From Develop Your Leadership Skills by the master of leadership training, John Adair.
The six most important words…
I admit I made a mistake
The five most important words…
I am proud of you
The four most important words…
What is your opinion?
The three most important words…
If you please
The two most important words…
Thank you
The most important…
We
…and the least important…
I
This very clever use of light and body shape simply wouldn’t be possible if any one member of the troupe wasn’t intimately aware of exact where the others were at all times. The also must hold the vision for what they are trying to achieve in their heads and trust their choreographer as they have no way to see the outcome in real time.
The trust a winchman-paramedic must have in his pilot and winch operator is complete. A mistake by either is likely to be life threatening. The clear goal, saving life, means that everybody on board knows exactly what they are trying to achieve.
A spectacular display, made possible only by trust, practice and understanding of members strengths and weaknesses.
This video only really introduces the problem that the teamwork was to solve. Working shifts night and day for four days, NASA flight controllers successfully brought home three astronauts after an explosion damaged their craft and diminished their oxygen supply. Described as “the most glorious failure in history”.
Everybody in this team knows their roles and carries them out flawlessly. Communication is as simple as possible, raised arm means “I’m done”
Described as the greatest try of all time. Constant re-evaluation of the situation by all team members to put themselves in the right place at the right time.
Creative and clever output, reliant totally on each member playing their part. Impressive performance by high school pupils.
In 1965 Paul Petzolt, founder of the National Outdoor Leadership School in Wyoming used the phrase “Expedition Behaviour” for the first time.
For him it represented a series of principles which guide the decisions and behaviours of an expedition’s members in order to achieve the maximum across the team with the minimum of stress. By 1974 he’d refined the idea enough to write 17 pages on it in his seminal “Wilderness Handbook” and it continues to be at the core of NOLS courses today.
Expedition Behaviour means being prepared, on time, organized, flexible and humble; seeing the humor in everything; exercising a tolerance for adversity, uncertainty and discomfort; and putting the needs of the group and others on the same level or above one’s own needs. Some people do it instinctively, others take a while but eventually, given the reality that wilderness places in front of us, almost everybody gets it.
When we have to create something new, we need to be creative, we need to innovate. Our thought processes can work in one or two ways, either they can be divergent, generating new ideas out of the ones we already have or convergent, refining the ideas we have into a conclusion.
This is the production of new ideas, building on existing ideas or going in new directions. It should quickly develop a list, many of which will be useless but amongst them should be some gems.
Also known as: brain-storming, imagining, bouncing ideas around.
This story from the days of the Apollo missions is probably apocryphal but it does raise an interesting point about the difference between job descriptions and vision.
In 1967 a journalist is wandering round NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory talking to people involved in the Apollo missions.
He encounters a man wearing the default engineer’s uniform of a white shirt and blue tie, a slide rule sticking out of his top pocket.
“Sorry to interrupt” says the journalist, “but do you mind me asking what you your job is?”
“No problem” replies the engineer, “my job is to calculate the mass flow rate of RP-1 fuel through each of the engines of the Saturn rocket”.
The journalist dutifully writes this down in his note book and thanks the engineer. In the office across the hallway he finds another man, dressed in a dark suit. He knocks politely then asks,
“Hello, I’m doing an article on the staff at NASA and I am trying to find out what peoples jobs are.”
“I’m the Lunar Module Flight Plan Director.” says the man in the suit, “I manage and approve all changes the the LMFP.”
Again the journalist writes down what the man says and wanders off to find someone else. At the end of the corridor is a man in NASA overalls sweeping the floor. Under the blue and red logo is the word ‘Janitor’.
Sensing the possibility of a human interest story the journalist approaches the man
“I can see you are a janitor”, he says “but what does your job involve?”
“That’s easy”, replies the janitor “I’m putting man on the moon”.
Why do it?Is “Because it’s there” a good enough reason to do something? Do you want to do it to become wealthier, to be more secure, to learn something or just to get to the top?
You need to work out what you resources you need, you need to work out a rough schedule as well. You also need to make sure you’re up to the task and have the right team around you.
On the Three Peaks event I ran for Evolution Services this weekend I spent some time talking to one of the participants about the feeling of achievement that comes from climbing a mountain. This feeling is very satisfying, often represents real learning and, importantly from a trainers point of view, impossible to fake.
There is no way in the world that moving some barrels and planks around on a patch of grass to cross a ‘river’ marked out with ropes can ever compare to building a pontoon to cross a real river. Read More
This 2002 obituary for Goran Kropp, the Swedish adventurer and mountain
eer contains this passage which describes how he prepared himself for the unexpected.
“While doing his national service in a Swedish infantry regiment, he trained for Alpine climbing expeditions by sleeping in a gravel pit. His tough, self-imposed programme included setting his alarm clock at random: if he woke at 3am he would walk 30km in full combat gear; if he woke at 6am, he would walk 60km. “I wanted to get used to living with the unexpected,” he said.”
The rest of the obituary further emphasises how dedicated this man was to both adventure and minimal impact techniques.
“Kropp aimed to tackle each expedition “in harmony with nature”, without support and leaving no trace of his passing. “It is important for me to leave nothing behind me on a mountain,” he said.”
You can read the rest of the obituary on the Telegraph website.
Photo from MountainZone.com.
Totem would like to invite you to participate in our next Anything Could Happen course which will be running in September. It will be taking place in North Wales on either 11-13th September or 18-20th September. The cost is £280.
There is plenty of of information about the course at www.totemdevelopment.co.uk/anythingcouldhappen
In summary, it is an open outcome course with no fixed programme. We aim to draw together a diverse group of people, put them in beautiful surroundings, and provide challenging activities to create a powerful learning experience. It is aimed at people who are interested in their own personal development and who want to explore their own learning in an exciting and challenging environment.
Since we use Agile Programming, we can’t guarantee what you’ll be doing on the course but previously we have guided blindfolded partners; hunted foam animals scattered throughout the town; created art out of slate; abseiled and climbed; had round table debates; created codes and built a bridge across a lake.
We couple this with meaningful, engaging personal and group reflection and review to ensure that participants come away having learnt from everything they have done.
Some comments from previous participants:
“Thought provoking and loads of fun with plenty to take away to think about and hopefully apply!” -James
“A month of life packed into 48 hours!” -Eeva
“Thought-provoking; knackering but fun and challenging” -Billy
Mark also wrote a short piece about his time on the course, which you can read here.
The course fee includes all food and accommodation for the weekend, as well as the training, activities and any materials used. We will be based at the well equipped and friendly Bryn Du Mountain centre.
If you are interested in attending the course, please let us know which dates (11-13 or 18-20) you could attend and which one you prefer.
If you have any friends, colleagues or family who you think might be interested, please do not hesitate to forward this to them.
If you want to know more about this unusual course, please feel free to contact us.
On our Anything Could Happen course we ask the participants to recommend a book that they have read that changed the way they thought or behaved. The participants of ACH1 had the following suggestions. Read More
We don't change organisations, we change people. People change organisations.
