Global team building company Berrison in Cumbria has collaborated with Guiness World Records holder Pauline Sanderson to create a motivational business event, ‘The World’s Longest Climb’.
The team challenge is based on Pauline’s historic Everestmax Expedition which involved an 8000km bike journey from the Dead Sea to Tibet and finished on the summit of Mount Everest.
It brings teams together in a race to become the first to ‘travel’ from the world’s lowest point to its highest, in one continuous ‘journey’, just like Pauline did when she completed Everestmax.
An interactive large scale board game, it incorporates versions of real-life situations including cycling, bad weather, beurocracy, flexible logistics and fund-raising. The participants need to work together to tackle practical travel issues such as changing tyres as well as cultural ones, such as overcoming language, culture barriers and preconceptions: all things Pauline herself did as part of her record-breaking trip through Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Tibet.
“We were hugely inspired by Pauline’s story and recognise that so many challenges she faced were the kind of things that affect us in everyday life – and certainly in business,” says Martyn Mills of Berrison. “By using her experiences and recreating them, the activity has a really authentic feel.”
“The main aim of The World’s Longest Climb is to tear down barriers that prevent individuals and teams optimising on results and working as a team,” says Pauline, who provides an optional motivational speech at the start of the session. “When we work with different roles and cultures we can subconsciously harbour stereotypes instead of being open minded. We can also be guilty of wasting time on trivia rather than saving the energy for the important things. This challenge is also an opportunity to highlight the benefits of a positive mindset in all aspects of work and life.”
The two to three hour session focuses on logistical, technical, leadership, cultural and social skills and allows the winning team to raise money for their chosen charity, in the same way that The Everestmax team raised funds for charities throughout their journey.
“We’ve created the game to fit into conferences of up to 100 people, or be used as a standalone activity, with teams of six to 10 says Martyn. “We’ve been delighted to work with Pauline on this programme as we want all our events to be authentic in terms of real life scenarios and environments and this game will be fun for all involved. This was a hugely important part of the Everestmax criteria for success and fundamental to the ethos of all Berrison team challenges.
“We are confident it will be a huge success, particularly when Pauline is involved to set the scene in an opening speech.”
Berrison is based in Kendal and specialises in leadership development and teambuilding, working with global businesses such as Airbus, Morgan Sindall, PHS and ISS as well as smaller SMEs and start-ups across the UK.
Pauline’s Everestmax Challenge took place in 2006, when she joined six others in the first ever team to undertake the world’s longest climb. It has yet to be repeated.
