Outdoor Team Building

What kind of Outdoor team building activities are there?

For many years, if you thought of corporate team building one of the first images that might come up in your mind would be the outdoor adventure type, where you see groups of people well out of their comfort zones canoeing down a river, building a raft and trying in vain to get it over a river before falling in - hauling their tired bodies up a rock tethered to each other or perhaps struggling over an assault course. That is still the bedrock of the outdoor team building activity selection, people achieving difficult tasks together and building a team through the experience. But there is a far more extensive range than before and they can serve more targeted purposes.

There are many regions of the UK which offer perfect locations for outdoor team building, including Snowdonia in Wales , the Peak District in Derbyshire, the Lake District in the north of the country as well as the Yorkshire Dales. These aren't the only regions, but really the location is only a small part of your decision. You should be looking at the expertise of the company that offers the team building, their safety cover and record, and the level of service that can be offered. Outdoor team building events can last from a few hours to almost 10 days, and can be run for groups as small as 5 up to groups as large as 120.

The list of outdoor events that can be attempted is very long, but we can have a go at it here: You can choose from rock climbing, kayaking, ghyll scrambling, mountain biking, canoeing, orienteering, archery, horse riding, mountain days, trout fishing, hillwalking, wide games, ridge scrambling, zip wire, wide games, potholing, caving, sailing, pony trekking, pontoon building, camping, bivouacking, guided mountaineering, map reading, search and rescue exercises, night navigation and many more.

Now, one of the main worries of people who take part in outdoor team building is what can happen safety-wise. You are doing tasks which are dangerous - there is no doubt. This is one of the key differentiators of companies that offer outdoor team building. You should make sure that the company is licensed to offer outdoor activities by the Adventure Activities Licensing Authority. They will have their procedures and their practices inspected regularly in order for you to make sure that the operations are safe. The instructors that are put in charge of the groups need to be highly qualified and you should find out what their personal experience is and what their instructional experience is. You could do the same activity but with the wrong company or with the wrong instructor and get far less out of it.