Challenge Program

What It Is

Located off-campus, on a wooded site sandwiched between the U-M Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Radrick Farms Golf Course, the U-M Challenge Program a division of the Department of Recreational Sports, incorporates a ropes course, climbing tower, and other interesting and unusual props to provide an interactive, experiential approach to teambuilding and organizational development. Activities range from deceptively simple ball-tossing activities to more complex challenges involving larger and sometimes fanciful props. Some activities, such as the ropes course, are physically challenging, while others challenge the intellect by stimulating creative problem solving.

The Challenge Program uses structured activities as the medium for helping a wide variety of groups and organizations explore issues such as team dynamics, communication, goal setting, trust, and commitment. Program facilitators have extensive training in group dynamics, experiential facilitation, organizational psychology, and adventure programming. Many of them have advanced degrees and professional experience in the fields of education, psychology, or human resources.

Why You Should Know About It

Challenge Program participants work with each other to solve structured problems that require collaboration, communication, and an understanding of individual strengths and weaknesses. Problem-solving activities and metaphors tie each group's Challenge Program experience to their "real world" setting. Cooperation, communication, group decision making, conflict management, trust, and leadership are all explored in the context of the selected “challenge” activity.

The Challenge Program offers several program models. The Team Challenge Program incorporates the use of group problem solving initiatives and low ropes course activities. This option focuses on teambuilding and works well for newly-formed or existing groups, office teams, and other organizations. The High Challenge Program builds upon the team concept but also includes the use of the high ropes course, offering participants the opportunity for greater individual challenge. The Team Tower Program incorporates the Challenge Program’s 40-foot high climbing tower into a teambuilding program.

The program is designed so that everyone can participate, regardless of age, size or physical condition. If an individual doesn't feel comfortable with certain aspects of an activity they can choose their own way to be involved. This might mean participating in the planning and strategizing and not necessarily the physical action.

Explains Challenge Program operations director John Swerdlow, “The program is based on a “challenge by choice” philosophy, where each participant can define his or her own level of challenge. At any point, someone can opt out and say ‘that’s it for me!’ So there’s a build-in safety valve. But I would say that most of the people who get up (on the ropes course) end up doing at least a few of the elements and ‘zipping down’ on the ropes. The person who climbs up the pole halfway and comes back down has challenged themselves more that day than anyone else because they have gone right to their limit.”

Don't Miss

For the fearless, a chance to experience the high ropes course, is an exhilarating “high.” The rock climbing wall offers additional opportunities for groups to engage in, well, a peak experience. And the chance to get outdoors and have some fun, no matter how physically demanding the activity, are also great for boosting team spirit and morale.