River Rats

On July 29Th Tom and I took the management team out to river. Justin, our operations trainer is also a river guide during the summer on his days off from the pizza world. We wanted to do something different as a team building event and this sounded like just he challenge we needed.

Ten of us were sent up the river (really it was down the river) with nothing but a life vest, kayak, a paddle and a prayer. Well... we had two good guides as well. This was our first team building event of the year and I am happy to report that it was wildly successful. Not only did everyone have fun, but we got to experience the relationship between the emotional act and logical act of trust. Trust in our equipment, our guides, each other and ourselves to make it through not only the calm of the river, but the rapids as well. That in itself was no small task and it speaks volumes about the type of people we having working along side us in our restaurants. We had to set aside our own pride and ego and fully trust in the people around us and one of the end results was a new found respect in our abilities to take risks with each other, work hard together, an in the end come closer together as one, which I consider to be Grace. Pride, Respect,Grace, and Fun are 4 of the 6 six core values that we live by at Mad Pizza. The other two are Hunger to be our best and Love of great food. I am sure there were elements of these as well in our experience.

I am very proud of the team for taking on the challenge of this endeavor - for some it was a test of their own will, for other's a boost to their confidence and in the end we accomplished our goal.