What can you learn from doing a charity challenge with your colleagues? ⛰️

When River turned 30 earlier this year, we were asked for our favourite memories to create some social posts. Assuming that others would choose the key client wins, campaign work and awards, I said – half jokingly* – that my favourite memory was doing the Three Peaks challenge to raise money for our regular River charities and mark our 25th birthday. [There are lots of riffs on the Three Peaks idea – we did the traditional challenge of climbing Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell Pike in the Lake District and Snowdon in Wales within 24 hours.] While not, strictly speaking, a work event, there are definitely a few lessons doing an event like this together throws up for work… and life more broadly.

#1 The importance of a leader. Normally I’m very non-hierarchical and collaborative, but if you’re doing something potentially quite risky, at speed, in the dark, which is well out your comfort zones, you need one clear leader who’ll make difficult decisions, boss you around and drive things forward. We had a few big personalities in the group, plus a guide. You need to decide who is in charge. And the group needs to accept that.

#2 The importance of preparing together. Schedules, and life, meant not everyone managed to attend the team training sessions. Unsurprisingly, the ones who did fared much better during the actual challenge.

#3 The importance of reading the brief and then following it. Basic agency stuff, but NEVER assume everyone has done this. To do the Three Peaks in the time frame, there is a strict schedule for when you need to be up and down each mountain and how long the drive between each one needs to take. Go through the plan, go through it again, and then go through it again because being on the challenge is like a race against time with jet lag when you’ve lost all track of what time or day it is. Make the team recite it back to you. Otherwise getting everyone out of the unscheduled 24-hour-garage toilet stop at 2am is like herding kittens.

#4 The importance of teamwork. We were a group who didn’t normally work together and didn’t necessarily know each other that well, with very different levels of fitness and (perhaps more importantly) competitiveness. But you can’t drive off to the next climb until everyone is safely down, so you all need to find a way to help your slowest team mates – and who that person is changes over the course of the challenge. It’s a cliché for a reason, but yes, you are only as strong as your weakest person.

*Actually, not half joking at all. It rained, it was too foggy to see any views, it was exhausting, sweaty and frustrating, but I loved every minute of it.