Durham Business School Blitz Borders

A group from the University Business School met for a nice coffee in Maiden Castle, a great opportunity to get out of the office. And then they were dragged out into the frosty November morning, across the football pictures to the rarely ventured Old Durham Gardens. 

After a briefing about the history and development of the gardens the team wheeled the barrows of tools down to the lower gardens. Armed with sufficient spades, forks and trowels for a small troop, the group of three volunteers set a plan and got to it. The task: to clear the border of one of the square gardens; the plan: start in one corner and work their way round. 

By sticking together, they could use the opportunity to actually get to know each other. Stepping outside of the office can break boundaries – whether the physical walls between departments or the hierarchy in the managerial system. The volunteering tasks often benefit from communication at a different level to that norm to the office, but on occasion this can then be brought back in to benefit the working situation.

Pulling back the weeds, but leaving the raspberries for relocation, the team worked their way around the square. As the day drew towards an end, recognising their tiring efforts, the team set a target to get to before it got to the end of the day. With this in mind, they powered on through and got to the half-way tree marker. This provided a great before and after picture with the contrast between weedy and weeded bed. Unfortunately however, technology prevailed and all the photos taken in the duration of the day have ended up in the ether of mystery.