Beyond Team Building: How can adventure enhance your business resilience?

Former Surgeon General of the United States (under Barack Obama) – Dr Vivek Murphy – is on a mission. To empower organisations to tackle issues surrounding loneliness.

How does loneliness effect your business?

Apparently a great deal. Put simply, an employee who feels lonely (who doesn’t feel a connection with workplace colleagues) will experience lower productivity, less creativity and is more likely to leave. This sounds obvious but it’s much overlooked.

Recent studies have found an estimated 30% of adults feel lonely at work (this was pre Covid). With no-one to confide in or be themselves with, these employees hide away or leave – at a huge cost to employers. Clearly remote working will add to this, through the physical separation of team members.

But even short interactions, like a shared laugh, can rectify this issue. So what can a business do to create a sense of relational energy – where employees feel valued as individuals.

“What you want is to create opportunities for people to go deeper and a little bit of structure can go a long way.” V. Murphy

We must embrace opportunities to see colleagues in a new light – outside of a work context – so they present the real self. This means more than (awkward) social drinks and (cheesy) team builders.

Nothing beats fresh air, and activities with collective purpose, for bringing people out of their shell. Nature is a leveller. Managers, interns…everybody has equal status (and is equally vulnerable).

“It’s in these small moments that we build the glue that ultimately holds people together and that ultimately holds companies together.” V. Murphy

There are plenty of excellent opportunities out there. We offer 2 awesome experiences for connecting teams:

First up, let’s get on the water – A highly engaging paddle session on the River Brent, which any London organisation can organise with ease.

Secondly, let’s get high – A residential experience, with a mighty bonding ascent of a mountain. Shared challenge, meals and accommodation can forge the strongest of bonds.

Make this year special for your business (even with Covid). You can check out what we offer. Don’t hesitate to get in touch 🙂