Ropes Course

I have this really awesome team at work that works for me that typifies the 'work hard, play hard' attitude. I will leave the ugly work details out of this blog entry. But the play hard part of our propensity brought us to a ropes course at Colorado State University on September 2, 2011.

The first thing I need to say is, being that high off the ground is a great equalizer. It just doesn't feel natural. So anyone who pushes beyond what they believe their limits may be deserves applause. Everyone on my team did just that and we all walked away from the day learning more about ourselves and our team.

The two things I personally had to muster the courage for was a leap of faith and a blindfolded walk. I did the blind fold walk first. It was 28 feet in the air. I climbed without sight and transitioned to a small platform. From there I blindly stepped off onto a telephone pole that I walked horizontally across until reaching the other side. Little did I know that the horizontal pole I was walking on tapered thinner as I walked! The leap of faith I had to climb a telephone pole that was about 16 feet high. I stood on top of it and launched myself out to catch a trapeze bar.

I am happy to say I was successful in all of my challenges and required a little more from myself than I would have imagined. That is the thing about team building. I had people on the ground encouraging me and helping me go farther than I would have on my own. I was genuinely happy for each person on my team who achieved and accomplished throughout the events of the day. Too often companies don't remember the importance to let teams achieve together outside of the workplace. My team was already a good team, now they will be even better.

I wrote this blog today only as a reminder that even during recession-like times, an investment in people can give the biggest returns. Sometimes I think we lose sight of that. September 2, 2011 was not one of those days. Not all team building has to cost money. We did a geocaching challenge in the Spring and once a quarter play a board game instead of a staff meeting, both of which cost us virtually nothing.

So what's next? Well we have talked about white water rafting, trap shooting, ghost hunting and snowshoeing. If any of that sounds like fun, get your waivers signed and do some real team building with your own teams. There is no better way to build trust in the work place than having someone hold a rope that will keep you from a 30 foot fall to the ground.