44 | MAY 12 • 2022 

business SPOTlight

member says team-building events have 
been a core offering of their business 
since 2014, but that the need signifi-
cantly ramped up during COVID-19. 
TreeRunner Adventure Parks, which 
operates four aerial adventure parks 
(three in Michigan and one in North 
Carolina), offers a safe and socially dis-
tanced outdoor activity that lends itself 
well to the pandemic and current times.
“We’ve built it up and grown it more 
since COVID-19,” Fishman explains, 
“because we saw the inherent benefit to 
a lot of office spaces and overall work 
dynamics.” 
So, how exactly do team-building 
events in a forested aerial adventure park 
setting work? There are two ways to go 
about it, Fishman says.
The first offering is a traditional 
team-building event where employees 
do fun and challenging ground activities 
that Fishman says help boost confidence 
and create new bonds. After the one-hour 
ground activity, employees have a chance 
to climb in the trees and connect with 
nature — a respite from the challenges of 
working in an office and other daily work 
stressors.
A second offering is known as team 
development, where one of TreeRunner 
Adventure Parks’ staff members works 
one-on-one with a group of employees on 
various exercises specific to the goals of 
that group, like improving trust. One way 

to improve trust, Fishman describes, is to 
do blindfolded ground exercises that rely 
on the guidance of others.
“One staff member will be blindfolded 
going through an obstacle with another 
person helping them through it audibly,” 
he explains.

TEAM-BUILDING CAN 
WORK FOR ALL BUSINESSES
All types of businesses and industries 
can benefit from team-building events, 
Fishman says. So far, TreeRunner 
Adventure Parks has seen a wide range 
of customers, from engineers to medi-
cal offices to Chrysler. The parks “really 
blow people away,” he explains. “They’re 
amazed at how wide-open and how large 

they are. You’re really in with nature.”
One team-building event in particu-
lar stands out to Fishman as a success 
story. Fifteen engineers from an engi-
neering company who had previously 
only worked remotely and never met in 
person visited this past fall. “You could 
see an incredible and very quick shift in 
their team,” he says. “We had them play 
a name game right off the start, to really 
recognize one another and break down a 
barrier that they had in the relationship 
since working together.”
After booking a team-building event 
with TreeRunner Adventure Parks, busi-
nesses have a chance to create specific 
programming for the goals of the experi-
ence. They can choose to focus on com-
munication, problem-solving or other 
goals as the core of their event. “Once we 
have that information, we can create a 
plan of action that our staff will work on 
with you to enact the changes that you’re 
hoping to see,” Fishman describes.
Even after COVID-19, Fishman says 
TreeRunner Adventure Parks has no plans 
to discontinue team-building events, and 
that there will always be a need. 
“We foresee team-building becoming 
more of a core part of our year-round 
business,” he explains, noting that events 
peak in warmer, summer months. “We 
can do this in the winter at the office 
space and try to elicit similar responses, 
even if it’s snowing outside.” 

Jeremy 
Fishman

Companies can improve 
trust and communication 
with team-building events.

Employees love the 
out-in-nature setting at 
TreeRunner.

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