20.01.2020

Teambuilding

We met again with the Norwegian outdoor students at 9am at “Spicheren”. This time we had just a little walk to the nearest hut. It’s about 3 minutes to walk from the trainingcenter. As soon as we arrived there, the organisers told us the program today. We split up in four different groups, so we were about 8 people in each group, our first task was to build a shelter in 15-20 minutes. They gave us a tarp and ropes. In my group were some Norwegians that already knew how to build a shelter so they said we should try for ourselves first and then they will give us tips to improve. I think that was a really good way to work together even with our different skill levels. I tried to set up the tarp together with Melanie who also didn’t knew the best way to do it. As we found out our way didn’t work as planned, Haron and one of the Norwegian students helped us and we set it up in a different way. Meanwhile the other people of our group created a great firepit with a stonewall to reflect the heat from the fire in the direction of the tarp. They also put stones on the base to protect the ground from burning. Then we all started to search for wood to create benches. To be fair, we already had a lot of logs behind our shelter, I think because we weren’t the only group that practices at that place. We quickly had enough logs to build two benches. We all fitted under the tarp and our shelter was finished just in time.

Next step was to look at the different shelters from the other groups and rate them on a scale of
1-10. We discussed about advantages and disadvantages from the individual shelters. After we looked at all four, we had time to use the feedback the other groups had given to us to improve the shelter. We changed our tarp again to make it more rainproof from all sides. To prevent the benches from moving we put little sticks in front of the logs so they can’t roll anymore. After we did all our improvements, we looked again at the other groups to see what they have done. It was a good chance to see a lot of different shelters and the benefits and downsides of certain components.

After we dismantled the shelters, we made a fire at the hut and had a quick break.

The organiser group told us our next task, we had to build a tower with the things we brought with us. I think this task was not well thought out, because we stayed in the same groups, we weren’t able to meet new people. I would have also enjoyed it more if we could have picked up stuff from the area. For example, some of the Norwegian students had to bring firewood with them, so they had a great advantage. The group with the highest tower won the second task. Afterwards the teambuilding was over, and we could go home.

All in all, it was an ordinary teambuilding day for me. I learned a few things about building a shelter and I got to know a couple more people. The first task was good but the second one was more of a time filler for me. Also, I’m not sure if the rating from 1-10 was really necessary, because the feeling of “friluftsliv” should not be a competition.