Character Building Activities on Expedition

Most would agree that modern day companies and corporations operate in a sort of “canned environment”, where fluorescent lighting and official protocols effect and determine behavior and human interaction. Taking your staff out of this “prefab” environment and throwing them into a wilderness environment can therefore do a great deal to help your team break out of their office boxes and come together as a true team unit.  Character building activities, on expedition, don’t always have to mean a period of ‘dedicated labour’ towards a task, have a look at the following points:

Quality Time

Short of lunchtime chitchat and breaks around the water cooler, most corporate employees do not have much of an opportunity to get to know their co-workers as people. By stripping away the regular office duties and placing your staff in a rustic wilderness environment that does not offer many modern distractions (i.e. – internet, ipod, etc.), your employees will have a rare occasion to take their time and talk with one another on a deeper level.

Team Building

An expedition environment offers many challenges that an office environment does not. In rustic settings, meeting even the most basis necessities of life requires full cooperation by all involved. For example, before the sun goes down, shelters must be constructed, a fire must be made and food must be gathered or hunted, then cooked. If the entire team does not contribute to the effort, it will be a very cold and uncomfortable night for all. The understanding your company’s employees will gain about the importance of teamwork in the wilderness will translate into a more comprehensive understanding of the importance of teamwork in the office.

In addition to the learning about how each team member must do their part to ensure the well-being of the team as a whole, your employees will learn to trust one another at a completely new level. Many situations such as rock climbing, river rafting and survival training scenarios require that you quite literally put your life into the hands of your teammates. Once a co-worker has belayed you up the face of a steep mountain, you will never be able to look at them the same. A team that trusts each other is far more productive than a team that always has to watch their backs. Wilderness or expedition environments are one of the best places for corporations to build this kind of trust between employees.

Rest, Relaxation and Play

A company and its employees come together to do one thing, namely, work. While this is obvious and good, it can also lead to an office environment that lacks vigor and the spirit of playful camaraderie that is known to foster creativity and productivity. Taking your employees out of the 9 to 5 grind and letting them loose to play in outdoor environs is a great way to generate the high morale that makes for an enthusiastic work force.

In addition, workers can become overstressed when they are constantly needing to make deadlines and deal with a wide array of customer concerns and complaints. Giving your employees the chance to get out into the outdoors where they can breathe clean air and de-stress for a while, will rejuvenate your work force and enable them to give 100% when they get back to the office.

As you can see character building activities, on expedition or in wilderness environments, doesn’t always have to be the typical ‘made up chain of events’ that most coporate days out offer, by just being in remote and challenging environments can bring out the qualities you want to see in your team.

Corporate time out is not cheap.  The company suffers from missing its staff for the duration of the expedition or training event, the company has to fund the actual event itself and then it could all be a waste of time.

Why would it be a waste of time?  One very important aspect is the leadership of the event itself.  The expedition leader must be the right kind of person to help your guys benefit the most from their character building activities.  On expedition there will be tough times and the wrong kind of leader can make matters worse by dividing the group, by making individuals suffer more than necessary, by not addressing inter-group or personel conflict correctly, etc.

Always check thoroughly the background of not only the company offering you the event but the team they will have there running it.

Here is some more expedition news where we start to look at dietary requirements and health.

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