Client: British Olympic Synchronised Swimming Team
Brief: D3 Active Team were asked to develop a specific programme for 11 girls with an average age of 19 who spend 40 hours a week training together. The aim was to build a more cohesive and collaborative group, identifying individual skills and traits and enhancing and developing the communication skills within the group.
Each team member is conditioned to do their personal best to maintain their place in the squad rather than working together to maximise output.
Event: D3 Active Team organised a facilitated team building weekend that employed established techniques but uniquely combined them with specific outdoor challenges designed to fix the knowledge learned firmly within each mind.
The dedicated course included short classroom sessions based on the outcomes of psychometric assessments (MIRO), together with physical and initiative based activities in the grounds. Having gained an understanding of their own and others’ preferred communication and leadership styles, the team explored this new found knowledge through the activities, followed by discussions using Appreciative Inquiry.
D3 Active Team also encouraged the team to develop conflict management skills and naturally to focus on achieving consistent high performances under significant pressure.
Technical Programmes Director Adele Carson commented: "The girls are interacting better as a team, understanding that their different personalities are a positive for the team as a whole. The challenge is to keep this moving forwards in their everyday environment. Most importantly, the girls now realise they can achieve things they wouldn’t have believed they could have beforehand."
Member of the team, Louise Woolley added: "We just want to say a massive thank you for the whole weekend experience. All of us enjoyed ourselves and we learnt things about ourselves and each other that we didn't know before. It helped us find out how to get the best out of each team member individually and for us to use that to the benefit of the team. We also camped in a tent for a night (which is quite a big thing for us) and managed the climbing and physical activities which were new for most of us so all in all it was a good weekend for everyone."
