TAKING part in a corporate adventure experience might force you out of your comfort zone – but you could be better supported than you would be at your desk.

That’s the view of explorer and former salesman Russell Thompson, who founded the Purbeck company Cumulus Outdoors.

The company offers corporate events, team-building days and adventure experiences. But if people on its courses are stretched, they are also supported.

“We give clients the challenges. It’s up to them how to meet them.

“They have ownership and they’re empowered to make their own decisions on how they meet those challenges,” said Russell.

“It’s a high-challenge, high-support environment, which is where you want to be in the corporate world.

“Unfortunately, in the UK, I would say 95 per cent of the business world is a high-challenge, low-support environment.”

He is concerned about workplace cultures that constantly give people bigger challenges without the proper support.

“People are in that high-challenge, low-support environment constantly and we’re having a major impact on mental illness.

“Stress-related mental illness is rife,” he said.

Russell did a commando course with the Royal Marines as a Territorial Army volunteer in 1982, earning the Royal Marine Commando Medal. He went into business and became Uniroyal’s top salesman in 1988.

He has been on 13 expeditions, each a month long, with young people to jungles, deserts and mountains, from Mongolia to Guatemala.

He worked on a team-building project with ex-England rugby coach and captain Roger Uttley and tested gear with Sir Ranulph Fiennes in a testing chamber at minus 53 degrees C, as well as helping Sir Ranulph select a team for his expedition The Coldest Journey.

His other experiences include training the Mount Sinai Mountain Rescue Team in Egypt.

He founded Cumulus Outdoors in Wareham in 2009 and its five-strong team put together bespoke training experiences for their clients.

The activities involved can be anything from gentle orienteering to bushcraft or coasteering.

“In the UK, there’s an awful lot of resistance to teamwork and leadership. People don’t fully understand what it’s about,” Russell said.

“Frequently, the people who say they don’t need any help or assistance or training are really the people who do.”

But these training experiences are not about sending reluctant staff to be bullied by an instructor.

“People develop by saying ‘I’m going on this course. I’ll do what’s required, do my level best. I’m going to grow from that because I’ve stepped outside the comfort zone’,” he said.

“Where we don’t want our clients to go is outside that stretch or learning zone, to what’s called the panic zone, where you’re petrified for your life. It’s a very negative experience.

“What will happen at the end of a negative experience is your comfort zone will shrink.

“It will be a mentally scarring experience.”

Businesses that care about their workplace culture, and which want to consider doing things differently than they have done in the past, are increasingly interested in teambuilding and leadership, he said.

“When we had the credit crunch, the first thing to go was training budgets.

“Now the economy is picking up people are realising the benefits of investing in the future of their workers,” he said.

He added: “Whether it’s young people or corporate people, the aim is to inspire them.

“I’ve got the best job in the world because I inspire and motivate people to do great things with their lives and their work environment.”