Published: Feb 17, 2017

Benefits of Adventure Based Programs for Team Building

Sometimes when I discuss team building experiences with new clients or someone in a casual conversation they think of trust falls, burlap sack races, or a scavenger hunt. While all of those do have merit, that’s not our approach. Swiftwater Adventures takes an adventure based approach to team building in the Duluth, MN area. We offer adventures in addition to rafting catered to your groups’ physical, cognitive, and creative abilities. Whether your custom experience is more physical, or more on the cognitive side of things, or a healthy mix our goal is always to have fun while we grow as a team.

The goal of this blog is to help us understand the immediate and lasting benefits of adventure based programming, in this case whitewater rafting on the St. Louis River and more! Let’s jump in!

Fun and engaging challenges focused on achieving a common goal is our main theme at Swiftwater for team building trips. Safety is of course our number one priority, as our adventures are all guided, with our lead facilitator involved throughout, yet there is just enough calculated risk to keep everyone engaged. Most of our adventures require some physical element, such as hiking or paddling. Regardless of the level of physicality our adventures always have a cognitive and creative problem solving element to them

Let’s also accept the fact that you probably work a lot. Work can be hard and exhausting sometimes so if you and your team can have some fun while you challenge your selves then why not?!

Teams are forced to delegate responsibilities, cooperate and contribute in adventure based programming. A successful team assigns clear and defined goals and roles for the team. Through balanced participation and cooperation team members can successfully take on any challenge. Our challenges (whitewater rafting on the St. Louis River is just one of them) are designed in such a way that without designated roles and cooperation success is elusive: participants must work together.

Utilizing creative problem solving in an adventure setting helps your team value its diversity of people and ideas, foster more innovative thinking while under pressure, and helps participants find success outside of their comfort zone.

Build relationships, trust and respect and open communication through fun adventures by working towards a clear and common goal. This can be especially true if your team has several new members. Regardless of whether your team has several new members or you have all known each other for years, being immersed in a new environment and facing new problems will require open communication and cooperation to succeed. All of which fosters trust and respect, which must be earned.

Forge a team while creating a memorable experience through fun and challenging adventures. Not only can we supply your company with a fun adventure but new experiences tend to create lasting memories and something that your team can look back and reflect on.

Adventure based programming is a fun way to grow as a team and make memories!

Swiftwater Adventures can offer more exciting and engaging team building adventures to pair up with whitewater rafting through our sister company Evolve Endeavors.

Category(s): Blog Posts