The day we took 24 Tactilers on an outdoor adventure

Two weeks ago, 24 Tactilers (a mix of new and seasoned Tactilers from different teams and functions) headed out to a forest near Roskilde, Denmark for a day of team building. The goal? Strengthening relationships, building closer bonds, and boosting collaboration—all while having some fun in the great outdoors.

Our Head of Talent & Culture, Sarah, joined in on the adventure and shares a bit about the experience below!

Tactile: Sarah, what is your team’s approach to Learning & Development within Tactile?

Sarah: The Talent & Culture team at Tactile is not your traditional HR department. We focus on being agile in offering support and activities throughout the Tactiler journey (from onboarding to offboarding), embracing adaptive implementation rather than a “one size fits all” approach. While some activities are fixed to certain times of the year—like salary reviews and development talks—we generally don’t work on fixed projects. Instead, we prefer to stay flexible, choosing initiatives that make sense for Tactile’s current needs. Over the past year, we’ve been working on enhancing our Learning & Development offerings.

The traditional approach to Learning & Development wouldn’t really work here. We have a flat structure, operate in a lean way, and as for seniority job titles –  well, those are more for LinkedIn profiles 🙂 So, we’ve had to think outside the box—and honestly, we don’t even believe in putting people in boxes.

Like many growing companies, we’ve brought in a lot of new people over the past few years. At the same time, we’re lucky to have a good number of long-term Tactilers. The challenge is that some of our more seasoned Tactilers aren’t always working closely with the newer ones, or even interacting with them on a regular basis, unless of course they are sat in the same team.

That got us thinking: our approach to Learning & Development shouldn’t be siloed. Instead of the typical route—grouping people by tenure, title, or team in workshops—we thought, why not mix it up?

Tactile: So, how did the idea of mixing people up in workshops evolve into an Outdoor Adventure?

Sarah: The idea came from wanting to create cohorts—groups of people with different tenures, functions, and backgrounds—who would go through various learning modules together. These modules are designed to cover the fundamental skills needed to succeed at Tactile, including both soft skills and technical abilities.

But we also wanted to break down barriers and create closer relationships between the group members. We figured the best way to do that was to give them an experience outside of work where they could push themselves, support each other, and, of course, socialize. That’s where the Outdoor Adventure came into play.

As with everything at Tactile, we wanted the team-building experience to be outside the box. We teamed up with Banff People to design an Outdoor Adventure that included a mission where teams had to solve both physical and mental challenges.

The adventure lasted a day and a half. It started with a workshop on team dynamics, followed by the mission itself. After a day full of challenges, we camped out in tents for the night. The next morning, we kicked things off with yoga in the field, followed by a debrief before heading home on a bus.

It was an amazing experience and another project I’m really proud of. Big thanks to Anna Diekelmann and the 22 awesome troopers who came along for the ride!

Tactile: What’s coming up next for the Troopers post this Outdoor adventure?

Sarah: Over the next months, this group of Troopers will continue to meet for more learning and development and of course, they will meet for more social events as well. By the time new Troopers are formed next year, these ‘veteran’ Troopers will be the ones sharing about their own experiences.

The purpose of all of this is to create a deeper bond between Tactilers from different teams, which will continue to break down silos and help to promote the culture of continuous learning and collaboration which we’re growing at Tactile.

Check out more snapshots from the Outdoor Adventure below!