Team development and leadership training has become
increasingly more important and relevant as technology advances and
organizational processes change. It is
important that companies are aware of the shifting changes in society and the
new methods for communication and idea sharing.
With this shift in the way organizations operate, comes a need for
developing stronger and more meaningful team building strategies. Seagate Technology, a computer hard drive
manufacturer with more that 2,00 employees worldwide, has tried to combat the
“negative responses to prior leadership in the company that instilled fear in
everyone by utilizing the idea of team development by using outdoor
experiential laboratory training. Every
year, Seagate spends $2 million dollars on this outdoor lab experience, called
EcoSeagate, in the hopes of developing stronger, and more adaptable employees
who can help strengthen and grow their teams around the world. While Bill Watkins, current president of Seagate,
stated that he has not been able to provide in real positive measurable results
from this experience, he claims that the benefits are obvious.
The value
in the EcoSeagate experience may not be measurable in the numbers, but it may
benefit the team development process at Seagate, but there are also areas that
may very well not be benefiting from the experience. As Watkins stated when asked about the
benefits of EcoSeagate, “if you do nothing, then nothing will happen, and
nothing will change”, these activities have the potential to play a
developmental role on the attendees of the event. The experience, if planned accordingly, can
“provide participants with insights into their leadership and interpersonal styles…allowing
the participants to learn how to improve their teamwork back on the job.”
(Brown, 2011) In order for this
experience to actually make an impact on not just the participants, but also
their teams back in the work place, it is crucial that Seagate Technology has
an establish plan and expectation for the participants.
Watkins
stated “he dreamed up EcoSeagate as a way to break down barriers, boost
confidence, and make staffers better team players.” (Max, 2006) The steps that
EcoSeagate follows in order to achieve that goal that Watkins has set for
everyone, a strong team development process must be established, understood,
and followed. (Brown, 2011) What I found
to be successful about the EcoSeagate development process was that first,
Watkins made sure that the playing level was on equal footing by establishing
the training program in New Zealand, where the environment in unfamiliar to
everyone in attendance. Another
successful area for EcoSeagate is bringing a diverse group of people together
to represent different areas of the large company. It is important to bring a diverse group of
people together to help each person learn about one another from a new
perspective, while also learning to appreciate the diversity and understand the
different perspectives. I also found the
mini training opportunities within the program to be beneficial as well. Brown noted that while the training programs
can be very moving and motivational, if a plan is not in place for afterwards
when everyone returns back to their work teams, then the motivation will wear
off and the effectiveness of the program will be essentially erased. (Brown, 2011)
By giving the participants opportunity to learn, share, and experience these
lessons can set up a stronger foundation for interpreting these ideas when they
get back to their work teams. Watkins
managed to do this by setting up smaller teams within the training program,
where each member is from a diverse background and they all have different
experiences. They are then tasked with
using teamwork and the lessons they have been learning to undergo different
activities that touch on different learning exercises.
I believe
that these training opportunities are necessary in a high-performing
organization because it allows for a stronger understanding of each person
within the organization. These
opportunities instill values of acceptance and appreciation for one another,
which in turn, encourage diversity and new ideas to be shared and explored. According to Brown, companies or teams with
more diverse employees tend to have better, more effective results then teams
with less diversity. (Brown, 2011) With
that said, these experiences are irrelevant if the organization does not have a
proper plan in place.
I feel like
these types of activities are explored every year at different organizations I
have been at, but I have noticed each time they are explored, a consensual
feeling of negativity generally swarms these types of events. I think this is the case because many employees
see it as a tool that is forced upon them to participate in, generally outside
of work. If they are already unhappy in
their jobs, odds are they are not going to come into the activity excited or
enthusiastic about having to participate in a job related experience. I believe that another issue that companies
face is not conducting the proper team development process. At my current organization, the idea of “team
bonding” is generally focused around a group bowling activity, where the
playing field is not equal, the proper research has not been conducted as to
what is needed to be achieved from this experience, and the overall feeling of
negativity and people wanting to back out surfaces. For this to be an effective tool at my
current organization, which I think it could be, a plan with a stated goal, as
well as proper data on what needs to be accomplished needs to be established
first. By selecting bowling, it reads as
a random event flung together by the senior level managers in the hopes of building
and strengthening the teams. I would suggest that my organization evaluate what
the current problems are within the organization, establish a goal to achieve,
and develop a proper activity that speaks directly to the needs of the
company. I do think these activities can
be beneficial to an organization, but the team development meetings are crucial
to making sure that the selected activity reads and is understood by the participants.
References
Brown, D. (2011). An Experiential
approach to organizational development (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey: Pearson Hall.
Max, S. (2006). Seagate's Morale-athon.
Retrieved October 22, 2015.
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