Brandon has a unique approach to his team building sessions. His passion for helping people challenge themselves is refreshing and will serve both managers and employees alike. I would highly recommend Brandon if you want to your staff to think beyond the obvious and become more creative and critical thinkers.

-Mark, Team Building Participant

Ascent Adventure Consultants, in conjunction with Dancing Elephants Achievement Group is offering the Win! Win! Negotiation Seminar at the Business Networking Center in Cary NC on July 17 8:30am-12:30pm.

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As I reflected more today on the article I read this morning on News and Observer (If There’s a Mountain Climb It), I began thinking about how climbing helped me to start my business. (Granted, my business revolves around climbing….which definitely helps!)

I wanted to share, over the next few days, what some of the lessons I learned from climbing are.

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One of my biggest goals is to help people see how rock climbing not only is a fun activity, but that it also applies to all areas of life. You can imagine how delighted I was this morning to wake up and see this article on NewsObserver.com, the website of Raleigh NC’s leading newspaper:

If There’s a Mountain, Climb It

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A few weeks ago, while guiding a trip at Table Rock NC, one of the ladies mentioned how she kept having to tell herself “Trust Your Feet!”, and that is what got her to continue to move forward. After the climb, she mentioned how that thought and concept really could have a good life lesson to it! I gave it some thought and wanted to share with you all some thoughts on how this climbing concept and experience translates into all of life.

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One of the most common issues that I see arise among the groups in team building and leadership development programs that we facilitate is that managers begin to realize that they need to make changes in the way they organize and structure their days and tasks so that they can more effectively manage their teams.

Here are some great key points of application that I have seen teams develop:

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When talking with people who have never rock climbed, often their response to me when I tell them what I do is “Wow! Well, I know I could never do that!”, or something similar. I always encourage them by telling them that it is possible for them to do it, and that the whole reason Ascent exists is to help people see the amazing things that they can accomplish.

When people do then decide to give climbing a try, they are always overwhelmed with excitement when they get to the top of their first climb. The feeling of accomplishing something that had previously seemed out of reach or unattainable is unmatched by anything they had experienced before.

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I stumbled across this and thought it would be a great tip to share for Friday’s Climbing Training Tip.

This site gives some great options for doing Yoga while in your office and at your desk. I’m sure you’ve seen my postings on how Yoga is essential to climbing improvement. Now there’s even more opportunities to practice it!

Yoga at Your Desk

Ascent Adventure Consultants, North Carolina’s fastest growing rock climbing guide company, has unveiled a re-branding of the company, as well as a new website.

Apex, NC USA May 1, 2009 — Ascent Adventure Consultants is about impacting people’s lives and setting them out on the journey and adventure of a lifetime: when people experience climbing a cliff face, they are instantly aware of the existence of a whole new world; when people engage their fellow teammates or employees in a team building activity, they realize the greater degree of unity and success their team could be experiencing.

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I read a great posting today at the Create Learning Teambuilding Blog. The authors point is an excellent one. With today’s instability in business and with the uncertainty of jobs, it creates instability in business, and companies need teambuilding now more than ever. Here is his posting:

Most of today’s organizations function in a team setting. These may be cross

functional or functional internal teams, client service teams made from internal
and external service providers, or other member compositions. Stability is
an essential component to the success of these teams. Why? Because teams go
through many stages before they become high performing — namely: forming,
storming, norming and finally, performing. Stabilty makes teams more
efficient and effective at doing their jobs.

In today’s recessionary, lay-off laden environment, stability is simply not a
reality. Does this mean organizations are going to suffer from less efficient
and less effective teams? Most likely. Now, more than ever, organizational
leadership must prioritize team building amongst it’s highest goals or risk
suffering an even greater setback from the loss of team members and the
environment of uncertainty we are in.

-Teambuilding Western New York Blog

I would also like to add a few points to this:

1. Teambuilding can also boost morale and can increase employee commitment and confidence in their company. I believe that by managers and business owners making the decision to have teambuilding programs conducted for their teams, that employees will be able to renew confidence and commitment in these times of uncertainty, thereby increasing productivity and success.
2. Business never is successful when everyone is just out for their own gain. In this economic downturn, people tend to fend for themselves, which means businesses NEED to pull their teams together.
3. Teambuilding is FUN! If nothing else, companies should conduct teambuilding programs just to escape from the normal stresses of life!

Check out our teambuilding programs, at www.ascentadventure.com