Adventure Team Building Program Helpful Definitions

Experiential: the concept of "learning by doing" is an integral component of all adventure-based team development programming. "Doing" is seldom enough, however. By our facilitation of activities, experiences yield rich learning opportunities in real-time.

Needs Assessment: the process we undertake to understand your group, its developmental needs, the culture of your team environment and the overall objectives for your team development program. This information is gathered and verified by interviews or telephone conversations.

Ropes Course: a series of engineered activities safely built using modern building materials. There are essentially two types of activities at the ropes course: High activities are challenging, invigorating and typically oriented towards individual achievement while Low activities are typically oriented towards developing group problem-solving, team communication and planning skills.

Progression and Sequence: in order to achieve the maximum level of effectiveness from your day at the ropes course, we take special care and consideration to develop a progression and sequence of events that is closely in alignment with the days learning objectives. By identifying and following the proper progression and sequence, we can provide the appropriate level of team and individual challenge throughout the program.

Facilitated: all of the events at the ropes course are facilitated by our skilled staff. Depending on your team's learning objectives, activities are facilitated differently. For certain objectives, direct "front loading" of important information is required prior to any action. For others, a skilled "debrief" after the activity is all that's necessary. During the needs assessment we ascertain the appropriate level of facilitation for your group based upon your key learning objectives.

Base Environment: the "normal" environment that your team operates in is considered the base environment. In order to effectively serve your group, we need to have a deep understanding of what it's like to be on your team. Developing this understanding will help us to effectively focus the learning objectives on the transfer of knowledge back to the base environment.

Transfer: the process of identifying key learning's in a remote setting and identifying opportunities to bridge the gap between a training environment and the "normal" working environment. Transfer, and our ability to effectively do so, is heavily dependent upon a thorough needs assessment.

Strategic Initiatives (SI's): mobile ropes course activities that can be done almost anywhere, indoors or out, in a conference room or at a park. SI's are offered to clients who are unable to readily travel to our main ropes course training facility on the UC Berkeley campus.

Our Facilitators: trained leaders who understand group dynamics, the world of business, and issues/trends in training and organization development.

Strategic Plan: the process of clarifying and developing a clear, directional road map for your team or organization. By building on the work done in the mission and vision clarification process, we help you develop a comprehensive road map to the future that encompasses concepts such as developing and managing your resources (human and otherwise), recognizing your place in a competitive marketplace, facilities and systems use and engineering, and realistically assessing your organizations assets and liabilities.

Long-term team Development: understanding that few teams are at the end of their development process, creating an awareness of where your team is going is an important part of any development process. Team building services are best utilized at a specific point along a team's long-term development plan.

Mission and Vision Clarification: what's important to your team members and the supporting organization? Are all parties sharing the same mission, vision and purpose? We design and facilitate sessions that are geared towards developing a shared, synthesized understanding of the work your group is undertaking. Clarifying these important concepts will result in a more cohesive group effort.

Group Problem-solving: too often members of a group aren't able to draw on the experiences and skills of their colleagues. By designing and utilizing activities that highlight the importance of working together before taking action, powerful lessons of collaboration can be learned and internalized in a short period of time.

Goal Setting: the setting of realistic, challenging and attainable goals and recognizing potential success factors and challenges is a rewarding process for a team to engage in. By understanding the implications of the goals we set, we are better suited to meet the challenges that are inherent in achievement.