"I acknowledge that the activities involved in the use of SLS's (Synergy Learning Systems) or facilities entail significant risks, both known and unknown, which could result in serious physical or emotional injury."
This was the first clause in the contract we signed before embarking on day two of the ENPL's course which takes us to a Redwood Forest in the hinterland of Santa Cruz. The point of today's outing, we are told, is to create a positive and supportive environment for personal challenge, team learning, and fun! We all board the bus full of high spirits and expectations. It's nice to be out and about; the scenery is spectacular and the weather couldn't be better. I sit next to Brad Powers, Jericho Road - Episcopal Housing Initiative, San Deigo, USA. We chat about our respective organisations and experiences to date - day one! - and we arrive at our destination in no time. A long walk into the bush and we're at base camp where we play some ice-breaker games and rig up in harnesses and helmets.
True to their word, the organisers at Synergy put us through a series of physically challenging exercises that require us to; work as a team, quickly devise a goal and subsequent strategies, and do a practice run in a very short amount of time. Throughout the course there are points to be won and lost; rules to be observed.
The Spider
The first challenge was called The Spider. We're split into to three teams representing an organisation with differing geographic locations. Our goal is to get a minimum of six people in and out of the web within 6.5 minutes without touching the webbing. An infringement leads to blindfolding and disqualification.
Three 'leaders' immediately emerge and vie for supremacy. It's interesting to observe the 'politics' but eventually one is installed in the top job and we fall into step and follow directions. The aim is to reach a base score of six with a stretch goal of nine. We emerge triumphant with a score of seven and no penalties. We are elated and try again, this time to reach a goal of nine points. However, all does not go according to plan even though we have reviewed our strategy; we aim for a higher score, we ignore infringements and two people are injured. During debrief, we note the loss of integrity (not declaring when we touched the web) and lack of safety, we literally dropped two people! (They survived.) It was a sober lesson and one I think translates neatly into the workplace where sometimes we aim too high, too fast, too soon at the cost of other important assets: relationships and values.
The Giant Ladder
- and that's exactly what it is! Strapped between two Redwoods, a huge unstable chain ladder of large, unevenly spread beams disappears into the canopy. Get two feet on the first rung and you get 100 points. At rungs four, six, eight and ten you get the 100points for each rung climbed and an additional bonus 500 points.
The goal, set by our new team leader, is to achieve the highest point score with our most physically fit (and willing) participants doing the climbing and others working in support roles. By choice I'm on the 'belay' team, the people responsible for getting climbers down safely. It's a tougher job than it sounds and by the end of the two hours my hands cramp and arms ache from pulling ropes as people are dropped from above and guided safely to ground. We achieve a score of 8,100 - the lowest score of the day. I wonder what our score would have been if we had decided our goal was to encourage everyone to climb the ladder to the first rung.
Balance Pole
The last exercise involved a single movable 20 foot pole on top of which you stand and jump off with the aim of hitting a suspended ball. This time I elected to be in the cheer leaders' team. After each exercise we debriefed and analysed team behaviour. It became very clear that the physical team members became the day's heroes and won all the attention and kudos, especially those who faced their fear and did things outside their comfort zones. Those of us who remained on the ground in support roles and belay teams, were not as celebrated or acknowledged. I felt this impacted on team morale and the cohesion disintegrated by the end of the day. Nothing a few wines couldn't fix!
But it made me think, what roles within Downstage consistently receive gongs while other roles simply require people to "hold the ropes" and ensure safety. These people often go unrecognised and become disenfranchised from the core group.
It was a sobering exercise and not what I expected at all. I learnt a lot about myself to boot!
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