Giant's Ladder and Other Challenges

I survived the last two weeks, so I guess everything is going to be OK now. I didn't get the job at Microsoft. :( I went on a required weekend retreat with my Leadership and Development class last weekend. I had a Case Study due in stats on Thursday and also a midterm exam, so losing that weekend really killed my study time.

The retreat was fabulous. I had much more fun and learned a lot more about myself than I thought I would. I also made 28 new friends, for which I am thankful. My poor old body is still recovering. (I have so many bruises on my lower body, I look like a domestic abuse victim).

I can't really describe the retreat in a way that will make you understand what it was like or what all that stuff has to do with leadership and team development; you kind of had to be there to appreciate it. In a nutshell, we were in teams (anywhere from 2 to 14 people, depending on the task) and we had to accomplish these tasks that, at first glance, seem impossible. For example, my favorite was the Giant's Ladder.

Giant's Ladder was a series of eight logs that are suspended in the air (about 80 feet?) by wires. In teams of three, we had to climb up the ladder. The catch was that each of the rungs get farther apart as you get higher on the ladder. And if you are afraid of heights (I am not), then even getting on the bottom rung is a challenge. Because the rungs get farther apart, we had to work together as a team, using each other's bodies as climbing posts, to get from rung to rung. It also requires some upper body strength, balance and coordination (not my strong suits).

Here is a picture of my team getting to the log one from the top. (We didn't get all the way to the top because we ran out of time, but our group was the one that got the farthest)!