If you show up at Treetop Adventures, ready to fly through the trees on a zipline, or shoot a round of paintball with colleagues, you’re advised to check your ego at the door. Fostering team cohesion only works if everyone remembers the Sault-area outfit’s adopted motto: “the collective ego is greater than the individual ego.”
Established five years ago in Goulais River on the family farm, Cindy and Murray Joseph and their three kids host visitors who come looking for adventure in all four seasons.
Activities include ziplining, paintball, human foosball, an obstacle course and educational teambuilding exercises.
The activities have become popular amongst the corporate crowd looking for novel teambonding exercises that get their employees out of the office and working together, Cindy Joseph said.
“It’s an excellent corporate bonding experience because nobody’s an expert,” she said. “If you go golfing with your corporate team, you’ve got the golfers and you’ve got the people that don’t golf. If you go skiing, you have those people that are experienced. Well, this is something new and nobody’s an expert, so everybody comes out and they’re on an even playing field.”
In the five years since opening, the Josephs have worked slowly and steadily to build capacity. In 2011, Treetop Adventures received the Business Development Award from the Sault Ste. Marie Chamber of Commerce.
This year, the company received funding from Entrepreneurs Francophone PLUS to rebuild its website in a bilingual format.
Improvements have been made to the activities. The “mega zip,” billed as the fastest zipline in Ontario, received a new braking system, which reduces the intensity of the ride, making it more palatable to a wider range of guests.
The Josephs have also added a rating system and detour ladders for the zipline course so that clients can bypass certain segments of the course they find difficult. Since implementing the system, Joseph said 100 per cent of the clients are able to complete the course.
Guests love the two paintball courses that have been added, and Joseph said she now gets more corporate clients interested in paintball than ziplining.
“Everybody loves to ‘shoot’ their boss, right?” she laughed.
Joseph also facilitates educational teambuilding exercises that help assess personality types within a group. When given opportunities for self-reflection, people often re-examine their strengths and realize how it can also work against them in a team setting.
Clients are always encouraged to speak freely and openly, and Joseph aims to foster a trusting environment in which everyone feels comfortable expressing themselves.
The idea is to help her guests realize that they must recognize their own strengths and weaknesses in order to apply them to the team in a positive way.
“I think people have a difficult time looking within,” Joseph said. “They can look at the team and identify what the team needs to improve, or the other people they work with, but not very often do they actually say, ‘Well, I could really improve on this, just as this person needs to improve on this.’ It’s hard to self-reflect, it’s hard to look at yourself, but you’re forced to, because it’s open conversation when we’re there.”
Many of the teambuilding activities can be facilitated at Treetop Adventures, or off-site at a location of the client’s choice. Corporate group discounts are available for clients staying at selected hotels in Sault Ste. Marie, and packages are also available.
In the past, Treetop has teamed up with Stokely Creek Lodge, also located in Goulais River. Stokely provides the accommodation and food services, while Treetop provides the teambuilding experiences. Guests can either come to Treetop for their activity, or Joseph can bring the activities to them.
Joseph said corporate clients will be the focus of a marketing campaign set to start this fall, and the family plans to continue to grow and expand at a moderate pace.
“We could have grown a little bit more, but we’d rather work on the things we currently do, perfect them and then grow a little it more,” she said. “If you’re involved in too many things, you’re never great at one thing.”
