Here are the same eight questions from exercise
14.4. They come from an interview with a trainer from an outdoor education
organisation. He specialises in organising team-building programmes for major companies, in which employees from different sectors of the company come together and spend a week together far away from the city performing a number of tasks together.Now
you have the answers to the questions - but there are two answers below for each
question. Click on the one you think is the real answer to the question.
The other one is written in correct English, but just doesn't answer the
question.
In what ways is an outdoor education programme like yours
able to contribute towards team-building in a business context?
Yes,
I would say that many business leaders do still seem to be unaware of the
importance of team-building and of how much it contributes to the
performance of the organisation. In the context of modern business, where
so many projects depend on close liaison - often across cultural and
geographical boundaries - team-building is a highly cost-effective
investment for any knowledge-intensive organisation.
Our
philosophy focuses on the development of personal skills, responsibility
to others and the ability to deal with new challenges through outdoor
experiences. The tasks we set and the careful preparation we offer
participants maximises the opportunities to develop team-building skills
which participants can take back to the workplace.
What kinds of organization participate
in your programmes?
The organization runs a wide range of programmes for different client groups. My particular role involves working with business clients – as it happens, more than half of my client groups have been from the banking and finance sectors – partly, perhaps because of the costs involved, but also I think because of the exceptional challenges and changes experienced in that sector.
Actually,
this covers a really broad sector of the business world. Companies within
the mining sector have been particularly generous, sponsoring a number of
our educational programmes based in schools. There has also been direct
funding from a number of public bodies - not only those from the education
sector. In fact, we also run a number of programmes as part of the
rehabilitation of young offenders.
In designing individual programmes for business
organizations, how closely do you liaise with Human Resources managers?
This
is very much the key to the success of our programmes. We need to work
together to ensure participants are appropriately selected, informed and
prepared for the programmes. And after the programme has finished, Human
Resources takes an even more direct role in the follow-up stage.
Very
much so. In fact, HR professionals are among our most successful
participants. One of our new programmes, in fact, has been specially
designed for professionals working within this often quite stressful
field, where decisions about employee recruitment, training, discipline
etc have to be made on a daily basis.
We’ve all seen reality programmes like ‘Survivor’ on television. Do you feel the need to reassure
participants that they won’t be
treated in the same way as those programmes?
Yes,
this is a matter of growing concern, in particular for those programmes
involving younger people. As you suggest, it is the parents, more than the
young people themselves, who require reassurance. We find it's probably
not enough to send them our mission statement or even a detailed breakdown
of the aims and content of our programmes. Much more effective, in my
view, are the regular open-evenings at which carers, guardians and parents
are invited to participate in a range of activities designed to
demonstrate the true character of what we are trying to achieve.
From my point of view, reality TV has taken the body of outdoor education and thrown away the soul! Our participants have to realise that, instead of aiming to fight and put each other down, their goal is to achieve the best both for themselves personally and for the group. These days I often show people an extract from a programme and talk through the issues to make sure they understand that what we’re offering is a totally different – and positive – experience.
How can you be sure that your programmes are compatible
with the needs and goals of your business partners?
I
think this is probably something that every business finds challenging.
New programs and applications seem to emerge so quickly nowadays that it's
increasingly difficult to ensure compatability across the diverse systems
and hardware already in use within the organisation. We have found,
however, that since we have been working with a specialist IT consultancy,
compatability problems have been very much reduced.
This
is quite a challenge at times, I have to admit. Our philosophy and
programmes come from a context far removed from the world of business. My
impression is that modern business comprises a wide variety of systems and
approaches. Not all companies will find our programmes are the right match
for their own approach to individuals and teams. However, I do believe
that our core values are in tune with the those of most successful modern
organizations.
You have worked with a wide range of organizations. Are your programmes similarly
diverse?
I
certainly hope so. It's important that we do at least seek to implement a
high degree of standardisation in our products - otherwise, all of the
hard work done by our research and development and sales teams will have
gone to waste. That is why we monitor output closely and when variations
are detected, not only are those products are withdrawn from sale, but the
production process is revised in order to guarantee the quality and
identity of the products our consumers expect.
Yes and no. Yes, we do aim to adapt our programmes carefully to match the goals and needs of individual groups. But it’s also true that the basic elements of our programmes remain the same. And, of course, all our programmes aim to achieve our core aims of personal and social development through working together to overcome challenges in the natural environment.
When senior managers participate in programmes with more junior members of staff,
does this lead to difficulties related to status?
This can be a key issue – particularly in the ‘forming’ and ‘storming’ stages of the typical team development process. However, through careful preparation, we try to ensure that there’s no misunderstanding of the nature of the programme. All participants need to realise they have to leave their egos at home!
Unfortunately,
this can still be a problem, even in a country like this. And not only in
the more traditional sectors of the economy either. Some men probably feel
the need to return to some kind of traditional masculine roles in the
outdoors perhaps, even when they are quite comfortable working for female
bosses in an office environment. However, this, like so much of what we
do, is the opportunity for a good deal of learning and personal
development, as long as it is handled skillfully by our facilitators.
During the short time frame available on your
courses, what can be done to facilitate long-term team-building?
There
are various indications that participants are working together effectively
as a team. Attitudes tend to be
more positive and communication is richer and more evenly shared. A
successful team asks and listens more, for instance. Team members tend to
anticipate eachother's needs, rather than waiting for problems to emerge.
And overall, there's a sense that the individual goals and the goals of
the team have somehow merged into one.
As I mentioned in my
previous answer, this is where the liaison with Human Resources plays a crucial role. They need to both evaluate the outcomes and ensure the participants are able to apply the personal and
social development skills they’ve achieved during the course to their current and future working environments.