This is an annotated list of research studies about corporate adventure training which are available on the web. Feel free to suggest other studies.
The earliest available review of the effectiveness of outdoor managerial programs is by Chris Roland (1985).
During the 1990’s, Simon Priest conducted a series of studies testing different aspects of corporate adventure programs. Much of Priest’s research measured outcomes using the Team Development Index. Importantly, most studies involved a manipulation of program design variables, such as sequencing or facilitation technique. Priest’s Corporate Adventure Training programs were mostly initiative and ropes challenge course based.
Two naturalistic doctoral theses from Lancaster University, England, have emphasized the powerful nature of outdoor management development experiences (Greenaway, 1995) and that participants’ experiences are characterized more by emotion than cognition (Donnison, 2000). Both theses provide valuable overviews of the literature and qualitative insight into the phenomenon associated with actual programs in the UK.
In 1997, Hattie, Marsh, Neill and Richards published a large meta-analysis of the effects of adventure education and Outward Bound programs. Six studies of the effects of management programs were included, one from the USA, and five from Outward Bound Australia (go to OBA research page). Overall, 50 short-term effects were examine (i.e., approximately 8 effects were included from each study), and 32 long-term effects. The main outcomes were those measured by the Life Effectiveness Questionnaire. The short-term effect was a small to moderate positive effect size of .32, with an additional small group with an effect size of .08 during the follow-up period. This suggests that these programs were moderately effective in their impacts on a broad range of personal and social development indicators. These programs were mostly expedition-based, Outward Bound style.
A masters thesis from the University of New Hampshire, USA, has examined the bottom-line effectiveness of an experiential adventure program conducted through the Browne Center (Litterini, 2001). There is very little other research on the question of bottom-line impact. In fact, there is ethical debate (Hunt, 1990 – read an example ethical dilemma) about whether outdoor education should even have such goals without examining broader social and political issues.
Bill Krouwel (2003) wrote an article recently, reflecting on on the purposes and changes over time in the methods and styles of outdoor management development programs. (UK-oriented).
A few outdoor education programs and companies have produced reports about program effectiveness of their management programs (e.g., see the Outward Bound Australia Research Bibliography). (Australia/OB-oriented)
Litterini, V. S. (2001). An examination of perceived supervisory change to production rate, product rejection rate, and delivery efficiency. Unpublished Masters thesis, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH. Abstract. Full thesis (.4mb)
Outdoor education programs vary widely in philosophy, methods, and activities, so its difficult to synthesize the holy grail of the “key factors”. Based on my experience (several years instructing outdoor education programs and several years of teaching, reading and researching about outdoor education programs), I propose these following factors are the main determinants of the effectiveness of a program (also read about Theories of outdoor education):
Individual differences
Every individual is different, and the single, biggest determinant of a participants’ experience is generally the individual’s personal history (stored experiences) and the motivation, fitness, goals, readiness for change, etc. with which the individual enters the program.
Philosophically, this notion of the importance of the individual draws upon John Dewey’s principle of continuity which, along with the interaction with the situational circumstances (the program) ultimately determines the quality of an individual’s experience.
In psychological terms, individual differences refers to psychological constructs which vary amongst people, e.g, personality factors such as introversion-extraversion, emotional stability-instability, etc., but also to many other factors, such as motivation, coping, self-efficacy, locus of control, and so on. For more information see “Personality & Individual Differences: An online undergraduate psychology course”.
Five areas of individual differences which hold much promise for future investigation are:
Self-efficacy
Coping
Readiness for change
Resilience
Goal-setting
Traditionally, the focus on individual difference research in outdoor education has been on variables such as gender and age, and demographic factors.
Gender: There are no clear differences in overall or specific outcomes for males or females or single-sex or co-educational groups; even though gender is a ubiquitously quoted individual difference, it doesn’t seem to be a strong or clear determinant of empirically measured effects of outdoor education programs (e.g., see Hattie, et al, 1997; c. f., Neill, 1997). For information, see “Gender: How does it effect the outdoor education experience?” (Neill, 1997) and “Gender and outdoor education
Age: Research tends to have found greater effects with adults rather than adolescents or children (e.g., Hattie, et al, 1997). However, this could be because adult programs tend to operate with motivated volunteers, whereas youth programs more often involve an element of compulsion by parents or teachers.
The programs’ philosophy and culture give rise to everything else; staffing, program design, recruitment, communication with participants, etc.; program quality ultimately stems from the official and implicit reality and professionalism of the operating organization; Does the program have a strong philosophy focusing on development of the desired goals? And does the program culture set up strong expectations of success in reaching the desired goals?. It is no secret that Outward Bound’s strong commitment to “hard-core, growth-oriented” philosophy has been the chief recipe for its success over the years. Some interesting materials about how to build, change and alter organizational culture (and its importance for program quality in residential camping) has been written by Randall Grayson, VisionRealization. A healthy indicator of an effective program at an organizational level is that the program is actively engaged in program evaluation and publishes and disseminates its research findings.
Offer hands-on, concrete, learning-by-doing tasks with real-world constraints; allow freedom for participants to mistakes which have clear, natural (rather than arbitrary) ramifications (Priest & Gass, 1997, pp. 22-23)
Dramatic activity in novel context
Utilize unique, engaging context of wilderness and provide compelling, intense, challenging, adventurous activity which excites and keenly focuses the mind and body. For more information, see the work of Andrew Martin on the use of dramaturgy, which uses principles of drama to create more holistic adventure-based programs.
Theory-based, principle-driven, customized, holistic program structure
Utilize well researched educational and psychological theory in program design. On the one hand, customize program design to meet the unique needs of participants, on the other hand make clear use of good design principles such as:
Gradually increase the level of difficulty of activities: Often you may need to start at a more basic level, but likewise, you can often help people to much higher levels of skill. Don’t be afraid to slow the program right down to help people grasp important concepts, but likewise, don’t be afraid to rapidly increase the challenge when participants are capable.
Attend to the rhythm and pattern in the program structure (e.g., see the Adventure Wave). Ensure overall flow of program is holistic by incorporating cognitive, affective (social or emotional), and physical learning activities.
Try to make use of all of the participants different senses through various experiences and activities – i.e., sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste.
Carefully selected & trained leaders
Select staff carefully (e.g., warmth is an important factor, as is authenticity, transparency, and intelligence). Then enculturate recruits in compelling organizational philosophy and provide real incentives for their commitment, especially ongoing training to foster their personal and professional growth.
Facilitation techniques
Specific studies have been done testing different types of facilitator techniques and the findings do suggest that particular techniques are beneficial – see summary of eXperientia work by Simon Priest)
Program for transferability, including significant others, exploring personal stories, & metaphoric thinking
Teach skills and meta-skills which are directly applicable to everyday life; Look for ways of involving significant others to help communicate and socially reinforce the changes; Look for metaphoric structures that relate back to home life;
Length of program
Longer programs have been found to be more effective — certainly, 1 month programs are significantly more effective than 1 week-long programs, which are in turn significantly more effective than 1-day programs. At least that’s my conclusion from having read and researched outdoor outcomes and related program outcomes over the last 10 years. For the citations, on this, go to the more indepth summaries and papers. Some extra points to add:
Although the relationship between length of program and effect is significant and positive, it still only appears to be a relatively small effect. Thus, length along is no guarantee for success, and is it is possible for a short program to effect substantial, lasting change.
The relationship between length of program and size of effect is likely to follow a decay curve – i.e., the benefits of going from one day to two days will be much larger than the benefits of going from six to seven days, which will be much larger than the benefits of going from 21 to 22 days.
There may be a weak relationship between length and effects because of grossness in assessing length. Length at the lower ends can also be measured in number of hours of treatment, or number of hours of active treatment (do we count being asleep for example?). Also, increasingly programs are moving towards intermittent treatment and it is difficult to clearly measure of establish the actual meaning of “length”.
The relationship may also be weak because instructors and participants have a gestalt tendency to treat any program as a whole program, regardless of the number of days. To the extent that we are influenced by “hero myths” or “stage theories” of change, then we can appreciate that the entire cycle will be fitted by a good instructor into a program, regardless of the number of days. There is always, for example, some apprehension felt by participants on the first day, and some relief felt on the last, whether that is later the same day or many weeks later.
All in all, it has become clear that the trend towards shorter outdoor education programs is in contrast with the effectiveness research. A silver lining of the drive towards shorter programming is that there has been significant new focus on developing more carefully planned activities, frontloading, facilitation, etc. in an attempt to elicit and facilitate development during a short time period.
Environmental & logistical events
Weather, gear, logistics, & back-up support. These issues normally play little part in determining outcomes when they go according to plan, but it is also not uncommon for weather or other logistical events outside the group’s direct control to provide experiences which can prove:
hugely beneficial (e.g., group bonding arising from carrying someone on a stretcher for 12 hours through difficult conditions) or
particularly damaging (e.g., failure of safety equipment)
Program modality
There are no clear differences in outcomes between different program modalities (e.g., land-based vs. water-based. Of course there will be exceptions — some participants are struck be a particular activity, but for most program participants, a similarly effective experience would have ensued in different type of program in a different location.
The following is an email I received from Howard Putman – the former CEO of Southwest Airlines. I met Howard at a former Wyoming business Conference, one which I am speaking at this year, and his message focused on developing the most imporatant asset in any business – Human Capital. I communicated with Howard about his story and he gave me the go ahead to pass his story on to you. Enjoy.
Leadership: Strengthening Leadership Development
Some months ago, I was invited to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to speak at a dinner for 120 CEOs and board members. They were all a part of the strategic investment house, called Khazanah, owned by the government of Malaysia. Over time, they are privatizing a piece of each of the many companies they own. They are called GLC’s (Government Linked Companies) and the government still has the controlling interest. Khazanah is a very progressive and professional group of experts providing oversight and training for the CEOs, senior management and their boards of directors. This group of companies produces over 5% of the country’s gross domestic product. The market capitalization of the group is approx. 30% of the entire stock market. This has been a major undertaking.
They want their CEO’s to spend at least 30% of their time developing leaders. That includes a minimum of one hour per quarter giving personal feedback to all of their direct reports. They want high potential employees moved into positions to challenge their growth.
They have designed detailed metrics and programs all included in: The Orange Book for Management and The Green Book for Boards of Directors. They focus heavily on their values and culture. But most of all they focus on the “importance of human capital.”
This kind of leadership development needs to be a part of every organization, small, medium and large. It was most impressive to see people walking their talk.
_____________________________________________
Howard Putnam speaks on leadership, change, transformation, customer service, teams and ethics. The National Speakers Association inducted Howard into the CPAE (Council of Peers Award of Excellence) Speakers Hall of Fame in 2005. He also is accredited as a CSP (Certified Speaking Professional).
He is the former CEO of the highly successful Southwest Airlines and the first CEO to take a major airline, Braniff International, into, through and out of Chapter 11, getting it flying again in less than two years.
This is Mr. Will Leggett reporting to you live from New York City with Grand Dynamics <http://www.granddynamics.com> . This is my first attempt at sending a newsletter/email blast so I wanted to make sure that I had some great content. So to start out I wanted to wish Tim Walther and his climbing partner Gary Falk GOOD LUCK as they are off to Alaska to attempt a climb of the Mooses Tooth. You can preview the climb and some thoughts on Tim’s preparation here: Grand Dynamics Blog <http://www.granddynamics.com/blog> It might inspire YOU set some big goals and encourage others to do the same!
Every year on this day (April 1) I wonder who is going to be the first to play an April Fools’ joke on me. Luckily no one has done this but the day is still not over. For all of you who are curious about the history of “April Fools’ or All Fools’ Day it is a day celebrated in various countries on April 1. The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, family members, enemies, and neighbors, or sending them on a fool’s errand, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible. Traditionally, in some countries, such as the UK, Australia, and South Africa the jokes only last until noon, and someone who plays a trick after noon is called an “April Fool”.[1] Elsewhere, such as in France, Ireland, Italy, South Korea, Japan, Russia, The Netherlands, Brazil, Canada, and the U.S., the jokes last all day. The earliest recorded association between April 1 and foolishness can be found in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (1392). Many writers suggest that the restoration of January 1 as New Year’s Day in the 16th century was responsible for the creation of the holiday, but this theory does not explain earlier references.” (Wikipedia, 2010)
Anyway, I expect your Spring time transitions are going well. Grand Dynamics has lots of exciting things happening this year such as the Grand Adventure <http://www.granddynamics.com/revitalize/the-grand-adventure.html> which is taking place in Jackson Hole Wyoming on August 19-22. Feel free to check out the Podcast <http://granddynamics.podbean.com/2010/03/31/grand-adventure-teleconference-325/> with Tim Walther and Chief Exum guide Christian Santelices if you would like to learn more about this exciting high-impact event. You can check out our team building events, seminars, speakers and more at our web-site, www.granddynamics.com <http://www.granddynamics.com/> . Amidst all the challenge and uncertainty, there abounds opportunity. I wish you well in seeking out yours and enjoying the process.
I look forward to hearing from you and working and playing together this year. Also feel free to send me some funny April Fools’ pranks that you did or had done to you as I am always looking for a good laugh. Until next time, LIVE YOUR ADVENTURE!!
Last month as I researched content for a Grand Dynamics seminar titled, “Behind the Magic Curtain” I was inspired to consider various perspectives about customer service. The following page is a compilation of customer service quotes. The wisdom on this page has been compiled from an array of vastly successful individuals. Put their advice on customer service to work for you, as you move toward success. Enjoy this page of inspirational customer service quotes! Tim
You’ll never have a product or price advantage again.
They can be easily duplicated,
but a strong customer service culture can’t be copied. -Jerry Fritz
The goal as a company
is to have customer service that is not just the best,
but legendary. -Sam Walton
Being on par in terms of price and quality only gets you into the game.
Service wins the game. -Tony Alessandra
Biggest question:
Isn’t it really ‘customer helping’ rather than customer service?
And wouldn’t you deliver better service if you thought of it that way? -Jeffrey Gitomer
The customer is king. -unknown
There are no traffic jams along the extra mile. -Roger Staubach
The customer is never wrong, they might not be right,
but they are never wrong. -JT
Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it.
It is what the client or customer gets out of it. -Peter Drucker
Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again
and bring their friends. -Walt Disney
If we don’t take care of our customers, someone else will. -unknown
Our life is frittered away by detail.
Simplify, simplify! -Henry David Thoreau
If you make customers unhappy in the physical world,
they might each tell 6 friends.
If you make customers unhappy on the Internet,
they can each tell 6,000 friends. -Jeff Bezos
Customers don’t expect you to be perfect.
They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong. -Donald Porter
Our greatest asset is the customer!
Treat each customer as if they are the only one! -Laurice Leitao
Well done is better than well said. -Benjamin Franklin
To my customer. I may not have the answer, but I’ll find it.
I may not have the time, but I’ll make it. -unknown
In business you get what you want
by giving other people what they want. -Alice Macdougall
As far as customers are concerned you are the company.
This is not a burden, but the core of your job.
You hold in your hands the power to keep customers coming back,
perhaps even to make or break the company. -unknown
People don’t want to communicate with an organization or a computer.
They want to talk to a real, live, responsive, responsible person
who will listen and help them get satisfaction. -Theo Michelson
More Inspirational Customer Service Quotes
If you want to be creative in your company, your career, your life,
all it takes is one easy step… the extra one.
When you encounter a familiar plan, you just ask one question:
What ELSE could we do? -Dale Dauten
Treat every customer as if they sign your paycheck,
because they do. -unknown
Customer complaints are the schoolbooks from which we learn. -unknown
Here is a simple but powerful rule-
always give people more than what they expect to get. -Nelson Boswell
A customer is the most important visitor on our premises.
He is not dependant on us, we are dependent on him. -unknown
There is only one boss. The customer.
And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down,
simply by spending his money somewhere else. -Sam Walton
Washrooms will always tell if your company cares about its customers. -unknown
Every great business is built on friendship. -JC Penney
Quality, is job one. -Ford Company
One customer, well taken care of,
could be more valuable than $10,000 worth of advertising. -Jim Rohn
It’s much harder to provide a great customer service
than I would have ever realized.
It’s much more art than science in some of these other areas
and not just about the facts but about how you are conveying them. -David Yu
Customers may forget what you said
but they’ll never forget how you made them feel. -unknown
More business is lost every year through neglect
than through any other. -Jim Cathart
Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten. -Gucci Family Slogan
The longer you wait, the harder it is to produce outstanding customer service. -William H. Davidow
The purpose of a business is to create a mutually beneficial relationship
between itself and those that it serves.
When it does that well, it will be around tomorrow to do it some more. -John Woods
The customer’s perception is your reality. -Kate Zabriskie
Customer service is training people
how to serve clients in an outstanding fashion. -unknown
Be everywhere, do everything,
and never fail to astonish the customer. -Macy’s Motto
I recentely delivered a “Behind the Magic Curtain” Customer Service Action Seminar for businesses in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Part of the 4 hour seminar included a segment on leadership styles and emotions. Check out this awesome South West clip – this was the third video clip I shared about Leadership, Managing Emotions and Customer Service.
How do you think it relates? — Posted by Tim Walther
Professor David Guest at King’s College, who analysed the survey, says: “A key theme to emerge from the survey is that the notion of employee engagement is more important than ever and is set to be the big issue for 2009 and beyond. Redundancies, more assertive management, and cuts in pay and training are all likely to impact on levels of employee engagement.”
Here’s is the full article. What you will find, is that employee engagment is critical. When you are ready to improve employee engagment, contact Grand Dynamics! Enjoy. – Tim
City law firm Speechly Bircham has teamed up with King’s College London HRM Learning Board to conduct a survey of senior HR managers. The survey paints a challenging picture for UK businesses; it reveals the damage caused by the economic downturn to employee engagement with stress and claims of bullying and harassment on the increase, while pay, bonuses and training budgets are being cut.
The survey shows that, despite widespread workforce reductions continuing, 28% of organisations are still experiencing staff shortages. Interestingly when asked about the criteria for selecting people for redundancy, an employee’s absence record was cited as one of the top criteria. Maintaining employee engagement is cited as the biggest challenge facing bosses.
Reductions in pay and training budgets: 36% of respondents reported a reduction in the size of pay increases, with 33% having reduced the number of staff receiving a bonus and 45% reducing the size of the bonus pool; while 37% reported a reduction in training and development budgets.
Commenting on the findings, Richard Martin, employment partner at Speechly Bircham, said:
“Employers need to realise that although their immediate reaction may be to cut bonuses and pay pools, they do still need to invest in the safeguarding of their talent long-term.”
“One way they can do this is to try, wherever possible, to maintain existing training and development programmes, as cutting back on training will only bite back in the future when they are faced with a glut of underdeveloped staff. The ongoing need for specialist skills is particularly pertinent given the UK’s longstanding, wider skills crisis. The report identifies talent management as a key concern going forward as well as ongoing problems with a shortage of skilled staff. There is an obvious disconnect between a skills shortage on the one hand and a cut in training budgets on the other.”
Increasing workplace problems: 29% of senior HR managers reported an increase in levels of stress among employees, and almost a third of respondents reported an increase in employee relations problems including bullying, stress and harassment. Despite this, 25% reported a reduction in levels of sickness absence.
Richard Martin comments: “This is a clear rejection of the Benylin advert! While an increase in stress might usually be reflected in higher levels of sickness absence, staff appear to be more reluctant to take time off as they rightly realise this may expose them to greater risk in cutback programmes.”
“Employers need to be wary, however, of taking into account sickness absence caused by stress resulting from workforce bullying and harassment or they may be faced with claims.”
Redundancies and staff shortages: 42% of businesses reported redundancies in the past year, and of them, 80% had used compulsory redundancy. Despite this, 28% said they were still experiencing staff shortages – and that the problem lies in finding staff with specific qualifications/skills.
The effect of a trade union presence on grievances: Senior HR managers responding to the survey felt that, looking ahead to the next twelve months, the factor that makes the greatest difference to a rise in grievances is whether or not there is a trade union presence. 33% of those with a union presence expect an increase in the number of grievances compared with about 18% per cent of those with other forms of employee representation or no representation. This is particularly surprising as a union presence is not associated with the rise in grievances in the previous 12 months.
Tougher management and an increase in grievances: 29% of respondents reported an increase in grievances over the past year; 23% expect more to come in 2009. The main grievance issues cited were relations with senior and line management (18.5%) and bullying and harassment (15%). In the coming year, an 11% increase is expected in grievances associated with pay and conditions.
Richard explains: “There seems to be a real concern about grievances escalating considerably at a time when employee engagement is cited as a major concern. With the abolition of the statutory dispute resolution procedures as of April 2009, employers will have to continue to devote energy and attention to their internal dispute resolution processes. Managers must realise that aggressive management is not always the way to drive efficiencies across a business.”
“What is encouraging is that 42% of those who had made staff redundant in the past year, engaged in some form of collective consultation.”
Major business challenges: The top HR challenges for the next year are seen as: maintaining employee engagement (cited by a huge 58%), succession planning (44%), talent management (38%), managing redundancies (35%) and, perhaps surprisingly, managing growth and expansion (31%).
Professor David Guest at King’s College, who analysed the survey, says: “A key theme to emerge from the survey is that the notion of employee engagement is more important than ever and is set to be the big issue for 2009 and beyond. Redundancies, more assertive management, and cuts in pay and training are all likely to impact on levels of employee engagement.”
Recruitment decline: Half of all respondents said that there had been a decrease in general recruitment. However, interestingly only 17% reported a decrease in recruiting graduates.
Richard Martin explains: “In past recessions, one of the first steps taken was to cut graduate recruitment. When the economy recovered, employers realised they had missed out on a generation coming through the ranks. Employers appear to have learned their lesson and are maintaining at least some graduate recruitment for the moment.”
Impact on HR departments: The downturn has not hit HR departments themselves disproportionately – 25% say they have actually increased headcount over the past 12 months. Restructuring of HR departments continues apace. 38% had restructured in the previous year and 31% expect to do so in the next year.
Professor David Guest comments: “Contrary to expectations in such a volatile environment, is that a remarkable number of HR functions are satisfied with how they are able to influence their organisations and the support they receive. This would appear to be a good news story for HR professionals, who have sometimes been seen as the poor relation when compared to other functional areas.”
Stuart Woollard, Managing Director of King’s HRM Learning Board and co-author of the survey report comments:
“It is evident that organisations are facing serious workforce issues that are a direct fallout from the current economic environment. There are clear challenges here for management to grasp quickly and act upon to avoid damaging any strategy to ‘ride the recession’. Fortunately, HR functions appear to be anticipating potential problems such as disengaged employees and the impact of stress, which if left unchecked may have significant additional cost and performance implications for staff and businesses.”
“However, it will be interesting to see if HR can push these to the top of management agendas. HR functions will need to play a central role to drive actions that mitigate the negative outcomes that arise from this recession and help their organisations create a stable and engaged workforce that will take them through and beyond this exceptionally challenging period.”
Notes to editors
Riding the Recession? The state of HR in the current economic downturn is one of the most comprehensive surveys to date on the effect of the downturn on employers and their staff. The questionnaire was distributed to approximately 5,000 predominantly private sector senior HR managers in November 2008. 329 responses were received by early December in time for analysis. A large majority of the respondents hold the title of Human Resource Director or Head of HR. The data was analysed by Mike Clinton, David Guest and Stuart Woollard at King’s.
Speechly Bircham’s Employment group is a leading employment law practice meeting the diverse needs of a broad range of employer and senior employee clients. The employer clients include public and private companies, partnerships and other organisations, based in the UK and overseas, across a wide range of business and professional sectors, with a strong focus on financial services. The team handles sensitive and complex issues across the spectrum of the employment relationship. The group has specialist expertise concerning immigration issues and works closely with the firm’s pension and employee benefit teams. The team is highly regarded for its experienced, discreet and practical approach.
King’s HRM Learning Board is a world leader in providing effective and meaningful links between academia and the HR community. It provides a focus for mutually beneficial and productive long-term partnerships, bringing together academic experts and key leaders and professionals from industry and government. The Learning Board is a conduit to the latest global thinking, research, and learning in organisational analysis and HR management. It also enables access to the unique talent pool of academics, researchers and HRM students at King’s.
Emotional Intelligence and Experiential Training and Development -
Published in the Association for Experiential Education “Horizon” Newsletter
By Tim Walther, M.S.
As Experiential Training and Development practitioners, we all understand and value the importance of “soft skills” training. This synopsis provides an overview of Emotional Intelligence as it relates to Experiential Training and Development.
Experiential Training and Development (ETD) practitioners understand and value the importance of “soft skills” training. As practitioners, we intuitively know that experiential methods develop these skills, often very quickly. However, by their very definition, “soft skills” are hard to measure. Without such measures, we as trainers lack the data to develop business model for selling such trainings to skeptical front line managers, human resource directors, and other key corporate decision makers. “Where is my return on investment?” is what you know they are thinking.
One excellent measure of soft skills that has emerged in today’s training and development research is emotional intelligence (EI). EI research provides the ETD practitioner an opportunity for assessing areas of ETD programming and tracking the results. Detailed in leading publications, including the Harvard Business Review and the Wall Street Journal, and recognized by training and development experts world wide, EI has literally redefined what it takes to be effective in the workplace.
What is Emotional Intelligence? There are two primary models that have surfaced in the realm of EI: the Goleman model and the BarOn Model. Goleman’s model identifies four strategic areas: awareness of self (emotionally); awareness of others’ emotional states; management of self; and management of other’s emotional states. Dr. Reuven Baron defines EI as “an array of personal, emotional and social competencies and skills that influence one’s abilities to succeed in coping with environmental demands and pressures.” A competency may be defined as a personal trait or set of habits that lead to more effective or superior job performance. BarOn has identified EI competency areas, each with sub-constructs, to include intra-personal, interpersonal, stress management, adaptability and mood competencies.
Today’s business is unlike the previous decades. Everything happens in real-time. Other factors that have emerged in today’s business world include globalization, technology, speed, competition, decreased organizational hierarchy, a shift from management to leadership and employee retention challenges. Businesses today now require innovative training and development solutions that not only impact the bottom line, but provide valuable employee incentive as well. While technical competency and cognitive ability are important for today’s business person to be successful, it simply isn’t enough anymore. It is simply an occupational hurdle – an expectation that today’s corporate professional already has these skills and abilities. Where research is showing a big difference is in identifying those professionals with low EI and high EI. And everywhere that research has been conducted, the professionals with higher EI are running circles a round those without strong emotional competencies.
Fortunately, it has been shown that EI, unlike IQ, can be learned. Furthermore, research indicates that experiential training is a particularly effective method for developing EI. Properly designed and ongoing EBTD training and development focused on developing specific EI competencies will have valued, lasting impact.
How is EI Measured? The BarOn EQ-i is a current measure of choice for emotional intelligence.
Normed on over 60,000 people in thirty countries, the EQ-i is a paper and pencil test that has 133 brief items and a 5-point Likert response set. It takes approximately 30 minutes to complete. The test has been used to predict successful job performers, including Air Force recruiters, district managers in a large automotive corporation, middle manager insurance sales persons, non-college educated successful businesspersons, and upper level financial consultants for one of the Big 6 consulting firms, as well as aggressive behavior in the police force. Employees who are selected using the BarOn EQ-I show greater productivity, reduced turnover and consistently out perform their co-workers. (EQ-I Technical Manual, Baron, 1999).
For the ETD practitioner of the future, Emotion Intelligence assessment tools and training and development applications certainly deserve attention. Focusing soft skill development toward specific EI competencies can lead to great advances in demonstrating the efficacy of ETD programming. At last, we may have the answers we have been looking for, and a process for addressing those age-old questions of the efficacy of soft skill training. For more information on the emotional intelligence assessment and training, contact Grand Dynamics at info@granddynamics.com
Tim Walther, M.S. is the President of Grand Dynamics, Inc., a training and development company specializing in corporate retreats, business consulting and health and wellness services. Grand Dynamics is based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Tim holds a Bachelor of Science in Applied Business Psychology and a Masters in Experiential Education focused on organizational development and leadership applications. Grand Dynamics provides a variety of services incorporating the use of Emotional Intelligence as a platform for increasing personal and professional performance for individuals, teams and organizations. For more information, you can contact Tim Walther at tim@granddynamics.com or call 307-733-1989.
This article was published in the Association for Experiential Education Newsletter, Horizon, Fall 2002.
Here are excerpts from an article in which Grand Dynamics was featured in the New York Times. The topic: Return on Investment of outdoor Team Building and Leadership Development and statistical evidence that outdoor team building pays off! The reference to Grand Dynamics is at the bottom of the article and I have pasted it at the top for quick reference to the ROI. The remainder of the article is available below. Enjoy!
One trade group claims it has found statistical evidence that outdoor team-building exercises pay off. The Construction Financial Management Association in Princeton, N.J., which represents 7,000 financial professionals, has held annual retreats for new chapter presidents in Jackson Hole, Wyo., since 1995. It asked Grand Dynamics, a consulting firm, to create exercises based on the best sellers “Who Moved My Cheese?” by Spencer Johnson, on workplace change, and “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey.
William Schwab, the association’s chief executive, said 27 chapter presidents who attended four out of six years had a net annual membership growth rate of more than 10 percent and a membership renewal rate of 81 percent, compared with the average renewal rate for associations of 75 percent. He said 34 chapter presidents who never attended had a 19 percent membership loss in that time.
“Without a doubt, we’ve been able to map our chapters’ development based on whether or not the chapter president went through this experience,” Mr. Schwab said.
Excerpted from an article by SHARON MCDONNELL, NY Times, Late Edition – Final, Section C, Page 7, Column 3 June 23, 2005
August 23, 2005
Team-Building With a Twist
By SHARON McDONNELL
It was the waiter’s missing shirt button, and the tattoo of a snake and a lizard on his bicep, that clinched it.
Fifteen employees, from managers to plant workers, of the Gates Corporation, a Denver maker of automotive and industrial rubber belts and hoses, had already lifted fingerprints near the chalk outlines of two bodies in an alley and a parking garage and found clues like hair, blood, the steak-knife murder weapon and notes about the killings.
Then, over dinner in a restaurant, one of them remarked that the waiter’s appearance matched evidence that they had gathered during the day. So the group asked Tim D. Keck, a consultant and retired police chief who was leading the exercise during a quarterly team-building conference in Poplar Bluff, Mo., the location of a company plant, to “arrest” him.
Corporate trainers have always had a knack for coming up with offbeat exercises to teach teamwork and build leadership skills. Rope courses and other military-inspired Outward Bound-like tests of endurance have been around for decades. But in the last few years, there has been a shift away from physically demanding and intensely competitive exercises toward more creative and cerebral undertakings, according to the American Society for Training and Development in Alexandria, Va.
The new wave of team-building adventures varies from cooking contests à la “Iron Chef” and arts-related activities like playing percussion instruments, staging plays and dancing to outside ventures like sailing and crime scene investigating.
“The fact these activities are colorful and different often makes them suspect and controversial, but they can be perfectly legitimate if they achieve a strategic business objective,” said Patricia A. Galagan, vice president for content at the society.
Some employees have become believers. “It really helped with thinking and brainstorming, and being observant,” said Clover Stout, a health, safety and environmental protection specialist at Gates, of the mock detective work that began at the Gates plant and fanned out into the town. “At the beginning, nobody wanted to share information – there really was a competition on who could find the clue first. Then we had to work with the other team, and everyone huddled up to share information, and the competition aspect started to go away.”
William E. Oden, Mr. Keck’s partner at Performance Insights, a consulting firm in Tulsa, Okla., says the exercise, which they developed just last year and call “C.S.I.: You,” is by far their most popular. “Nice-looking people from middle management are crawling through Dumpsters,” he said. “We had no idea how much people like that. Some men call afterward and ask if their wives can come.”
But TV provides more than grist for titles. The craze for reality shows like “Survivor” and “Fear Factor” has fanned the public’s interest in interactive challenges and is a boon to the business, in the view of Sally Mertes-Stone, who has offered grape-stomping as a team-building activity for nearly 15 years as the spa fitness and activities supervisor at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa in Sonoma, Calif.
Peggy Wilson recalls how frenzied the competition got when about 90 General Mills managers grape-stomped in May on a lawn at the Fairmont, one pair at a time. One person in bare feet would stomp the grapes in a redwood barrel, while the other frantically directed the liquid through a spout in a bid to produce the most juice.
“You really had to stand back,” said Ms. Wilson, an executive administrative assistant in the manufacturing division. “I’m not saying it was enough to draw blood, but some people will do just about anything to win.”
Team-building activities can also have a democratizing effect among staffers; Ms. Mertes-Stone recalls how the owner of a national hotel chain, then in his 80’s, squeezed into a barrel with some of his managers. “After he finished, he took a swig,” she said. “When the C.E.O. and his top people are doing the same thing, it’s a great equalizer.”
Some skeptics feel these exercises have gone too far. Dr. Kenneth Sole, a social psychologist and president of the organizational-change consulting firm Sole & Associates in Durham, N.H., says he does not think such exercises do much good. “There is no need to learn from the ‘analogy’ that we might draw from activities that are far afield, both literally and figuratively,” Dr. Sole said. “Such approaches have the effect of contributing to the avoidance of important issues that people often confront in their efforts to become a successful team.”
But proponents of such off-site team-building activities say they do work, if done right. To be effective, these specialists say, they should teach useful skills like communication, trust-building, collaboration and risk-taking in experiences with clear parallels to workplace situations; they should set specific goals for teams, which should consist of people who work together, not of randomly assigned employees; and they should include “debriefing” sessions to reinforce the business lessons and insights learned.
One trade group claims it has found statistical evidence that outdoor team-building exercises pay off. The Construction Financial Management Association in Princeton, N.J., which represents 7,000 financial professionals, has held annual retreats for new chapter presidents in Jackson Hole, Wyo., since 1995. It asked Grand Dynamics, a consulting firm, to create exercises based on the best sellers “Who Moved My Cheese?” by Spencer Johnson, on workplace change, and “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey.
William Schwab, the association’s chief executive, said 27 chapter presidents who attended four out of six years had a net annual membership growth rate of more than 10 percent and a membership renewal rate of 81 percent, compared with the average renewal rate for associations of 75 percent. He said 34 chapter presidents who never attended had a 19 percent membership loss in that time.
“Without a doubt, we’ve been able to map our chapters’ development based on whether or not the chapter president went through this experience,” Mr. Schwab said.
I am so excited to be posting my first blog on the new Grand Dynamics site! There’s a LOT on my mind, and what I want to share in this post is an interview about the relationship between Culture and Customer service. I recently saw Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos, speak about customer service. He told a great story, and he spoke alot about happiness, self actualization and optimizing his people. The similarities between the models he shared and my international research and focus was, quite frankly, really eerie!
But for now, let’s talk about his message of how great customer service is really a derivative of CULTURE. And where does the culture come from? Holding true to their CORE VALUES! Zappos is serious about their Core Values – so much that they use them for all their hiring decisions – a decision which, according to Tony, is critical to the success of a company LONG TERM. He said that one of his primary responsibilities is to uphold the standard of firing employees when the are not operating in alignment with the core values. THE CONCLUSION? The best companies focus on the culture of their people first. When you do that, the rest will come! By the way, less than 1% of applicants are hired by Zappos and people line up to get a spot at this company ranked #15 in the best companies to work list. I found that out while speaking with a customer service rep while ordering my first pair of shoes. I was immediately upgraded and my shoes were sent overnight to meet me at my hotel on the road! Awesome. Check out this interview to give a little insight into Zappos, and think about how the Culture in YOUR ORGANIZATION can drive outstanding customer service!
This interview with Tony Hsieh, the chief executive of Zappos.com, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant.
Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times
Tony Hsieh is C.E.O. of Zappos.com, the shoe seller that Amazon acquired last year. A core Zappos value, he says, is to “create fun and a little weirdness,” so he values individuality in hiring.
Corner Office
Every Sunday, Adam Bryant talks with top executives about the challenges of leading and managing.
Q. What are some of the most important leadership lessons you’ve learned?
A. After college, a roommate and I started a company called LinkExchange in 1996, and it grew to about 100 or so people, and then we ended up selling the company to Microsoft in 1998. From the outside, it looked like it was a great acquisition, $265 million, but most people don’t know the real reason why we ended up selling the company.
It was because the company culture just went completely downhill. When it was starting out, when it was just 5 or 10 of us, it was like your typical dot-com. We were all really excited, working around the clock, sleeping under our desks, had no idea what day of the week it was. But we didn’t know any better and didn’t pay attention to company culture.
By the time we got to 100 people, even though we hired people with the right skill sets and experiences, I just dreaded getting out of bed in the morning and was hitting that snooze button over and over again.
Q. Why?
A. I just didn’t look forward to going to the office. The passion and excitement were no longer there. That’s kind of a weird feeling for me because this was a company I co-founded, and if I was feeling that way, how must the other employees feel? That’s actually why we ended up selling the company.
Financially, it meant I didn’t have to work again if I didn’t want to. So that was the lens through which I was looking at things. It’s basically asking the question, what would you want to do if you won the lottery? For me, I didn’t want to be part of a company where I dreaded going into the office.
So when I joined Zappos about a year later, I wanted to make sure that I didn’t make the same mistake that I had made at LinkExchange, in terms of the company culture going downhill. So for us, at Zappos, we really view culture as our No. 1 priority. We decided that if we get the culture right, most of the stuff, like building a brand around delivering the very best customer service, will just take care of itself.
Q. So how do you do that?
A. About five years ago, we formalized the definition of our culture into 10 core values. We wanted to come up with committable core values, meaning that we would actually be willing to hire and fire people based on those values, regardless of their individual job performance. Given that criteria, it’s actually pretty tough to come up with core values.
Q.Tell me what happened.
A. We spent a year doing that. I basically sent an e-mail out to the entire company, asking them what our values should be, and got a whole bunch of different responses. The initial list was actually 37 long, and then we ended up condensing and combining them and went back and forth and came up with our list of 10.
Today, we actually do two separate sets of interviews. The hiring manager and his or her team will interview for the standard fit within the team, relevant experience, technical ability and so on. But then our H.R. department does a separate set of interviews purely for culture fit. They actually have questions for each and every one of the core values.
Q. Can you give me an example of the value and the question?
A. Well, some of them are behavioral questions. One of our values is, “Create fun and a little weirdness.” So one of our interview questions is, literally, on a scale of 1 to 10, how weird are you? If you’re a 1, you’re probably a little bit too strait-laced for us. If you’re a 10, you might be too psychotic for us.
It’s not so much the number; it’s more seeing how candidates react to a question. Because our whole belief is that everyone is a little weird somehow, so it’s really more just a fun way of saying that we really recognize and celebrate each person’s individuality, and we want their true personalities to shine in the workplace environment, whether it’s with co-workers or when talking with customers.
I think of myself less as a leader, and more of being almost an architect of an environment that enables employees to come up with their own ideas, and where employees can grow the culture and evolve it over time, so it’s not me having a vision of “This is our culture.”
Maybe an analogy is, if you think of the employees and culture as plants growing, I’m not trying to be the biggest plant for them to aspire to. I’m more trying to architect the greenhouse where they can all flourish and grow.
Q. Did the process of developing those core values go smoothly?
A. Honestly, there was a lot of resistance to the core values rolling out, including from me. I was very hesitant, because it just felt like one of those big-company things to do. But within a couple of months, it just made such a huge difference. It gave everyone a common language, and just created a lot more alignment in terms of how everyone in the company was thinking. If I could do it all over again, I would roll out our core values from Day 1.
Q. What other things did you do at Zappos to sort of reinforce and build the culture?
A. Probably the most important thing I did was try to encourage employees to come up with their own ideas for building the culture. The actual ideas that I’ve personally come up with are few and far between.
Q.But what were those?
A. For example, for our offices in Las Vegas, it’s a big building. We’ve probably got 700 employees in Vegas. The previous tenants had multiple doors where you can exit, and the parking lot is in the back. We made the decision to actually lock all the doors so everyone has to go through the front-entrance reception area, even though that means you might have to walk all the way around the building. The reason for that is to create this kind of central hub that everyone has to pass through to help build community and culture.
And the free lunch we provide for employees is really meant less as a benefit in terms of a free lunch, and more to get employees to interact with each other. But most of the stuff that happens in our office is really about some employee coming up with an idea and, whether it’s me or other managers, saying, “If you’re passionate about it, just run with it.”
At some point, it kind of just snowballs, because once employees see other employees just doing stuff, then that lets them feel like they have more permission to run with their ideas.
Q.Any other examples?
A. One of our teams — the outdoor team in our merchandising department — decided to decorate one of the conference rooms, and transform it so that when you’re inside, you feel like you’re in a log cabin. They spent the weekend tearing up the floors and putting in a fake fire and all this stuff. It was pretty cool.
But then, the week after, the team sitting next to them said, we can outdo them. The next thing we knew, within two or three months, all 20 or so conference rooms were all decorated by different teams.
Q.What else is unusual about Zappos?
A. We have a culture book. We put it together once a year and we ask all our employees to write a few paragraphs about what the Zappos culture means to them and, except for typos, it’s unedited, so you get to read the good and bad. It’s kind of like customer reviews you might read on Web sites, but these are essentially employee reviews of the company and our culture. We make it freely available to visitors and anybody who asks for a copy.
Q. If you’re hiring a senior executive, reporting directly to you, what kind of questions would you be asking them?
A. It’s pretty hard to interview senior executives, because they’re in that position for a reason. They do many interviews themselves. It’s hard to tell from an interview. So I’m not sure there’s that much you can get out of the in-office interview. They need the relevant skill set and experience and so on. But far more important is, are they going to be good for the culture? Is this someone we would choose to have dinner or drinks with, even if they weren’t working for Zappos?
Hiring senior-level talent is very hard, it’s hit or miss, and they can do a lot of damage to the culture. We’ve had bad experiences with that. So we have this thing called the pipeline, which is our vision for how we want to grow as a company. We’re hoping five years from now the vast, vast majority of all hires will actually be entry-level, but we’ll provide all the training and mentorship so that, over a five- to seven-year period, they can become a senior leader within the company. That will help protect our culture and also give all the employees a growth path professionally.
Q. But again, if you had to hire someone from the outside for a senior job, what would you do?
A. It’s not just a single day with them and you make a decision. We’ll invite them to barbecues on weekends and they bring their families, and just hang out, or go to dinner or happy hour or whatever. It’s more just about trying to get a sense of who they are outside the office, I guess, and whether you feel like you can actually get to know them on a personal level or if they’re very professional and standoffish.
If it’s the latter, then it’s probably not going to be a good fit for us because, at the end of the day, what matters most is how deep of a relationship you can develop with them. For someone who’s not comfortable being themselves, that kind of puts limits on how close of a relationship you have.
Q.If you could ask only one or two questions to get a sense of a person, what would they be?
A. “If you had to name something, what would you say is the biggest misperception that people have of you?” Then the follow-up question I usually ask is, “What’s the difference between misperception and perception?” After all, perception is perception.
Q. What are you trying to discover with those questions?
A. I think it’s a combination of how self-aware people are and how honest they are. I think if someone is self-aware, then they can always continue to grow. If they’re not self-aware, I think it’s harder for them to evolve or adapt beyond who they already are.
To Check out more about Zappos, Tony and the Unique Culture, go here:
