· Team building - why extreme sports bring people closer (2016)
Extreme events are by their nature transformational. Everybody's journey must involve transformation, otherwise we can never grow. Extreme events, and certainly those with favourable outcomes, have an opening effect on us as individuals If you go with the assumption that the effect on the individual doing extreme sports is generally a favourable outcome, then we come out of those crazy minutes hours & days out more relaxed, open, calm. content with ourselves, more up for interaction. If you see yourself in a different light, chances are you'll be open to seeing others in a different light.
The collective benefit of extreme events are more obvious, if you go through something together, you make connections with each other. Extreme tasks that can be completed only as a group are the most striking example. “We get it together or fail together”. You need each other for the win, so you have settle for the people around you, rather thanthe company you’d choose. Accepting people out of necessity goes a long way towards accepting people for what they are, high performance teams find value in everyone in order to succeed
We get a fair amount of works outings to Adrenalin Quarry, and whether their intention is team building or a good day out, the effect is usually the same. The go getters have to work with the slackers, they can’t cover for them, they can’t do the work for them and they can’t do it without them.
There’s usually a few alpha types talking a good fight at 10.00am, they can piss everybody off, but the team needs them like it needs everyone else. You also need people to put the brakes on and to go with the flow, otherwise the team would come unglued before coffee.
In general, the more unusual the day, the further removed it is from the team’s daily grind, greater the effect it’s going to have on the participants. Our best results have been from people who had no idea what they were getting into but had massive expectations. Babcock Marine and NHS teams tell us that everything looks different after a day’s solid punishment at Adrenalin Quarry.
Good luck, you’ll need it.