Team-building tools effective, November 10,
2006, 2D.
Effective and productive teams work together well.
Effective teams are composed of members who trust each other
and who collectively work together overcoming problems and
difficulties in pursuit of their goals. Important skills
like communication, problem-solving, critical thinking,
influence, teamwork, and leadership are needed for groups to
perform at their maximum.
Groups
and teams are made up of individuals—the two cannot be
separated. Confidence and a desire to excel in individual
members typically results in groups that are confident and
willing to achieve high levels of performance. Through the
success that they gain accomplishing individual challenges,
members support, encourage, and prompt their teammates on to
higher levels of performance and confidence.
It
should be the goal of every manager and organizational
leader to have teams that perform well and that are made up
of members who trust and support each other. Such teams can
be developed within organizations through on-the-job
experiences and/or in-house training programs. Training can
also occur in a variety of off-the-job arenas. One popular
and successful program for developing critical teamwork,
leadership, and organization skills is through outdoor ropes
challenge courses.
Typically, ropes challenge courses have two sets of
activities—low elements and high elements. Low elements
challenges include activities that require individuals to
work together to solve and complete assigned tasks. Helping
team members across a self-constructed bridge, arranging
members by birthday while standing on a log, and guiding
teammates on blindfolded trust walks are some of the
activities that help promote trust, cooperation, and
teamwork. For groups that are more adventurous, ropes
challenge course facilitators can guide teams through trust
falls (where members fall backwards off of a small tower
into the arms of their teammates) or activities that involve
getting teammates up and over a wall. Low elements
activities foster and promote teamwork, trust,
communication, problem solving, and other important group
and leadership skills.
High
ropes challenge course elements involve leaving the comfort
of the ground to individually climb up and traverse
telephone-like poles and cables 30-40 feet up in the air or
climbing a tower and rappelling back down—while securely
harnessed to safety lines. The challenge for individuals on
high ropes elements is to mentally overcome the anxiety that
comes from being off the ground. The rewards that
individuals receive from completing high elements challenges
include a sense of accomplishment from succeeding at
something that seemed difficult, overcoming fears, and
stretching personal limits and expectations.
The
Abilene area is fortunate to have several nearby ropes
courses. Camp Tonkawa and Camp Butman, both right outside
of Abilene, have high and low elements courses as well as
the Texas 4-H Center in Brownwood and the Big Country
Baptist Assembly in Lueders. Abilene I.S.D. maintains a
local low elements course. For an unusual, fun, and “out of
the box” teamwork and leadership development experience,
consider taking a group to a ropes challenge course—you will
find it well worth the time and energy invested.
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