Want to boost your team’s performance? Take them on a Dive Trip!
It’s been a hard year. You’re looking to show your team how much you appreciate their work. And also give them the opportunity to improve their teamwork and strategy.
You’ve considered several options, but hit a plateau? Maybe it’s time to delve ‘deeper’. Yes, we’re suggesting you gift them a Scuba Diving Trip. You’d be surprised to discover the link between Scuba Diving and Employee Performance. Whether it’s just a two hour long Discover Scuba Diving Session, or a certificate course spread over days, here’s why Scuba takes the cake when it comes to team outing ideas:
Group Dynamics:
Even if you’re a highly qualified diver, the first rule is to never dive alone. You dive with at least one ‘buddy’. ‘Buddies’ can literally be your friend-in-need during desperate times. If you get hurt, panic or damage your apparatus, your buddy can help bring you back up safely.
Getting your team to buddy up with each other helps improve co-dependency and coordination. With teams that may suffer from ego clashes, you will see the barriers disappear once they are underwater & dependent on each other.
Risk Management & Decision Making:
Scuba requires that you return to the surface when you have a certain level of Oxygen still left in your tank. This means you don’t wait to completely exhaust your limits, before you move back up. But instead, return with a margin that you can leverage in case something goes wrong on the way back up. Also, before every dive, you must conduct a complete check of your and your buddy’s equipment, to make sure you’re fully prepared to go in.
Employees feel encouraged to push their limits, while assessing the risks involved every step of the way. They learn to make decisions after weighing the risks & rewards involved in tricky situations.
Processes and procedures:
You hate ’em, but cannot do without ‘em.
Members of your team may consider these boring or dogmatic, but processes & procedures are necessary to approach your goals in an organized manner, without burning out. Scuba is very strict in terms of following procedures and processes.
This can help get rid of divers’ aversion to following protocol and teach them to have fun while accomplishing goals, in a structured manner.
Leadership Skills and Strategizing
Apart from being aware of the internal environment & dynamics while creating plans & strategies, it is equally important to be aware of competitors. This means not the well-established giants, but those at your level, whose welfare lies in eliminating you.
Guhesh Ramanathan, a Bengaluru-based entrepreneur, and founder of startup incubator and capital advisory firm Excubator has been Scuba Diving for 2 decades now. In his YourStory Article, he says that Scuba teaches you that “Triggerfish can be more dangerous than Sharks”. Triggerfish, with their small territories, can prove quite vicious if you trespass into their territories.
The stalwarts in the industry don’t care about your existence if you’re a startup. It’s all about the scale of your enemies.
Employee Motivation & Confidence
If you don’t have the budget or time limit to take your team out for a complete course, even a trial dive can work wonders for their motivation. Most employees now report that they are likely to stay with an employer who takes that extra effort to keep them happy and engaged. Even if the monetary benefits aren’t the best.
An hour in the water can help de-stress your team and make them see how much they really are appreciated. Also, some of them may have any apprehensions at the start. But once they overcome their fears and take that first step into the water, they get a confidence boost.
Scuba Diving provides just the right amount of challenge to encourage teamwork and overcome barriers. It can also provide a great environment for organizing fun team-building activities.
Corporates turning to adventure & Sports
In fact, it’s not just Scuba or the mainstream treks, that are hogging the spotlight. Several organizations, irrespective of size and experience, are turning to sports, adventure sports, in particular, to improve employee performance.
Oum Pradutt, managing director of Phase 1 Events and Dinesh Malkani, President, Cisco India & SAARC, speak to this effect in this article featured in Economic Times. Pradutt says- “Sports have become quintessential for reducing boardroom egos. About 80% of partner-meets have sports integrated these days.”
Malkani adds, “As companies become complex and competitive, the focus on discipline, teamwork and ability to adapt to different pressures, adversity and challenges become a cornerstone of success.”
Want to treat your employees to an experience and training session they will never forget? We are here to cater to just that, and develop programs specifically tailored to suit your needs.
