Not Your Average Day of Team Building

If you’re not familiar with the world of white water, it’s a lot like other adventure sports. To navigate swift water in the safest and most fun way possible, there is a pile of specialized training involved, loads of expensive gear, and if you’re in a raft, a cohesive team. 

I recently had the opportunity to spend the day with my colleagues on the Ottawa River, and being home to some of the largest navigable white water in the world, we opted to hire professional guides. This can be a dangerous sport, and in knowing the risks, our team simply signed up for the ‘adventure’. What we received though, was a healthy dose of education, humility, and team building (…and of course, fun!)

Here’s what I learned from my day of getting pummeled by the Ottawa River:

1.      We’re all equals when we’re learning something new.

When being briefed on how to survive being tossed out of the raft in a Class IV rapid, there’s no rank or pecking order. Everyone is an equal, and there is genuinely no such thing as ‘too many questions’. 

2.      Listening effectively will ensure you are going in the right direction.

To work as a professional guide in this climate, you undergo years of training and certifications. That much is evident when our boat safely navigates tricky sections, or narrowly misses a rock due to a flick of the guide’s paddle. That said, the ‘crew’ is the boat’s horsepower and there is a left-side engine, and a right-side engine. If we’re not listening to our guide, reacting and working in harmony, bad things can happen. If there’s a subject matter expert on your boat, it’s best to listen and learn.

3.      When faced with adversity, be cool, be cool, be cool.

One of the first things you will be taught when you go rafting is what to do when you fall out (notice I didn’t say if you fall out). Two simple words will get you through one of the most stressful, yet exhilarating, moments of your life: be cool. After getting tossed from a boat in rapids, saying this calmly to yourself three times has an incredible effect. It centers your thoughts and allows you to concentrate. When you are staring down what appears to be certain doom, pause and remind yourself to be cool. Things are never as bad as they seem.

4.      Brute strength will only get you so far.

You could be a champion endurance athlete, a hardcore Crossfitter, or swim like Michael Phelps, but none of these skills are particularly useful in large, fast moving water. The river will last longer and is always stronger. The important skills in this environment tie back to basic physics, and the ability to be attentive. To that point, and with the proper technique, a 100lb teenager will be able rescue a 200lb man who finds himself swimming unexpectedly. Moreover, being aware of the best ‘exit’ will allow you to leverage the current to get to a safe place. Strength can be an asset in many places, but working smarter will keep you alive in the long haul.

5.      We’re all in this together, or we’re all out together.

The day was progressing nicely when we approached a simple Class III rapid. Our lead boat disappeared over the fall, as expected, but reappeared with just one of the five original occupants. As the only team member remaining scrambled to locate and rescue his crew, we were on track to suffer the same fate. Quick thinking and reacting had us change our course, and only suffer two casualties instead of four. Were there a third boat, it makes sense that they would have made the run without any swimmers. Our crew learned from our predecessors, and altered our approach to achieve a [slightly] better result. The lesson? True teams will succeed as a group, but also have to be prepared for the inevitable “flip”. We were happy that only two of us went for a swim, but it was even more impressive to watch that lone rafter get everyone back into the boat and ready for the next challenge.