Odyssey Teams Blog

Odyssey Teams group collaborating on philanthropic charitable team-building activity

Odyssey Teams: A Journey of Growth, Philanthropy, and Charitable Team Building

  Odyssey Teams: A Journey of Growth, Philanthropy, and Charitable Team Building For more than three decades, Odyssey Teams has been on a remarkable journey. What began as a bold experiment in experiential learning has grown into a global movement...

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Lain Hensley presenting TEDx talk on fostering a disruptive mindset for innovation

Three Ways to Foster a Disruptive Mindset That Breeds Innovation

Three Ways to Foster a Disruptive Mindset That Breeds Innovation By: Lain Hensley, Head Dream Chase of Odyssey Teams I recently hosted a TEDx talk in my hometown of Chico, Calif. on the topic of disruption -- a subject I...

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Q + A with Lain Hensley

How does Odyssey incorporate meaningful activities prior to the build in particular? I struggle with people just wanting to build a bike for hours and then are underwhelmed by donation numbers. Do not let them know anything about the building...

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Lessons Learned from Cancer & Coming Back to Work

Entrepreneurs are famous for being self-taught business minds who relentlessly learn new skills. We read business books and attend conferences. We seek out mentors and develop new skills. But sometimes earth-shattering lessons — ones we could never learn from a...

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Boy named Nobody wearing a nametag during a ropes course encouraging support and trust among students

A Boy Named Nobody: Inspiring Students to Support and Trust Each Other

Nobody Becomes Somebody: A Ropes Course Story This is a story about A Boy Named Nobody. I was leading a ropes course program for a youth-at-risk high school group. One of the first things I asked the kids to do...

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Portrait of Margie Meadows honoring her legacy and impact behind the LN-4 prosthetic hand in the Helping Hands program

In Memory of Margie Meadows - Her Impact Behind the LN-4 Prosthetic Hand

  In Memory of Margie Meadows It is with deep sadness that we share the passing of Margie Meadows this past week. Margie was the beloved wife of Ernie Meadow, the creator of the LN‑4 prosthetic hand—an innovation at the...

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Team building with bike assembly illustrating life cycles and collaboration lessons

Life Cycles in Team Building: Lessons from Bikes, Tires, and Metaphors

  Life Cycles: Lessons from Building Bikes  Life Cycles, the original bike-building program, allows participants to create something valuable and pass it on to the end user. As they build a bike and gift it to a child, they experience...

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Team-building workshop with participants collaborating on building bicycles for charity

Reinventing Team-Building: From Ropes Courses to Life Cycles™

By the Spring of 2000, I was losing my passion for the experiential medium that was tremendously successful for the previous decade. Ropes Courses started became synonymous with “teambuilding” and “teambuilding” was losing it’s value through poor facilitators, knock-offs and companies who were seeking it just to check the box...

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Leadership workshop in Life Cycles program with CEO Barry and team sharing personal stories

Life Cycles Program: Leadership Lessons in Action

Life Cycles Program: Leadership Lessons in Action Today I delivered our Life Cycles program to a truly great client. The CEO of their business, Barry, is perhaps the best leader I’ve seen in years. His approach makes them a great...

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