REAL teambuilding with Aventuria

Hosts Jean-Guy and François arrive with all our items jumbled up on a tray: Russian dolls, a volcanic rock, a smiling key ring, a pocket knife and so on.

The host shows us each object in detail. Then, choosing the objects one by one, we have to agree, with explanations, to put them in front of the colleague we think represents them best. Once the round is over, the colleagues who have their object in front of them withdraw for the next round. We have three rounds to get as many objects as possible to the right people. The exercise wasn’t as easy as all that, because we still had more than half the colleagues who had not been able to identify their brought object. We asked them to take their item back and now we’ve got the score right.

That’s where it gets interesting! Each person in turn explains why they chose that particular object.

We learn a lot about our colleagues. Some of them were well known, and obviously not that well known after all.

Just before dinner, we continue on the same path, because we have to create our avatar from a potato. This brings us back to basics and we’re all on the same level. We’re all part of the same family. But we each have our own uniqueness.

It’s time for dinner, and we’re in for a treat with the varied gourmet menu that Aventuria Village has put together for us: 3 choices of wrap, 4 choices of salad, crudités (pesto dip and feta spread), Quebec cheese platter, homemade game terrine with date jam, bacon and pink pepper, salmon mousse and for dessert: maple mousse verrine and maple cheesecake! What more can we say?

During dinner, each of us gets up in turn to present his avatar in his own way. And yes, other discoveries can be made during the unveiling. We are now the Potatoes team!

The afternoon is spent outdoors in the natural surroundings of Aventuria, learning new things. Warmly dressed, we each find our own individual rhythm in a global energy gymnastics during a Tai chi session. Continuous movement, slowness, precision, relaxation…

Now that we’re all a little calmer and connected to our senses… we’re going to get lost in a giant natural labyrinth in search of clues to find the exit that will allow us to move on to the next workshop. Once again, everyone is called upon to help find the clues and solve the enigma.

We’ve either calmed down too much in Tai Chi or we’ve taken too long to solve the maze and now we’re running out of time… We’ll have to make up our mind. HaHa!

This workshop is usually done in competition between small teams… It consists of starting a crackling fire as quickly as possible. As we’re running out of time during the day, we do the activity all together. We see the different roles that come naturally and the contributions that each person can make to ensure that we pass the test as quickly as possible. And it’s confirmed: we’re a hot team!

Workshop 5: The dialect walk
The next workshop focuses on the importance of listening for effective communication. We’ll meet up in pairs for a 10-minute listening walk. You ask your fellow walker three questions and listen to his or her answer. All you do is listen during this time. When the time is up, the roles are reversed. A challenge in itself.

As well as learning even more new things about a colleague, you realise how difficult it is to really get into listening mode, but also how important it is. In fact, it’s an essential (if not the main) component of communication. The fact that we can’t reply or follow up for 10 minutes also makes us realise that imposed silence makes us more available to the other person. During team meetings, being more in listening mode helps to advance the creativity of the whole group.

Workshop 6: On the left, on the right, it’s an S.O.S.
For the final workshop, we form a circle. We each hold a stick in one hand, the other hand behind our backs, and on instruction from the facilitator, we have to drop our stick to go and pick up that of our neighbour on the left or right. Until we’re alert and synchronised enough as a team to make several consecutive attempts without dropping a stick. We all realise that we fail and succeed as a team! It’s too easy to lay the blame or give credit to just one person.

It’s already over
At 3.30pm, we all gather round the outdoor fire with a delicious spiced mulled wine to warm us up. It’s the perfect gathering place to do a post-mortem of everything we’ve learnt during this great day at Aventuria with Jean-Guy and François, who by the way are real educators!

All day long, we felt their passion for imparting real learning.

And it was all in good fun!

The Aventuria team has a unique ability to take us out of our comfort zone and get us thinking about things in a different way. Basically, we’re lucky enough to have a great team spirit, so we figure we don’t need to carry out this type of consolidation activity. But think again! With the various workshops run by expert facilitators, you’ll come away a stronger team, even closer together, and better equipped to face the challenges of teamwork.

And do you know what’s great? There are around fifty different modules on offer, so you can tailor your teambuilding to suit your company’s needs… So when are we going back?

Photos: Stéphanie Allard