Teambuilding Day
Mid Essex Primary Care Trust chose a corporate team building day with Topsail Charters for 17 of their Occupational Therapists.
The group joined the historical sailing barge “Thistle” on Maldon Quay at 10am on a warm Sunday in March and were met by their facilitators for the day.
After coffee and biscuits and a briefing, the group were split into teams and started the day’s exercises.
One person out of each team was shown how to tie a particular knot in common use on the barge and then left with a diagram of this knot. Their brief was to learn this knot for themselves and then teach it to every member of their team during the day. This was an ongoing exercise.
The next exercise involved each team working out how to set a particular sail on the barge. There is a bemusing amount of rope and gear on a Thames sailing barge, and it all looks very confusing. With a time limit and using good team work, they had to try and get their sail up without getting in a muddle.
After another coffee break, the teams were then set the “Shipwrecked” Challenge where they had to imagine they were about to be shipwrecked and discuss which items of the vessels equipment they should take with them before abandoning ship.
Lunch was taken and then the group departed for a two hour cruise on the River Blackwater. This was their chance to put their sail setting into practise and to relax a little as they watched the world go by. As they reached the half-way point, the teams were given the “bucket challenge” – each team had a large bin and a traditional barge bucket on a rope, and had to compete to fill their bins the quickest. This exercise is usually the most fun (and the wettest !).
Then it was back to the Quay for the knot tie off, awarding of team points and a review of the days events.
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