Corporate Events in The Lake District. Ghyll Scrambling in Borrowdale. Thursday 9th April 2015.

After a busy Easter period, we enjoyed a few days off before returning to the fray with our first Corporate Development Training Event in The Lake District of the 2015 season.

Photo one sees the first successful intake of the 2015 cohort to join the Nucleargraduates Apprentice-ship Scheme. Here, they are about to join Iain on a Ghyll Scrambling Session in Borrowdale in The Lake District.

So can outdoor activities really be used for development objectives? The answer is - yes! - depending on how you structure the activity session!

Nucleargraduates have been coming to us since 2011when they realised that the activity they had been using hadn't been delivering the objectives for which it was being employed. What were those obectives? well, successful recruits to the Nucleargraduates Apprentice Scheme first get to meet each other at the organisation's "welcome workshops". Nucleargraduates wanted an activity that would facilitate team building and the formation of bonds of friendship and trust that would start here and last through the period of apprentice-ship during which many of the applicants who meet here, will be working alongside each other for the Nucleargraduates Sponsor Organisations.

Our remit is to therefore provide an environment which will facilitate these objectives and so our Ghyll Scrambling Sessions have been designed to impell these young people into a situation where they have to work together and help each other as they make progress up the ghyll.

As with all of our Ghyll Scrambling Sessions in The Lake District, everyone is well equipped with  a wetsuit, cagoule, buoyancy aid, helmet & harness before we start.

The instructor then does an introduction - setting the scene and outlining the aims & objectives for the session.

The aim is the achievement of forming bonds of trust and friendship. The objective is to facilitate this through the group working together as much as possible with coaching, where necessary, by us. The session is not instructor led but group led for maximum impact.

Our role is to be there and direct - but only where necessary; and mainly from the point of view of safety . We will only get involved in the devopment process where we deem it necessary should it be observed that the group are failing to work together as well as they might. We find this can often be the case at the start of the session.

As well as providing an environment for team and individual development, we consider that the environment should be fun, but also challenging for individuals. Therefore, we will "throw in" opportunities for challenge on occasion such as this waterfall which the whole group could have avoided.

Individuals do react differently to the challenge of perceived danger - in this case falling from hieght even whilst securely belayed through use of a harness & safety rope. The idea is to help individuals develop a pragmatic and positive approach to challenge realising that fear is nearly always worse than reality and that with perseverance, peer support and teamwork obstacles can be overcome. This philosophy may serve these individuals well should they meet challenges during their apprentice-ships over the next two years.

We have to say however, that this group took the ghyll in their stride and worked extremely together. Bravo!

If you would like to discuss how our outdoor activity and team building packages can help develop individuals in your workplace then contact us here. We look forward to putting together a corporate development package together for you!