The Challenge Course

A Challenge Course by definition is a series of individual challenges and group problem solving initiatives designed to develop teamwork skills and individual confidence. Ideally, the entire course provides a context in which significant interpersonal learning takes place. Each understanding gained on the course is a stepping-stone to greater competency and growth.

The purpose of a Challenge Course is to identify and develop the participants’ behaviors and attitudes so that together they optimize the group’s collective force. The process of identifying and developing such behaviors requires some degree of emotional and physical risk taking. Taking a risk by stepping out of one’s “comfort zone” is not always easy. But the fact is that no one learns anything of substantial importance without taking a risk.

.As each new experience builds on the “learning’s” from the previous event, then real “life changing” learning takes place. But in order to be effective, team members must first establish bedrock's of trust. When deep personal thoughts and feelings are shared honestly and respectfully, the impact on the individual and the group is far-reaching and beneficial. As mutual trust develops among members both the individuals and the team itself become better prepared to tackle more challenging events and issues.

What is a team?
In essence, a team is a group of people who work together to achieve a desired outcome. The complexity of relationships within a team is like a work of art – beautiful and inspiring when a state of synergy exists - disturbing when there is chaos and unresolved conflict. In theory, a team is formed whenever more than on person is required to accomplish a task. People become a true team when they work together interdependently and synergistically to accomplish something. In this sense, an organization that consists of thousands of employees can be considered a team. In terms of immediate control and communication however, teams usually are limited to approximately twelve to fifteen people.

What is Teamwork? Teamwork is a series of behaviors in a group that are complementary and mutually reinforcing. These behaviors make it possible for the team to produce products or concepts that could not have been produced by the same people working independently. People who are working toward a common goal will begin to pull together. When they do, the sum of their individual efforts is magnified, in some cases geometrically. This shift from an individual to a collective force is what teamwork is all about.

Experiential Learning

People first experience, and then assign meaning to their experiences through language. Words fail to express the deepest levels of human experience. One can grasp only approximately the essence of another’s firsthand experiences. Experiential learning goes beyond the limitations of language to deeper levels of meaning that words cannot express.

Words such as respect, cooperation and mutual support often are used to describe good teamwork. Although it may be easy to discuss the concepts behind good teamwork, it is more difficult to tell someone how to put those terms into practice. Each “teach-able moment” of team-building session provides an opportunity for the facilitator to build on previous learning. It is the willingness and skill of the team members themselves that moves the team-building process forward.

A facilitator’s intervention cannot be planned in advance. The facilitator’s input is part of a dynamic process that resonates with the team members’ support or resistance and their level of interest in “playing the game”. Because a participant’s learning is initially internalized you cannot measure it. You can’t even explain it. But two weeks later or two months later, something happens and one thinks, “Oh, now I get it!” The members themselves participate, give input, and make it happen! To learn by experience, one has to experience first, then reflect on the experience to extract the learning. In experiential learning, the learner actually educates himself or herself taking responsibility for learning in each activity.

Experiential Training Techniques
In experience-based team building, people learn teamwork by attempting to complete tasks together. A skilled facilitator can tell from the participants’ faces that they are indeed involved in the learning process and that each has a personal stake in the learner, learners stretch themselves in unexpected ways. At the end of the course the participants depart with a sense of satisfaction at having accomplished something meaningful. This kind of satisfaction can be achieved only if the learners are empowered, not lectured.

The empowerment of participants occurs in stages. First, the learners are presented with a situation where the solution may or may not be obvious. What is important is that the activities challenge the participants’ stated aspiration. Such a challenge motivates the participants to respond collectively, thus banding together to reach a solution.

At the conclusion of the exercise, the group will be jubilant with its success or frustrated by its failure. As the participants examine what took place and the roles that each played in the exercise, deeper levels of understanding will be achieved and shared. Before the day begins, participants are asked to define their goals and learning objectives. During a period of reflection at the end of each exercise, progress toward these goals is discussed. When members are indeed making progress toward a goal, their sense of competency receives a boost.

Your Team Wins™ Challenges you to take your team to the top!