ReSource Ropes Course

In the office, we are constantly researching innovative ways to improve customer service. When the idea of a ropes course was presented we thought, why not? The objective of a ropes course is to enhance trust, communication, and efficiency as a team. If we could improve how we work as a group and apply that to office life, then that would definitely benefit our customer. With our tennis shoes and worn out jeans in hand, the entire ReSource staff headed to The Heard Museum in McKinney, TX to face the challenge.

When we first arrived, the facilitators went over the necessary safety precautions and asked us to go into our team building experience with an open mind by accepting different roles and trying new things. Then they had us partner up with someone that we don’t work with on a regular basis and we were off to a fun start. They gave us a blindfold to put on our partner, and then asked us to lead them down the trail to our first challenge. Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong. We were not allowed to speak to our partners. It was the mute leading the blind down a treacherous path that included stairs, rocks, tree limbs, brush, and more. Those who weren’t blindfolded thought they got off easy, but half way down the trail they had to switch with their partner. This exercise broke down our barriers of personal space and showed us non-verbal ways to communicate.

After we hiked through the trail we came to an opening in the woods where all of our challenges would take place. Then it was time for our first real challenge of the day. We partnered up again and had to come up with nicknames for each other, for example Bonnie and Clyde, Goose and Maverick, or any other humorous pair that fit our need for silliness. They separated us and placed each of us on opposite sides of a field. Then we had to close our eyes and find our partners, using only the sound of our voice.

Next came one of the more comical challenges. The field that previously separated Bonnie and Clyde turned into a chocolate river. The facilitators then turned everyone at ReSource into Umpa Lumpas and separated us off into teams. The goal was to make it across the chocolate river in order to save everyone in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory from a perilous fire! The catch was we couldn’t swim in the chocolate river, so we were given “marshmallows” to use as stepping stones to get across the river. We had to have a body part touching the marshmallow at all times or a marshmallow eating monster (the facilitators) would come and steal it.

No body part could touch the chocolate river or we “lost” that body part.

One by one the teams started to work their way down the river of chocolate and some made it across successfully, while other teams’ strategies failed miserably. Umpa Lumpas were losing legs left and right, one poor little Umpa Lumpa even fell into the chocolate river. With our marshmallow supply dwindling, the task was beginning to seem impossible.

We then decided to start working as a whole team, instead of individual teams competing against each other. We combined all of our marshmallows to create one long path of stepping stones and eventually got all of our Umpa Lumpas across the shore to safety.

We went on to several other challenges that pushed our limits in trust, problem solving, communication, and personal space. Our last and final challenge was the Team Wall. The objective was to get all of our team members over the wall. The belay was only there for safety and we could not use the rope to climb the wall. Our teammates had to hoist us up to get us to the top. We used our strongest men and started hauling people over the wall.

Our numbers started getting smaller and we needed to come up with a plan to get the last few members over. We decided to build a ladder with our harnesses and would have one of our light and agile members climb their way to the top!

That concluded our fun-filled day of staff development and team building challenges. We learned some very powerful lessons on effective communication and working together towards a common goal, which in this case is to better serve our customer. To see more pictures from the Ropes Course, visit the ReSource Facebook page!