Building the Team Culture

The Cube

The Building a Team Culture Workshop enables a team to define and establish the culture needed for top performance and rewarding relationships. Through a carefully sequenced series of unique team challenges and focused, facilitated discussions, the team confronts and addresses opportunities for increased

• Goal Setting
• Planning
• Communication
• Cooperation
• (Appropriate) Risk Taking
• Shared Leadership
• Trust
• Feedback
• Continuous Improvement

Based on their experience, the team creates and commits to a set of Shared Values and Commitments to Action that serve as a touchstone for future relationships and behaviors and provide the basis for peak performance back in the workplace.

Rationale

What makes the Building a Team Culture Workshop so effective?

Spotting for Safety

• Team members experience each other outside of the traditional work setting; they discover new strengths that aid understanding and improved communication back on the job.
• Initial ropes course challenges clearly highlight the team's current dynamics; they provide a starting place for participants to meaningfully discuss what is working (or not), what is needed, and strategies for improvement.
• Subsequent challenges focus on those aspects of teamwork (e.g., trust, communication, leadership, etc.) that your particular team needs to address in a non-threatening, supportive process; participants have the opportunity to practice new skills and behaviors with feedback from those who matter most (i.e., the other team members).
• Team members utilize, troubleshoot, practice and improve in the same key processes that they utilize in the workplace, including Meeting Management, Problem-Solving, Decision-Making, and Continuous Improvement.
• Team members freely discuss and negotiate agreements which will govern their team back on the job; based on their mutual, shared experience, they commit to the roles and behaviors which will make their team succeed.

The Building a Team Culture Workshop is typically conducted at a Challenge Course (see below). Other venues may be arranged as needed; this workshop can also be conducted on your site.

About Challenge Courses

A Challenge Course is a series of obstacles constructed of wood, rope, wire cable, trees, and utility poles and sequenced so as to promote increasing levels of group awareness, involvement, and cohesion.

The Challenge Course (a.k.a., Ropes Course, Team Course, Confidence Course, Adventure Course, etc.) has been an effective tool for promoting team development, improved communication and problem-solving, and individual initiative and self-esteem for several decades.  Originally introduced in the USA as a component of Outward Bound's 30-day wilderness programs in 1963, it reached a broader audience, mostly schools and therapeutic programs, through the work of Karl Rohnke and Project Adventure in the early '70s. 

Since the mid-1980s, the Challenge Course has been used increasingly with other clientele, including Corporate groups.  Progressive companies now incorporate Challenge Course training as a tool to promote increased team performance.

Preview the First Steps Challenge Course here.