Developing the rules of engagement

A lot of businesses are confused regarding team building. Why?

Because they realise they have a team problem, but cannot put their finger on what it is or how to put the problem right.

Businesses need to understand what ‘good’ looks like to get a starting point of how they need their people to perform. This is what is called the ‘Rules of Engagement’ once these have been established this is the minimum performance that is accepted. Rules are about attitudes and behaviours get this right and the rest is easy. Businesses should spend time changing attitudes and establishing behaviours as part of delivering team building or team development programmes.

The most successful businesses have various things in common one of them is empowered workers, who know their role and responsibility to deliver their part in this success and just as important know what is expected of their co workers to support this success. The core of any interventions success is building on a solid foundation, which is the culture of your business, the attitudes and behaviour of its people.

Horse facilitated learning is used for individual coaching and group learning for team building, leadership, decision making and coaching through specific issues with individuals or projects that a person may have.

In an equine facilitated format, the horse serves as the unique variable which can abbreviate the coaching process and authentically cut through to the core issues which support the client’s growth. Results are a matter of the individual’s or team’s intentions, choices and actions, supported by the coach’s efforts, the horse’s presence and clarity interacting with the client and the application of coaching skills, approaches and methods. Enhancing self awareness is the first building block in Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence concept. Partnering with a horse and a coach can accelerate this self-awareness.

Ellen Gehrke, Ph.D. & Sherri Petro, MBA 2009©

Learning is based upon the response from the horse giving the learner a greater understanding of their own behaviour in a given situation or when thinking about certain issues. The learner can then adapt that behaviour to create a different response. Learning can be a gradual process of experimenting and taking knew found knowledge to do things differently back into the workplace or it can be an instant change which can then create an emotional anchor so when the learner goes back into their work environment they can in their mind go back to their experience with the horse and draw on that feeling they had which created the desired response to create the same behaviour.

Pete and I met with a horse accelerated learning coach to find out more. On arrival we were talked through the process and the health and safety issues associated with working with live animals. We were also asked to rate our comfort with horses on a scale of one to ten. I spent much of my childhood around horses so I was not nervous, Pete on the other hand is very unfamiliar with them and his rating was much lower. The next phase was to set a goal which we would like help in achieving or an issue we would like to resolve. As we hadn’t come for a coaching session but to find out more about this technique we were somewhat in a manufactured environment making this difficult to do but we each managed to think of something that would suit this type of learning. I chose to work on my decision making. Once outside in the arena with the horse we were set a task according to this goal.

Suzannah’s experience

The task I was set was to get the horse to follow me over two obstacles. It was up to me to decide in what order or how many times we went over those obstacles. The first task was to get the horse to follow me. Horses are sociable animals and naturally want to be around people but they will only follow a person if they feel that person deserves to be followed by showing confidence, determination and credibility. To find this within yourself requires some experimentation and I needed to try a number of techniques to befriend the horse before it would follow me consistently. What I discovered was that I had to really want the horse to follow me and believe that it would and only then it did. The next step was to get the horse to follow me over the obstacles and again trial and error came in along with the decision making. After a number of failed attempts ending with the horse walking around the obstacle or stopping just before it I finally worked out the secret. I had to make a clear decision and have no doubt in my mind about that decision and the horse would happily follow me over those obstacles. This was a clear example of the theory above where an emotional anchor is created through experiencing a feeling of confidence in my decisions that I could use later when making other decisions in my life or in business to get others to follow me confidently.

To explain the horse’s role more fully we can think of him as a mirror reflecting back our inner feelings with his response. This response allows us the opportunity for self-reflection and self-discovery in ways that human relationships are unable to.

“Horses engage something fundamental in us and reveal it more fully to our awareness. They offer a mirror to the workings of our inner selves creating opportunity to know ourselves better and own ourselves more fully. Horses’ reactions reflect how they experience who we are being and how we are behaving around them – what they understand by our actions. How they respond when we are with them tells us directly the impression we are making on them. This authentic mirroring has complete integrity; horses cannot lie. Horses challenge us to focus down into the detail of what we feel and how we act, and opens us up to the big questions of who we are and who we wish to be.”

Victoria Lance, Lance Learning

My experience was very positive and I came away really seeing the benefits this type of coaching particularly in relation to helping with confidence, listening to intuition, decision making, and working on specific weaknesses. A lot of the work can be done by thinking about specific situations or work issues and seeing how the horse reacts when you are thinking about certain scenarios or solutions.

Pete’s experience

The task I set was to look at other ways of finding solutions to issues. I am not confident around animals that are taller, heavier and have more teeth than me. I spent virtually all my time being conscious of where and what the horse was doing, which is the reverse of what should happen  i.e. the horse should have been responding to me!!!! I am sure there are people who would really enjoy the experience and would have something tangible to take away and use, unfortunately not me.

When we were back in the office we discussed our experiences with each other and how something like this may or may not fit into the work we do at Top Banana. We came up with a few concerns the most obvious being peoples level of comfort with horses. Sensibly they don’t recommend this type of work with people who are frightened of horses but they do work with people who are not confident with horses. From my observations of Pete’s experience I could see that his confidence with horses was a clear hindrance to him progressing in his task, it may be that a more in depth briefing about horses and what you can and can’t do with them or some suggestions from the coach on how to progress in the physical sense (e.g. stroking, patting, where to stand etc) might have helped though that would have to be seen to be believed. This activity could also make a productive team building or team development activity and would show clear leaders and followers within a group however the emergence of the natural group dynamic may be marred by different confidence levels amongst the group for example a natural group leader may immediately become a group follower because they are completely out of their comfort zone around horses making them happy to allow someone else to take control who has more experience and a better understanding of horses.

Another barrier we could see was how we would sell this and what sorts of clients would buy it. It is a very unconventional method and in these times of increasing efficiency and reduced event and training budgets, would clients be willing to try something so different when more traditional training and team building methods have worked for them in the past.

As we both had very different experiences we can see that this method is something that is very individual and everyone who takes part will have a different experience and for this reason we are still interested in learning more and finding out what other people’s reactions and experiences with horse accelerated learning have been.

Robbie with the team for the Tatev project

The ultimate in Customer Care

Thousands of plane travellers faced serious disruption in April as the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud continues to cause chaos at UK airports. Ash, from the erupting volcano in Iceland, had drifted into airspace above the UK and Ireland forcing all flights to be cancelled. Amongst the many thousands of passengers affected by the dramatic cancellation of flights were myself and colleague Robbie Burns We were due to fly out of Heathrow on a 5 hour flight to Armenia on the evening of Sunday 18th April to prepare for a meeting with clients the following afternoon. When the situation became clear on the Friday that no flights would be leaving the UK that weekend we rang the client and informed them that we would give a full update on Monday morning. The Sunday flights were cancelled and investigations made into exactly how we would get to Armenia, and when! The following is a true record of the unbelievable efforts we made to keep that appointment with the client. Getting accurate information on flights or other forms of transport was difficult as thousands of stranded passengers both abroad and in the UK blocked phone lines and websites in a desperate attempt to solve their immediate problems. How dare they, we should have preference!!!!!!!!!!!! On Monday morning a decision was made that we would do everything possible to attend the meeting and the client was asked what was the latest date they could arrive. The meeting was re-scheduled for 9.30am on Thursday 22nd April. After numerous telephone calls to railway stations and ferry companies, with little success, we two intrepid ‘Michael Palins’ decided to simply ‘set off’ and do the best they could. As I drove, Robbie kept up the calls to rail companies and liaised with Suzannah back in the office who was busy ‘Googling’. Two tickets were reserved on the Dover – Calais ferry to be paid for when we arrived. Once in France we would then drive to Paris to catch a flight from Charles de Gaulle.   After two hours of driving we were on the M25 when the ferry company called to say the tickets had been sold which meant a quick diversion to Ashford in Kent to catch the Euro star. Once at Ashford we tried to purchase tickets only to be told that there was only ONE seat available on the next train and the second ticket would have to be on the following train. The problem; this second train did not stop at Ashford and one of us would need to drive to London to catch the train there! After a lot of searching the sales assistant finally found TWO seats (First class of course no ordinary seats!!!!) available so we boarded the train for Paris. During the journey Suzannah informed them that Paris airspace was still closed BUT if we could get from the Gare du Nord to the Gare du l’Est in 15 minutes we could catch a train to Munich where flights were likely to be operational earlier than the most western parts of Europe. After a very quick dash from one station to another we were greeted by a shut ticket office with a notice saying that the French Rail workers were on strike (so its not just the fishermen) and no further trains would be leaving Paris that night. So came the task of finding a hotel room at 8.00pm, as you can imagine this was extremely difficult as all other potential travellers were faced with the same problems, a hotel was eventually found on the outskirts of the city. Early next morning on our arrival at the station we discovered that all direct trains to Munich were fully booked and only a series of ‘slow trains’ through the French countryside via Mannheim, changing for Stuttgart then changing again for Munich were available. These we booked. During the long wait we updated the client on our ever extending anticipated time of arrival in Armenia. During the long journey to Munich Suzannah kept us fully informed of possible flight options. Once in Munich we took the shuttle train to the airport, we should have realised then that Munich airport was shut as we were the only people on the train. YES Munich Airport was still shut down and it would be reviewed at 5.00am the next morning, luckily we found a bar open and the European cup was on, beer and football, heaven. We then had to find somewhere to sleep, those benches are hard.  Today is Wednesday and after a very uncomfortable evening sleeping in a deserted airport the flight information desk re-opened at 5.00am but all flights to Armenia were still cancelled. Tickets were available for Istanbul and our client was able to arrange onward tickets to Armenia. The only problem now was that Munich air traffic control would not be confirming flights out until later that morning. We had to purchase tickets for the following day then upgrade if earlier flights became available. There was no option other than to purchase the tickets as we were conscious of the rush of other potential travellers and we might not get another flight due to the demand of Europe getting moving again. We were wrong at 11.00am flights to Istanbul were given clearance and Robbie me and one other passenger and nine crew took of and arrived in Turkey to enjoy the delights of a 14 hour wait in the departure lounge of Istanbul airport. The client was updated and they informed me that the meeting the next morning at 9.30am was still the last possible time we could be seen. After a crowded early morning flight the we finally arrived in Armenia. At 6.30 am we arrived at the reception desk of the Metropol Hotel in Yerevan. Refreshed by a quick shower, a change of clothes and a light breakfast, We sat down with the clients at 9.30am Thursday 22nd April as agreed. Three days, five trains, two planes and one taxi after setting off from our office. The meeting was a great success and the client was amazed by the determination of Top Banana’s own Phileas Fogg and Passepartout routine. A busy two day schedule of site visits was conducted before we had to fly home and prepare our proposal. Flights were now a little easier and the client was able to book flights to London via Vienna, so all seemed fine. The flight out was at 4.00am so another early start was required. Whilst sitting on the Vienna plane awaiting take off the passengers were informed that two people had failed to make the boarding and their bags had to be removed. This delayed the flight by another 30 minutes so the connecting flight to London was missed. Once in Vienna we discovered My phone was missing – the only possibility, stolen! Then there was only one more flight and a five hour wait between us and home! We arrived in Heathrow when we remembered that the car was in Kent! Another train across London and one back to Ashford and the drive home could begin. It may be ‘a long way to Tipperary’ but it seemed just as long from Ashford to Home. The whole adventure finally finished at 7.30pm with a well deserved pint in the local! SEVEN TRAINS, FOUR PLANES, TWO TAXI’S, and TWO LONG CAR JOURNEYS……if anyone can beat this epic tale of overcoming difficulties to please a customer..I would really would like to know! The client were overwhelmed by our efforts and in a recent letter to us wrote “ We really enjoyed working with you on the proposal preparation process and sincerely appreciate the time and effort you took getting to Armenia under some very difficult circumstances. We look forward to the possibility of doing business with your company in the future.”

CHALLENGE: To design, develop and facilitate a workshop which takes technical jargon and equipment and translates it into a language that all users and stakeholders understand.

SOLUTION: We took on the task of using the equipment and instruction manuals at the end-users premises, from this we developed a workshop and support materials to ensure that all eventualities were covered. We ran various test projects in real-time to confirm the content was relevant and accurate.

OUTCOME: Workshops were run for 5-10 delegates at a time (totalling 250+ people) at various locations throughout the country. This was so successful that we developed a Train the Trainer course so all new individuals could be trained in-house as part of their inductions

CHALLENGE: To develop this persons skills and change behaviour to realise his and his departments full potential.

SOLUTION: To have an initial meeting to ensure we could work together and trust each other by developing and open and honest environment. This was followed up by a personality profile and looking at strengths and limitations.

We diarised monthly sessions looking at one area of improvement to be developed for each session, at the next meeting we would fine-tune the development and establish a habit of using the new skills and behaviour changes. All areas of improvement are agreed in advance and must have proof of how these have been demonstrated.

OUTCOME: This person has now been promoted to take on a larger role within the business.