A Change of Place
by Jessica Ingenito (from Inside Business - August 1997)

After a buyout last fall, the employees at public relations firm Carter Ryley Thomas decided they needed time away from the office to reintroduce themselves to each other. They wanted to focus on what the next step with the company would be - but they also wanted to have fun together. One employee suggested the Challenge Discovery Outdoor Adventures Program.

During the Challenge Discovery experience, the 34 employees broke off into smaller groups to perform activities such as the "spacewalk," where teams must use props to cross an area of land. If they fall off, they become "lost" in space forever. The requirements and restrictions make the task difficult, and in order to succeed, the teams must use innovative ideas and good communication skills.

Companies such as Carter Ryley Thomas are discovering increasing options available to them for employee training programs. Some businesses send their employees outdoors, while others bring teams together by playing games. Others, more comfortable with the conventional version of training courses, add a new twist to the program with trainers brought in to work with the business.

Challenge Discovery, which has an office in Richmond, usually operates its outdoor programs in Doswell, near King's Dominion. With Carter Ryley Thomas, Challenge Discovery president Greg Huber brought his program to the firm's two-day retreat in Shrinemont.

Before Huber begins a program, he assesses the needs of each group. Challenge Discovery is "an outcome-based organization," meaning that the group's objectives will determine the activities Huber will have them perform.

"[Huber] is part psychologist, part outdoor adventure person," says J.R. Hipple, senior vice-president of Carter Ryley Thomas. Hipple and his employees wanted a chance outside the office setting to demonstrate how everyone could work together to accomplish a task. Teamwork is important to the public relations firm. "The most important thing we have to offer our clients are ideas - and we need contributions from everyone," Hipple says.

The outdoor training was a success for the firm. "The program helped us in a fun way," says Hipple, who recommends the program to others. "His session really helped us kick off our two-day retreat. It was participatory; companies need to allow people to participate."

Other training alternatives that allow everyone in a group to participate are the team-building games available on the market. Financially beneficial because they can be used more than once and convenient because they are portable, these games can bring together employees in the office or out during a retreat.

An especially timely game is the "The Mars Surface Rover - Team Version" game, where teams use specific pieces to build a machine that will rove over the red planet. The team-building version, which has been on the market for two months, has received positive feedback. Alan Landers, founder and president of First Step Training and Consulting, says, "I've used it twice now and each time I've changed the format to meet my needs - and the results have been great."

"It's successful because it's engaging," says Landers. "People forget they're in a workshop and real behavior can occur because they don't think about being observed." Landers also uses the game "Jungle Escape" for his team-building programs. The premise of the game is that a helicopter has crashed in the jungle, and the objective is to build another model that looks like the original helicopter. Every member is allowed to look at the model separately and bring back information. Communication and conflict issues usu-ally surface and the team learns how to deal with them. "I used that game with 12 different workshops with the EPA in Las Vegas, and they all really like it," Landers says.

"Jungle Escape is our most popular game," says Laura Shaffert, Vice President of Marketing HRDQ, which makes the game. "It's real hands-on."

Standard employee/management training - an instructor-led seminar held in the office or in the conference room of a hotel - is still a popular option. Michael Wriston, president and founder of The Competitive Edge, based in Richmond, provides this type of employee training.

Wriston and his partners have developed a four-stage model he calls "High-Performance Team Development", or HPTD, which works on transferring skills. Wriston believes that his technique makes productive teams that trust each other and communicate well.

Wriston says he doesn't consider himself a trainer - he's a specialist whose job it is to develop and change his customers' culture. When that changes, people don't revert back to their old ways once classes have concluded. He points out that this is important because many times groups go away for a retreat or event to have fun, but forget what they learned when they are back in an office setting.

Whitney Ingle, manager of employment and employee relations at AMF Bowling, says, "Wriston is a great facilitator. My employees feel relaxed and comfortable with him because he helps people express themselves in a positive way."

AMF management has employed Competitive Edge since 1996 to train their employees because the company found Wriston's to be the most effective of the programs AMF tried. "I think he's so successful because he customizes his program," Ingle says. "He has foundations for the program, but he's open to applying them to the company's environment - he's not canned."

Ken Hill, a training specialist with Capital One, says Wriston teaches "human skills." After his training, Hill noticed "a huge change in the culture of employee relations." Trust, respect and honesty are now part of everyone's communication, says Hill. "Wriston is flexible and responsive to situations," says Hill. "He's got the right approach."