The EcoSeagate team development process is definitely a very
valuable tool and I think would be an amazing team-building experience for any
company. I have participated in a few
teambuilding exercises with a few of the companies I worked for, never on this
scale, but still very noteworthy. At the
IT firm I used to work for they did a company-wide sky-diving excursion. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I was
hired right after that event. Everyone
except for a handful of employees participated, even the oldest member, a 65
year old executive manager and his wife jumped out of a plane. The next year we did laser tag. It was a great team-building and morale-building
exercise. Last year during our annual
graduation/conference event we all participated in a zip line course in
Germany. There were a few low-risk
mandatory events that required a lot of teamwork and little physical
activity. This was a great feeling and
taught us to let down our inhibitions and open communication with our fellow
workmates. Some exercises had us skin to
skin with each other. Shy people opened
up and aggressive people toned down. It
seems that these types of intimate experiences made us all more aware of
ourselves and our behaviors. After the
mandatory group exercises, those who wanted to continue were grouped into teams
of four to do the zip line courses through the trees. This was extremely challenging for me because
of my atrocious fear of heights. To top
things off, the regional dean and mega boss of the entire region, was one of my
teammates. But titles and positions
disappeared the minute he had to hold my hand and gently nudge and encourage me
across the line when I became frozen with fear on the line. My relationship with him completely changed. And, although I continued to interact with the
same kind of respect for his authority, my admiration of his leadership
increased. This same feeling also
carried across to other members of our company such as the President/Chancellor
and directors. The CEO of Seagate, Bill
Watkins explained in an interview that the team building experiences always
take place in awe-inspiring environments that feel foreign to the participants (O'Brien,
2008)
I believe these types of experiences are important in
high-performing organizations such as mine because it gives us the opportunity
to cross barriers that we would have never felt comfortable crossing. Before the zip line experience, I would have
never felt comfortable having a casual conversation with the President, but
afterwards, it seems like the most natural thing to do. It seemed to bring everyone to ground zero. These exercises forced us to trust each other
and brought to the light, not only our weaknesses but our strengths. I learned a lot about myself, and realized
that my self-consciousness was auto created and auto-maintained. Also, the belief that my teammates had in me brought
out a confidence and assertiveness in me that I was unaware existed. One thing that Jeffrey Pfeffer, professor of
organizational behavior at Stanford University, forewarns us about is making sure
that the “underlying ethic” lives on after the event. Meaning that the experience is completely
worthless if members don’t take the lessons learned and apply them to their
professional environments. The beauty of
EcoSeagate is that each day started off with a pep-talk and a theme such as
Conflict, Commitment, and Accountability. The experiences were then related back to the
themes which made the experiences not only personal, but added to their
professional growth.
References
Max,
S. (2006, April 2). Seagate's morale-athon. Retrieved from
http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2006-04-02/seagates-morale-athon
Ming
Chao. (2008, April 26). Eco Seagate 2008 2/3 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etwuap-_Azk&feature=youtu.be
Ming
Chao. (2008, April 26). Eco Seagate 2008 1/3 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCOfOFMiLtE&feature=youtu.be
O'Brien,
J. (2008, May 21). Team building in paradise. Retrieved from
http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/20/technology/obrien_seagate.fortune/index.htm
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