, and an environment that supports innovation is more likely to breed success.  It all begins with trust.

Here’s an activity that doesn’t require much in the way of expert facilitation.  I run it with nearly every group whose main focus is building trust.  The activity  is almost always received positively, and often leads to a rapid gain in vulnerability-based trust.

My Favorite Scar -

Find a quiet place for a discussion.  Frame the activity as a trust activity, and one that should be taken relatively seriously.  Ask your group to select and share a story about one of the following topics:

  • Your favorite scar – where is it and how it happened
  • A funny childhood story
  • The coolest thing that ever happened to you
  • The scariest thing that ever happened to you
  • Something people would be surprised to learn about you

This is not meant to be a therapy session, but the activity does give the group an opportunity to share stories that they might not normally share with their fellow team members.

I always hold a short debrief, often asking quite simply, “what is the value of an activity like this?” and then follow with a quick, fun, moving activity.  For many of my corporate groups, this simple trust activity has been one of the highlights of the day.

Hope it works for you!

Team Building DIY on The National Mall

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Another great team builder with the staff from Charles G. Koch Foundation!

We were called down to the National Mall to run a rotational team building program for 80 staff from the CGK Foundation.  The main goal of the program was to create a sense of unity among the interns and staff of this international organization through the use of a rotational-style of recreational team building event.

The Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation was established in 1980 by Charles G. Koch. The mission of the Foundation is “to advance social progress and well-being through the development, application, and dissemination of the Science of Liberty.”

Birthday Climbing at The Pillar

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We don’t normally take individuals out for a day of climbing, but we decided to “go for it” last weekend.  A young lady had contacted us putting together a “Birthday Climb” for her friend.  I wasn’t doing anything that Saturday, so I agreed to meet them for a few hours.

We had a great time – the girls were great friends who also happened to be very funny, and gave a go at every climb I set for them.  By the end of the day, they were exhausted, but happy – and I imagine they will be back to climb again in the future.

Big Time Fun!

The Pipeline Challenge

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We ran a Portable Team Challenge for the Women’s Soccer team at University of Maryland Baltimore Campus (UMBC) yesterday, and the program was a great success. The goals for the program were to bring the entire team together at the beginning of their season, and give the ladies a chance to build the trust and commitment they would need to be a successful sports team. Naturally, a group of high-functioning athletes were a tough group to challenge physically, but we made up for it with the problem-solving and trust building initiatives. The blindfolded tent-building activity gave the teams a bit of trouble, as it gave everyone a handicap – either lack of sight or lack of speech.

The culminating challenge of the day was “The Pipeline Initiative” in which the group was split into three teams that had to share resources and ideas to create a 35 foot aqueduct of PVC pipes, joints and gutters. The teams built a structure that suspended the aqueduct high enough off the ground that a marble could roll down the entire length of the apparatus without stopping.

Here is a short video of the project – enjoy!

If you’d like to learn how to run your own Pipeline Challenge, check out our description of the activity on Teampedia.net