Team work
I read a couple of articles on team work and engagement today. Reminded me of a time of sustained intensity. Rare to have both intensity and sustained commitment , I was fortunate to experience it more than once in my career.
Many years ago, I joined a tech mfg. company at a location with 2,400 employees. The lack of teamwork across the facility was stunningly poor. Everyone existed in their own silos and worked towards their own narrow self interests.
Only a few weeks into working at my new company, the VP of manufacturing announced that the entire horizontal slice of middle management were being sent out into the Ozark woods for seven days of team building. Thirty five of us, loaded onto a school bus and driven deep into the rugged woods to an old Boy Scout camp. A spartan camp, tiny bunk beds with the only luxury of warm showers.
A professional external group laid down the rules of our “survival”. We would be broken down into 5 teams with membership fluid during the week. Each team would have rotating responsibilities. Meals for the day planned and cooked by a team, cleanup by another. Then there was the orienteering (dropping off teams deeper into the woods with a map and a compass, making our way back only with complete team consensus), high ropes course, wall scaling, low ropes course, on and on for a full week. Always with group discussions. What had we learned today? How did it relate to work? How could we bring back what we learned and change the company?
We came back from the experience as one team and close friends. It was a changed company. The most powerful experience and transformation I have ever witnessed. The strongest example of an executive going all in on changing the culture quickly. A one day session, or two days, would never have been effective. Seven days in the woods was transformative.