At Teamscapes, we’ve been developing experiential learning activities for decades. Some are neat and quick and slot straight into meetings. Others take a little more setting up. Whether they’re indoor, outdoor or online, they all have their own unique qualities which we match to the needs of our clients and what they want to achieve with their people.
For years we rated these activities in level of complexity, with 10 being the most challenging. But what happens when you want to go to 11?
When this became a frequently asked question among a number of our more longstanding clients, we turned our attention to finding the best solutions. We quickly identified that it wasn’t about the length of the activity, or even the complexity. These new challenges required a different dynamic. A heightened level of immersion. We needed to create learning experiences which people get so involved in, they never want to leave. For the time they are in it, they don’t think about learning. They just lose themselves to work together.
We call these activities Teamscapes EXTREME. Here’s just two of them…
The Bridge
There’s an island in the middle of our lake (real island and real lake), but getting your team to it requires a feat of incredible engineering and ingenuity. Working together, you must prototype and test and review as you go, all the while assessing risk and ensuring the safety of each other. What first seems unachievable becomes a moment of collective pride to be remembered. For those that love process and logistics, it’s all encompassing. But it requires the ability to keep human needs and crystal-clear communication at the heart of your operations. Minimum one day activity.
Cold Case
Human remains have been discovered in the grounds of the family home of a prominent MP and the press have got wind of the story. A crack cold case team have been called in to investigate and are against the clock. One group works the control room. One group interviews the suspects. And one group exhumes the remains in the police tent outside. All must co-ordinate their findings correctly to solve the mystery. It demands continual contextualisation of information shared and commands given. Without these, teams fall into silo mentalities which pull them apart. Minimum four-hour activity which must sit within at least a full-day event to ensure learning.
What Teamscapes EXTREME has taught us
There are more Teamscapes EXTREME and we continue to grow our range. But what we’ve learned from turning our dial up to 11 is that these activities are not for the fainthearted. In fact, we only ever propose using them within wider programmes or with teams we have been working with for some time. They are so challenging because people invest so much of themselves in the task at hand. By the end, it really matters.
So, when teammates don’t quite deliver, the cracks can show. Equally, when they succeed together, the euphoria can be incredible.
But whatever the outcome, the learning is always EXTREME!
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