TJ - The Publication for Learning and Development

The bear necessities

By Mike Levy (July 2005 Issue)
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Have you had a ‘polar bear’ moment? In an analogous context it could be a business that faces a big and pressing problem that threatens its very survival. But for Rob Lewis, it was literally being confronted by a very large and extremely hungry polar bear. Lewis is MD of Mission Performance – a training company which combines physical challenge with firm business objectives. He founded the company after a long spell in the Royal Marines. He now brings the experience as an officer into the boardrooms and training venues of many blue chip organisations.

Lewis believes that the miliatary is a useful model for the corporate world. 'If we had the level of motivation in business that a young marine had, we’d be laughing all the way to the bank' , he says. Marines, however have joined the forces because they already have that commitment and motivation, which is arguably, worlds away from an office worker. Lewis disagrees. 'Motivation is a process, not something you can wave a magic wand over. You must first find out what motivates each member of the team away from the office. Try to align that level of motivation with the core values of the business. If team members value their time outside of work, try to enable them to achieve their personal objectives,' he suggests.

Lewis and his team have evolved their own philosophical approach to learning: Leading Self and Others (LSO). This says Lewis has evolved gradually over Mission’s first four years in business and has been successfully trialed and refined with selected clients over the last 12 months. It has been designed to address directly what Lewis believes to be the fundamental weakness of current competitive personal development and leadership training courses. He claims that although most companies insist that their people are the key to their success, few actually understand and then meet employees' real needs and aspirations. The result is frequently entirely inappropriate training being provided, which is then treated with derision by employees and leaves an overall negative impact.

Lewis says that the majority of the companies in industry and commerce are conspicuously failing to recognise that employees now want much more out of their lives, especially in the workplace. Increasingly people are leaving businesses that do not provide the happy, enjoyable and challenging work environments which enable them to meet their individual goals and achieve higher levels of personal as well as professional satisfaction.

'Businesses that can demonstrate that they recognise this changing environment and constantly review and adapt all aspects of their people management accordingly will benefit disproportionately. Not only will they gain increased loyalty but also a more motivated, appreciative and productive workforce. Enabling their staff to participate in training which has been designed to recognize and meet these evolving needs is one of the most effective ways that employees can demonstrate their awareness and empathy”, he adds.

Working with their sister company, Venture Challenge, a team from the Royal Bank of Scotland is going out to the jungles of Belize for 3 to 4 weeks. 'They will bring back with them all of the team and leadership skills they have learnt. They will have fantastic experiences and learn to share this with their colleagues,' enthuses Lewis. But, he says, it has to be more than the experience. 'Every project we do is underpinned with a robust business case rationale. It has to make commercial sense and be acceptable to the finance director – the ‘show me the money’ guys. We must be able to show a return on the investment.'

Lewis’s company certainly likes to practise what it preaches, by insisting that its own consultants take time out to pursue their individual challenges and achieve their personal goals. Last year Lewis led a three-man team on a mammoth race to the Magnetic North Pole (The Polar Challenge). The experience, even for a seasoned adventurer was life changing. 'I had 17 hours a day for three weeks to think about the direction of my life. What is important to me? What motivates me? Most people don’t have time for introspective thinking', he says.

There, in the icy wilderness of Northern Canada, Lewis was reminded of the importance of everyone pulling their own weight in a team - he had his 'polar bear' moment. 'It was intending to eat us. We couldn’t run away or ignore it. The only solution was to face the problem head on,' he recalls. Bringing his military training to bear on the bear, the nervous threesome (including a BBC man) formed a trident shape, Lewis lead a charge with waving skis and the creature eventually withdrew. It’s what we train people to do in business – face the problem, devise strategies for survival, and above all, work as a team'.

LSO is subdivided into a three personal skill centres – Me, You and Us.

ME skills are centred on being aware of one’s strengths, weaknesses and motivations and being comfortable sharing these at the appropriate times.

YOU skills are concerned with giving and receiving feedback and building trust in relationships so effective communication is a key factor.

US skills emphasise the need to encourage and maintain an environment of positive regard within a high performance team and to value diversity.

Mission aims to ensure that these new skills and insights become the norm for the future. This critical process, known as ‘Anchor to Habit’©, is delivered within the modules of the robust LSO curriculum through a combination of accelerated learning, challenging yet enjoyable experiential activity and immersion in inspirational real life case studies. These are fused with the trainers’ own personal experiences to provide an environment where delegates can transcend personal barriers to engage fully in their self-development. As a result, many course participants have experienced challenges they never thought possible and which have subsequently changed their lives.

 

To find out more visit www.missionperformance.com info@missionperformance.com www.polar-challenge.com .

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