Blue Mountain… a lesson in team building
MORE work teams are seeing the necessity of engaging their members in team-building activities to move the members out of their comfort zone, strengthen their bonds and build new working relations.
We have had the opportunity to work with a number of organisations to achieve these objectives using intellectual, social and physical activities to promote these results.
The most daunting physical challenge that we have used to date is the rock wall at Sandals Grande Ocho Rios. After the recent experience of hiking to Blue Mountain Peak with my family/team, I plan to up the ante with work teams, figuratively and literally.
Why?
Earlier this year, my wife decided that she wanted to celebrate her birthday by hiking to the Blue Mountain Peak. To make it a real party, some friends were invited to join in the challenge.
I noted that when discussions came up regarding hiking to Blue Mountain, you get two main responses. The first is of dismay. ‘Why would you want to do something like that?’ is the question that is asked. The second response usually has the person recounting their glory years, somewhere between 16 and 24 years old, when they first experienced the Blue Mountain. They then, however, quickly go on to indicate that ‘that was then, this is now’, indicating they have no plans to do it again.
For these reasons, I was quite surprised when most of the friends who were invited accepted. But as we approached October 15, the day of the hike, the number of persons who had accepted our invitation steadily declined and finally approached zero. It now became a family team-building activity, involving mother, father and son.
The journey
The hike up the mountain began at 2:00 am when under a gorgeous night sky we left the comfort of the hostel at Whitfield Hall along with our guide, and ventured into the pitch blackness pierced only by our flashlights.
My wife Cecile and I felt fairly confident that this was well within our physical capacity because we had been averaging about 15 miles per week walking, as part of our preparations for the Reggae Half Marathon scheduled for December. Our concern was Hasani, our 11-year-old son, who had no where near this level of preparation.
At about the two-mile mark, he was beginning to show signs of fatigue. I decided that if he could not make it, I would stop and stay with him while Cecile completed the journey since this was to be part of her birthday celebration. At the three-mile mark, Hasani indicated that he did not believe he would be able to make it and suggested that we could leave him (in the dark) to complete the hike.
He did not want to impede our progress. We thought that this was magnanimous of him but refused his offer. Instead, we relieved him of his backpack and agreed to stop and rest whenever he felt the need. For the next three miles we used the powers of encouragement and persuasion to keep him going.
The lesson
As the blackness of the night sky gradually gave way to dawn, we saw in the misty morning a sign telling us “500 Metres to the Peak”. Immediately, the child who was being “carried” by faith and love pushed ahead of us taking the lead.
Periodically he would shout back to us. Later he said this was to make sure that we were not lost. The next time we got sight of him was when we emerged from the mist into the clearing at the peak. With joy and glee he announced: ‘I got here first!’. The child, who two hours earlier had decided he could not make it, had not only survived, but triumphed. Life lesson.
More later on other lessons from Blue Mountain Peak.
Dr Semaj is a frequent facilitator for strategic planning retreats, cultural alignment and organizational restructuring. He conducts staff selection and development programmes for different business sectors across the Caribbean.