Harry’s Heroes

Date: Friday July 19, 2019 at 8:23am

Personal and team development is common place in the military environment, but not so common in the civilian workplace, that said, many commercial organisations play at it and some are even quite good, it can be costly and even have a short term detrimental impact on overall performance and productivity, but if implemented and managed well the medium and long term benefits can be game changing. Despite BFRSs success as a social enterprise serving the needs of the AFC, I have long had concerns, that internally both personal and team development were in need of some attention, so the management team have devised a development plan, that identifies and rectifies skill shortages and team gaps, the plan is ongoing, but part of that plan saw the company effectively close down for a day whilst we all embarked on a day of personal development and team building activities with Adventure Sports in Warwick.

Whilst the overall objective watchword was ‘development’ a secondary objective was to make it fun and I have to say that both objectives were achieved, in the morning we split into two teams and rotated through Axe throwing, Archery and Quad biking, this took us up to a BBQ lunch (providing much needed calories, it was good, but not entirely sure it was worth £10 a head). After lunch we concentrated on Team Building activities, all of which were thoroughly enjoyed with everyone participating. - Harry Dean

“What a fantastic day! We had Lauren who had the best grouping in Archery, Alisha who came joint first in Crate Tower Challenge, and even Jay who now speaks with a higher pitched voice! It was great to see the BFRS team step out of their comfort zones, and Natasha decided that she wanted to create her own quad bike track, guessing the venues was not challenging enough!” Dom

“As I am still the newest member of the team, the day was a fantastic opportunity for me to get to know everyone more outside of work. It was such a fun day, a big thanks to Harry and Jay for organising it!” Lauren

“B – Built, climbed & Crossed F – Fired Arrows & Flung Axes R – Rode Quads & Retrieved Bombs S – Survived the Rain” Rob

“We were not told what to expect until the day was almost upon us, and what a great surprise it was! We thoroughly enjoyed our day of individual and team tasks that put us to the test. We all gained a real sense of achievement and bonded as a team.” Rebecca

“Such an amazing day! The one thing I was most scared of was my favourite which was quad biking! The best part was everyone took part even if it was out their comfort zone.” Natasha

“Thursday was such a great day! We were given the opportunity to do things some of us had never done before. From Quad Biking to throwing axes to dangling from a harness staking crates to make a tower.” Alisha

“Succeeding isn’t about winning, it’s about conquering new challenges as a team. Brilliant day!” Amanda