Cave Jumping

Have you seen this? A network of underground trampolines installed in a slate quarry cavern in the Welsh mining town of Blaenau Ffestiniog. Check it out and tell us what you think. No caves unfortunately at our Upward Enterprises ropes course.

Indoor Team Building

Cold weather doesn't stop team building opportunities here at Upward Enterprises. We can have just as much fun indoors team building at your facility or ours located at the Claggett Center. Anyone up for a fun ice breaker of multi-player thumb wrestling?

Company Picnic at Smokey Glen Farm with UEI

Next week, April 2, 2013 is the annual Smokey Glen Farm Trade Fair. It was originally going to be this week but with the cold weather, they decided to postpone the event. Upward Enterprises has had a long and rewarding relationship with Smokey Glen. It's a great picnic facility and we highly recommend Jim Sweet and his staff to put on a memorable event for you group.

For over 10 years, UEI has been the exclusive operator of the double zip line at the Pavilion. We also offer portable rock climbing wall rental as an additional event. We can even bring our portable team building program out to Smokey Glen. The Trade Fair is always a fun day, where we get to meet our old clients and hopefully make new ones. We will have the zip and wall running for you to test your adventurous side while Smokey Glen will have the barbecues fired up to serve samples of their delicious food.

So come out if you can to meet Clive and the staff at Upward Enterprises. The crew will be out there from 10am to 1pm. Yum, I can smell the chili and hot dogs cooking now!

Why Everyone Should Experience the Strength Deployment Inventory

As the leader of team building adventure programs in the Washington DC metro area, UEI is pleased to introduce our latest tool that can be incorporated into your team development programs, Strength Deployment Inventory® (SDI) . The SDI empowers people in their relationships at work getting individuals to understand how and why people react the way they do in different circumstances.

So what is the SDI?
SDI is a program of psychometric tests and a practical methodology for empowering people to improve relationships and manage conflict more effectively. It is based on the theory of Relationship Awareness®, a self-learning model for effectively and accurately understanding and inferring the motive behind the behavior. 

How can SDI create effective teamwork for my organization?
SDI is memorable... It’s a highly visual, easy to understand tool that uses experiential teaching methods to help participants internalize the learning. Results are measurable by using the SDI approach.

SDI illuminates the reason for our actions... It provides a picture of what is important to us — going beyond behavior to reveal our driving motivation. Learn to recognize each individuals strengths and skill and how to harness this power for the betterment of the team.

SDI depersonalizes conflict... It’s a non-threatening way to deal with the interpersonal conflict that is too often avoided. Through SDI your group will gain respect and trust of other team members.

SDI honors our differences... It’s an inventory of the unique way we value different strengths and interpret the actions of others. It encourages the group to be more flexible and creates acceptance of each others ideas.

Interested and want to learn more? Let us know next time you call to book your organizations retreat at UEI. 301-834-6140

-Clive Felgate
SDI Level 1 Certified Facilitator, US11106

Heading into the Winter... Team Building Indoors

Team building can happen anywhere. You don't need come outdoors to our ropes course. Take a look at this cool indoor team building exercise.

Upward Enterprises can run an indoor team building program at your facility or at your conference facility at the Claggett Center. This is a great solution for running programs throughout the winter months and also a great add-on feature to a high/low challenge course.  301-834-6140

A Little Bit of Team Building, Science and Engineering

This advertisement for Coke has all the elements of a great team building exercise. What amazing fun! I see that same sense of excitement and accomplishment in the eyes of the people at our ropes course.

Outdoor Team Building Worth It?

Recently while searching the Internet on team building articles, I came across this blog posting by a woman who calls herself "Team Doc" who says she has been working with teams for years improving leadership. She wrote, "For identifying specific leadership traits, I think an outdoor team building activity is a poor method. I’m a strong leader and do lead in outdoor activities, but I’m not athletic and would probably not demonstrate what someone was looking for."

As the owner of the largest Team Building and Outdoor Challenge Course Company in the Washington DC Metro area, I wanted to offer my comments on this topic.
First I would like to say that outdoor team building does NOT require athletic ability. If that is her impression, she did not hire the right team builder. We have many types of individuals come to our course from those with handicaps to people in their 80's. UEI encourages everyone to participate to the degree that they can and are comfortable with (challenge by choice). We never leave anyone out or feeling they are not part of the group team experience.

The activities nor the location of being indoors or outdoors, are not the important factor in a successful team building program.

How you approach a task as a team is the most important and sometimes the right activity and a different location can enhanced that development. Getting away from your normal environment where you always perform well, (well you should because you’ve been doing it for years) and experiencing the unknown is a key way to accelerate the learning.

Secondly team building doesn’t always have to be done outdoors because that would mean I wouldn’t work very much during the winter. We like to sequence our activities, from the apparently simple tasks, to the more mentally challenging and indeed to the upper level of the challenge course. That is not to say that everyone goes to the high challenges in a day or even at all.

The apparently simple tasks need to have the goals defined as do the more complicated ones. Communication and trust with the support of the team has to develop before any ideas on the solution to the problem can even go beyond the proverbial drawing board.  Leadership will develop in due course and it may stem from different and unexpected sources. The trend is to role play within the team in a position that the individual sees themselves in. The point is that most people in our team building environment end up falling into a natural role that both suits them and the nature of the task. This role, however, is not always what is expected from themselves or their team members.

Through simple tasks we set a pattern for problem solving and getting the job done. Upward Enterprises assesses the team goals, helps the group identify resources to achieve those goals then watches as the group puts in place the best person available for a particular task ensuring the learning that goes with such a task is carried forwards outside of the team building exercise and into every day practice.  Whatever type of group you might be, youth to adult, we strive to have everyone who leaves our team building program with that “ah ha” moment where they see the synergy and the power of group dynamics.

I would like your comments and please do not hesitate if you want to discuss further.

Transitions to Indoor Programs

As a full time ropes course operator we are constantly looking for ways to transition to indoor facilities and to provide our services year round. We love our ropes course as a vehicle to work on group dynamics and we have a huge amount of pride in our successful program sequences but all of these successes can be transferred to an indoor facility using minimal equipment.

With an open  mind and and little creativity we can develop an equally rewarding experience to clients. We always talk about the group being able to work together towards a common goal and how that actually happens when trying to solve a particular problem. The communication that is essential in the planning stages before leadership kicks in to get the ball rolling, right through the frustration stage of early failures and then into small successes which we build on to process the good and the not so good and to carry that to the next activity. All of this can be achieved with a simple hoop or ball or indeed any other small piece of equipment that can be carried into a conference room or meeting space.

What is your favored indoor activity and how does it compare with some of the traditional outdoor ropes course activities?

My personal one is called "through the hoop".

Challenge the group to see how fast they can get all members through a simple hoop. This immediately begs the question to define what through the hoop means. I encourage the discussion to see how deep they will go with the creativity but generally come back to passing the whole body from one side of the hoop through to the other. After some time of getting individuals to step through the hoop some one will suggest getting couples and triplets to have the hoop passed over them. This can then develop into more specific actions and the success will just follow from there. I have had a group of 12 people go through the hoop in less than 5 seconds. What successes have you had?