“The first time I was ever there, I walked out onto the back deck and a bald eagle flew right over my head,” Dantley said. “We did some pretty cool bird watching early in the morning.” Every program includes high-adventure activities. “They’re going to put the team into a situation where there is going to be some natural conflict. They may do a team-challenge course where the person doing the course is blindfolded and they can’t talk. All they have to rely on is the other people – and nobody can say anything, but they’ve got to guide them through this course,” Dantley explained. “At the end of it, the facilitator will do a debrief and ask the person going through the team-challenge course: How did it feel being in that situation where you couldn’t receive information from your team? Then they’ll ask the team members: Because that person going through the course couldn’t talk and you couldn’t talk to them, what were some of the pain points that you all felt?” Then they repeat the activity. “And it’s a totally different experience because everybody can talk and there’s no blindfold,” Dantley explained. “Then we tie it all together and say a lot of time when we’re in work environments, we don’t realize it but we kidnap each other. We say, ‘Go achieve this goal,’ but we don’t give any direction on how to do it. So we tie it into a business lesson.” The team-challenge course can be followed by a more low-impact activity or a high-adventure activity, still tied to a business lesson but not as chesterfieldmochamber.com
strenuous. “We try to balance it to make sure everybody can participate at their comfort level,” said Dantley. Organizations can customize their program with a number of recreational activities – great for small-group team building in a less structured setting said Dantley. Some popular options, among the dozens to choose from, are horseback riding, skeet shooting, archery and ax throwing. If a group has something else in mind, the Trout Lodge team will work with them to make it happen. Some companies also schedule a breakout session or a meeting. Saturday night is dinner followed an evening program that, again, is customized based on the organization’s preferences. Boat floats, moonlight ziplines, dodge ball and astronomy are some of the options. “There are so many different activities we can do,” Jackson said. After breakfast on Sunday, the program culminates with one more big group activity to drive home the lessons of the weekend. “We try to make it very real and tangible for them,” Dantley said. “What does this look like when you bring it back to the workplace on Monday?” Dantley said many organizations are surprised at how effective a team-building experience at Trout Lodge can be at bringing coworkers together to form a more cohesive group, improve productivity and promote greater bonding.
For more information about arranging an enriching team-building experience for your group or company, contact 888-FUN-YMCA or visit troutlodge. org. October-December 2019 | Out & About 27