Outdoor Team Challenge Day

A fast paced outdoor team challenge day incorporating motorised, skills based and bush craft activities.

Event Background

EMG was asked to create an event for 45 employees from one department in a large international bank. There would be a relatively even split of male and female attendees and a mix of ages. The head of the department had a military background so was keen on something active and outdoorsy in the New Forest for his competitive staff.

Event Objectives

The department rarely had the opportunity to spend time together outside of the work place so it was important that the day enabled them to bond as a team and develop their understanding of how to work effectively as both individuals and as part of a team. In order to get the most out of the day it was also key that the participants remained engaged at all times. In short the five main objectives of the day would be:

• Team bonding
• Communication
• High level of engagement
• Fun
• Active

EMG’s Proposal

EMG proposed an outdoor team challenge day, just outside of the New Forest National Park at the Hamptworth Estate. The day would incorporate a mix of nine motorised, skills based, problem solving and survival activities that would challenge participants both mentally and physically. While it was a priority that the day had a strong focus on physical activities, it was also important to incorporate some skills based and problem solving activities so that teams could really work on their communication abilities. The wide mix of activities would cater for different strengths and weaknesses within each team and encourage the use of various skills sets.

Each team would have a maximum of five people including a team leader to encourage a high level of participation and the activities would be kept a secret in order to create suspense and excitement. To keep guests engaged and working together they would be responsible for themselves, using 2-way radios, a colour coded map and an activity matrix to navigate to the right activity area at the right time.

Each team would be scored out of 10 in the two following areas for each activity:

• Skill and proficiency at completing the activity as briefed
• Team spirit and team work demonstrated during the activity (regardless of how successful the end result was)

Event Outline

10.30 All of the guests come together at the central meeting point where they are given a briefing and handed their team packs containing a camera, 2-way radios, a map, compass and an activity matrix.

11.00 – 12.45 First three activity rotations. Guests must find their way to each of their activities using their maps, compasses, 2-way radios and matrix. Teams are responsible for their own time management.

12.45-13.20 Packed lunch at activity station three. By giving the participants lunch on the go, we were able to maintain their focus on their team and on the task at hand. Lunch in the wilderness also created a sense of adventure and of going back to basics!

13.30-17.00 Rotations four to nine. Again guests had to find each of the activities themselves and were not given advanced warning of what they would be doing at each location.

17.00-17.15 All of the teams regrouped back at the central meeting point for a short debrief. The teams were asked to think about their favourite activity of the day and the why to encourage the whole group to share and compare their experiences.

19.45 The results of the day were revealed to the group over dinner, while a dvd of their day was played on a large screen.

The activities that the participants completed on the day were:

Stretcher
Each group had to nominate a member of their team to lie on a mountain rescue stretcher and be carried by the rest of the team through a designated course. Following this, the group had to carry a box containing a tray of tennis balls through a challenging course without losing any of the balls. A great challenge for communication, concentration and strategy.

Fire Lighting
Friction by fire is a skill that is becoming a distant memory in modern day life. Each team was challenged to produce fire using traditional methods such as flint and steel, bow and drill and also the hand drill technique. A hugely satisfying activity!

4 x 4 Off-Roading
The 4×4 off-road driving course is set within 260 acres of Hamptworth Estate and features muddy pits, unnerving slopes and steep ascents and descents. Team members had to navigate the course in either a Land Rover Defender or Discovery with a fully qualified instructor onboard to guide them. The unnerving course really tested team trust!

Bridge Build
Each team was given the same equipment, including lashings, ropes and poles and was required to design and build a bridge over a designated area that would let them reach the other side. An activity that really got teams thinking and working together.

Air Rifles
Each team had the chance to hone their shooting skills on various targets and then entered into a scoring round, which uncovered the competitive streak in a number of people!

Canister Retrieval
Another tricky problem solving activity. Each team was given tools including thin rope, bungee cord, karabiners and pegs etc, which they had to use to retrieve a canister from within a hazard taped area that no-one was allowed to enter.

Mobile High Ropes
This piece of equipment stands 13 metres of the ground and offers a series of low and high balance beams, a leap of faith and a crate stacking challenge. Teams had to support each other mentally and physically to reach the top.

Archery
Like air rifle shooting, this is a skills based activity. Teams first had a practice round to learn the techniques involved in archery and then entered into a scoring round to win the most points for their team.

Apache Buggy Racing
The aim of the activity was to compete for the fastest lap time. The teams were given the ‘Stig’s’ lap time as a target that they should try to reach. The skill base for this activity is timing, handling, control, listening and observation. Although this is an individual activity, all of the individual scores were added to give a team score.

Event Overview

All of the activities involved required the participants to work individually and as part of a team. Throughout the course of the day each of the participants had to use elements of co-ordination, strength, communication, strategic thinking and trust. While on face value this was an incredibly enjoyable and energetic event full of fun activities, at its core it was a really effective team building event.

The Client Perspective

Thank you so much for all your help both in the run up to, and also managing on the day, the internal offsite last week. We have had really fantastic feedback from the host and the participants. One guy said it was the best event he had ever been on! I relayed to the other event teams how well it all went and recommended it as an EMG event.”

 

 

“The Italian job team was a hilarious, fun packed team building exercise full of problems to solve and challenges to complete. This was the first time a number of our remote team had met face to face and it was the perfect activity to break the ice and get people working together.”

“The team at EMG is passionate about enhancing our ‘guest journey’ and constantly take the time to understand our guests’ objectives in order to seamlessly deliver the most creative and engaging events.”

“Just a quick thank you for all your help in making this event such a success…the feedback has been excellent. It was a real pleasure (but unfortunately something of a rarity) to deal with people who actually know what they are doing!”

“EMG is an excellent company to partner with in order to support team growth and development. We have used them on several occasions…the results have always been excellent.”

“We’ve worked with EMG for more than five years, not only do they provide engaging and exciting events but the service supplied mirrors that offered by ourselves to our guests… making EMG an ideal partner.”