You've Got High Hopes

A good Team building exercises challenge teams to rethink their dynamic. Individuals learn to stretch themselves and to engage their coworkers in a way that they had never perhaps been forced to previously.

What does software development and rock climbing have in common? At first glance, not much. On second glance not much. However, if you listen to companies like Adventure Links you'll soon discover that rock climbing can be good for the software team's soul. After all, successful teams require trust. What better way is there to demonstrate that trust than having your teammates hold your lifeline as you're dangling thirty feet in the air?

Team building exercises challenge teams to rethink their dynamic. Individuals learn to stretch themselves and to engage their coworkers in a way that they had never perhaps been forced to previously. Allowing them that time outside their usual paradigm also allows them a venue for growing their expectations of themselves or others. Trusting someone to turn in his or her assignment on time so that you may start yours is a far stretch from trusting someone to hold you steady as you scale a rock wall. The former requires the minimal and the latter requires an act of faith. If, however, you are able to place faith in your teammate to hold you aloft as you scale new physical heights, it will be all the more easier to place that same amount of faith in them to help you scale personal heights. Bringing a team into a situation where they are forced to problem-solve and face extreme demands as a group will bear fruit on team collaboration and promote a shared vision.