Training: action stations

Learning & development / 12 May 2011

If training makes you think of endless flipcharts and interminable Powerpoint presentations, then help is at hand. Extreme training, such as mountain climbing and spy games, injects some fun into the process, writes Rodney Jack

Before the England cricket squad flew off for the recent Ashes tour, it embarked on a boot camp to promote team bonding. The problems the squad faced were similar to those experienced in many workplaces: ambitious targets, poor communication and internal politics. It's not surprising, then,  that the tools elite sportspeople use to overcome such challenges are becoming increasingly attractive to chief executives and HR directors across British industry.

Extreme training is one such tool. Dave Thomas, managing director of Spy Games, a company that runs spy-themed team-building and corporate events, says this type of training takes the “best bits from the military – discipline, timing, structure, teamwork and communication” and applies them to the business world.

“The aim is to find the level at which everyone at some stage experiences an extreme situation, and to see how they cope,” says Thomas. “Do they crack? Do they become aggressive? Do they become emotional? Do they run to help others under pressure and struggling or do they just shrug their shoulders?

“These are all questions that can be answered in extreme training. The most important thing, however, is to analyse it and learn from it.”

Stimulated staff

Greg Pye is a former Royal Marine Commando and the founder of GoCommando, a company that devises outdoor team-building programmes. He says the learning element of any training needs to be considered carefully because many employees have had their fill of ‘chalk and talk’ sessions and death by PowerPoint slide. “Organisations want other stimuli to make them achieve more and increase productivity,” he says.

Thomas agrees: “Training is really about instilling new ideas, working patterns and behaviours, and we believe that an unfamiliar environment is much more conducive to that. When you get away from the everyday office, people tend to be more open to different ways of doing things and feel free to try them out.”

The aim is to find the level at which everyone at some stage experiences an extreme situation, and to see how they cope. Do they crack? Do they become aggressive? Do they become emotional? Do they run to help others under pressure and struggling or do they just shrug their shoulders?

Dave Thomas, managing director, Spy Games

A course can be tailor-made to suit an organisation’s specific requirements, whether this is resolving communication problems, tackling a lack of understanding or getting people working together.

GoCommando uses an ‘engage and align’ process. “We align staff behind the company ethos and engage the people,” Pye says. “We are not there to hold people’s hands. You have to achieve a lot in a short space of time and that is exactly what chief executives want.”

A good example of the GoCommando approach is the training it provided to Shop Direct Group, which wanted to build staff relations within its business. The training comprised a two-day conference involving one day of conference-based activities in a hotel and a second day on the side of a mountain.

Pye says the courses lead to improved group dynamics, which results in better face-to-face interaction between teams rather than faceless communication by text or email.

Similarly, Spy Games offers a range of programmes, but based on a range of espionage-themed activities. For example, Mars Chocolate UK recently incorporated team-building activities into a conference with the aim of promoting closer working between three different teams.
 
Spy Games created a series of space-themed activities for 50 delegates. Success in each challenge was rewarded with Spy Dollars and the overall winners launched a Mars rocket in the event finale.

Better bonding

Mars Chocolate UK account manager Ian Mitchell says: “The feedback afterwards was excellent, with all but one describing the team-building event as the highlight of the day. But it wasn’t just about having fun. The teams started working together more closely, and were able to put names to faces, which made them more comfortable about phoning each other at work.”

London consultancy firm Gemserv was also impressed with the motivational effects of a Spy Hunt exercise staged recently by Spy Games. Gemserv brand manager Jessica Glover says: “It’s a much more grown-up alternative to the clichéd ‘treasure hunt’ – we had to carry out ‘surveillance’, blast down the Thames in boats and diffuse a bomb under Tower Bridge. It’s good to mix up the teams and get different people working together. Everyone was buzzing after the day’s activities.”

Extreme training caters for a wide range of skills and fitness levels, and people from all levels of seniority, particularly managers, can take an active role.

“It helps encourage mutual respect and, once that is established, trust will follow and this inevitably leads to better joint working practices,” says Thomas.

Enduring effects

Both Thomas and Pye say that one of the direct effects of the training is the experience participants walk away with. “It will be remembered and discussed for a long time afterwards, so the learning endures far beyond the day itself,” says Thomas.

Afterwards, depending on the primary aims of the programme, a business might regroup with the participants and talk through what they have learnt and how it translates to the workplace. At other times, the lessons are naturally apparent.

That said, the training doesn’t suit employees who enter training with preconceived ideas, don’t want to get involved or who make it difficult for others.

“We can read pretty quickly the individuals who are not committed,” says Pye. “We have a no-nonsense approach so people are thrown in at the deep end and have no opportunity to think.”

Many employees who embrace extreme training find they enhance their skills and responsiveness, and achieve their ambitions. So the next time you’re thinking about training, it may pay to get outdoors and grab a slice of the action…