A Team building event is a one-off activity that enables teams or work groups to share a recreational experience outside the workplace. It takes place in an informal, fun, cooperative setting. A shared challenge is presented, like a company regatta or going sailing together in several boats without competing.

This type of company activity facilitates getting to know colleagues better and sharing an activity outside the work routine. This all helps build or strengthen links between people in a new, challenging and positive environment.

 Why have a Team building event at sea

The sea fascinates us, it inspires a sense of wonder through its grandeur, its strength, its hypnotic power. We are caught in its web just by looking at it. Maybe its magnetism is also because of the secrets it hides, its changing nature, its unpredictability, the lack of control we have over it.

Casting off and entering its domains makes us feel small and great at the same time.

As soon as we cast off our moorings, we realise something very important: for our boat to sail, we must be united, synchronised, communicate, plan, have shared objectives, share out tasks, take responsibility for carrying them out, lead. In essence, working in a team.

To achieve this, it is necessary to have trust, empathy and responsibility, know how to manage expectations and emotions, maintain full attention, confront challenges, be motivated…

A boat is a powerful metaphor for leadership and teamwork, where we set ourselves shared objectives and targets in the framework of a shared vision, designing action plans and carrying out agreed actions so we can achieve them.

“When you don’t know which port you are sailing to, no wind is good”. Danish proverb.

What can be achieved in a sailboat Team building activity

Before leaving port, we spend some time explaining the activity we are going to carry out and showing all participants the safety rules. Safety comes first, and so even in a regatta-type activity, our main aim is to have fun and be safe.

After this, we have to plan the manoeuvre and coordinate the actions required to carry it out successfully and so be able to go out and sail.

• We will practice coordination and communication in order to cast off our moorings, lift the fenders and take to the sea.

It is time to set sail.

We will learn how winches and cleats work, identify which ropes to use for carrying out the tasks and how to perform the action safely and efficiently. We get to work.

• We will practise synchronisation, communication, trust, the spirit of team work.

We have set sail, now what?

Whether it is a corporate regatta in sailing boats or just sailing together in a number of boats without competing, the moment for taking decisions in challenging situations will come.

We will have to decide on our course and set the sails to reach our objective at the right moment. To do this we have to manoeuvre (turn, gybe, trim sails depending on the wind at each moment).

• We will discover our skills, resources, strengths and limitations (individual and team) and this will enable us to develop creativity, flexibility and the skills to meet the demands of the moment in unfamiliar situations and react to possible changes in the wind. We will realise how important support, communication, commitment, leadership and the cohesion of the team are.

Finally, we leave you with a phrase we love which very accurately reflects what a team can do to make sure everyone wins.

“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails” William George

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