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Introduction
EBTD (Experience-Based Training and Development) Programs continue to rise in popularity, with over 100 firms offering courses of this sort (Mitchell, Ferrier & McDaniel, 1991). The key assumption behind EBTD programs is that the skills and lessons that are experienced in the outdoor area are transferable to the workplace. My purpose in this report is to demonstrate the value of EBTD training toward improving overall productivity in the company branches of Verbatim Insurance Corporation. I will begin my report by describing EBTD programs. I will then provide a suggested model for use in transferring communication skills to the workplace through an EBTD program. In addition, I discuss my research hypotheses, methodology, and results. In conclusion, I present five features of the transfer process that seem important to individual growth and team development.
One of the best descriptions of EBTD programs was provided by Long (1987), who described EBTD programs as metaphorical.
. . . physical and mental challenges in the woods are designed as metaphors for professional challenges in the organization. Relevant wilderness lab challenges highlight interaction issues clients are facing in the workplace, such as internal collaboration for external competition, managing through the uncertainties of change, or tapping the collective creativity of diverse discipline perspectives to solve problems…Wilderness lab challenges are most useful when they replicate relevant environmental constraints, such as geographical disbursement of team members, diminishing resources, or competitive compensation systems (p. 32).
There are two basic objectives that EBTD programs attempt to achieve. The first objective is individual growth and change. Programs with this objective attempt to foster greater self-esteem, emotional and intellectual risk-taking, personal effectiveness and goal setting. The second objective is team oriented. Programs with this objective emphasize leadership, collaborative problem-solving, support, synergy, valuing individual differences, interaction facilitation, conflict resolution and trust. Of course, many programs attempt to achieve both individual and team objectives.
Typical programs can last from one to five days. Of course, the longer the program, the greater the chance the organization has to observe and experience the desired change. In the programs, not only do participants work on the various activities together, eat meals together and usually "bunk" in cabins or tents, but also, there is a great opportunity for getting acquainted, informal sharing of experiences, and solving problems together.
There are many different contexts for these programs. Many involve or are exclusively composed of "ropes courses," which provide both low and high elements. Others involve river rafting, canoeing, sailing, backpacking, bicycling or mountain climbing. Each of these contexts provides unique challenges to the participants as well as numerous opportunities for skill experiences which can be later transferred to the workplace.
For example, members of the data processing department were participants in an Outward Bound bicycling trip through New England with managers and executives from our company. The course was challenging, with more than 115 miles covered in three days over rugged, hilly terrain in variable types of weather. On the trip, team members would continually look out for each others’ needs, by waiting at the top of hills for others to ascend or by assisting others in adjusting brakes, lightening loads, adjusting handlebars, pitching tents, gathering sticks for fires and "stuffing" sleeping bags into duffel sacks. One of the lessons learned here is that if we could do "little things" for others without being asked on this trip, we could do similar things for people back in the office.
Organizations who embark upon these EBTD programs usually do so for several reasons. Typically, a vacation or "good time" is not one of them. These programs involve mental and physical preparation and present many challenges. The hope is that the results from the programs exceed the effort and expense invested. For instance, some organizations have groups whose team members lack any coordination or interdependency. Others may have key employees who are geographically isolated and do not perceive that they are part of the team. Still others may find no value in collective problem solving or facilitating productive conflict. The activities that EBTD programs provide can assist team members in testing skills to overcome problems such as these and in applying these experiences back to the work context.
Model for EBTD Programs
Whether the focus of the EBTD program is on team building or leadership, communication skills are primary to every course that is offered. For many organizations, the presence of poor communication skills alone provides a justification to enter into this type of training.
The state of poor communication skills, which impact leadership and teamwork in modern organizations, can be devastating. Activities in EBTD programs afford participants the opportunity to work on skills in an experiential setting that can be transferred back to the workplace. This is true whether the communication deficiencies are failing to use proper channels, failing to give and receive feedback, failing to use empathic listening skills, inadequate "gatekeeping" or "harmonizing" in meetings, or problems relating to the timeliness of messages sent and received or the clarity of the language used in the message. Regardless of the focus of EBTD programs, activities in such programs provide participants experiences and consequences that are not soon forgotten.
We suggest the following model for transferring communication skills to the workplace through an EBTDprogram:
Note that the model starts with both individual and organizational communication goals and objectives. No EBTD program should begin without a clear understanding of the goals and objectives desired by participants and the organization. Realistically, not all of these need to be communication-specific. However, most if not all of the desired outcomes of the program deeply implicate the experience, refinement, and application of communication skills.
Whatever the type of activity the course involves, there should be some individual apprehension about the communication which will take place on the course as well as the outcomes which the communication produces. On an organizational level, the communication required for participants to coordinate their activity throughout the course is paramount. The activities, of course, offer both mental and physical challenges which can be heightened or lessened through communication behavior.
The debriefing and application following the activity are extremely important. Here, participants not only describe their feelings after the experience by sharing successes or venting frustrations, but they should also be asked to explain why the activity was a success or a failure. What insights do they now have about the skills in the activity? How are these skills similar to or different from activities at work? What did they learn through the experiential activity that they can apply at work? What communication mediums were used in the activity, and how were these beneficial or detrimental to success?
For many activities, participants may have the opportunity to fine-tune communication skills immediately after the debriefing. This can be done by role-playing, demonstration, or even repeating the activity. Participants may also want to generate additional options for the behaviors that were displayed during the activity. Questions such as "how else could that have been said?" or "how could we have communicated the rule more impactfully?" can elicit valuable reflections.
Finally, the participants need to spend time directly applying the behaviors from the field to the work context. This cannot be done until the participants are actually back on the job. In some cases, the goals and objectives may be unrealistic, and therefore, need to be reassessed. The critical point is that the participants make a conscious effort in the workplace to implement the behaviors that were experienced during the simulation, exercise, or activity.
Discussion
Research Purpose
The purpose of my research is to demonstrate the value of EBTD training toward improving morale and overall productivity in the work branches of Verbatim Insurance Corporation. Guiding my research are two research hypotheses:
H1: Human resources training programs improve employee morale and team-building skills.
H2: Improved morale and team-building skills increase productivity.
Research Methodology
Managers from two large sales divisions of our corporation participated in the program (N = 153). The sales divisions were divided into teams as defined by their grouping in the organizational hierarchy. Throughout the program, the participants worked in their teams (N = 34).
Four dimensions of team building were developed in the program. These were roles, goals, processes and procedures, and relationships. Activities and instruction for components of each of these dimensions were developed for participants in the program. Three items for each of these dimensions were identified as critical skills which would be addressed in the corresponding phase of the training program and which would be assessed by a pre- and post-program questionnaire. (See Appendix A.)
Questions 1 - 3 were designed to investigate ROLES.
question 1: role clarity
question 2: role integration/differentiation
question 3: role conflict
Questions 4 - 6 were designed to investigate GOALS.
question 4: goal clarity
question 5: goal commitment
question 6: goal clarity
Questions 7 - 9 were designed to investigate PROCESSES AND PROCEDURES.
question 7: performance problems
question 8: feedback
question 9: high performance equation components
Questions 10 - 12 were designed to investigate RELATIONSHIPS.
question 10: supportive/defensive behaviors
question 11: trust
question 12: conflict
Three basic activities were included in the program. The first was entitled "low elements," which focused on team-building activities. They were labeled “low” because the activities took place on the ground or no more than one foot above the ground. These elements required participants to work together to solve a common task. Each task illustrated a different topic important to teamwork and presented a unique challenge to the participants. In the program, six different activities were performed on low elements to illustrate influences of time pressures, individual vs. team effectiveness, priority management, communication channels, restricted vs. unrestricted feedback, and trust. Many of these were performed via a simulation technique, where the facilitator would introduce the element and make observations during the activity which would be communicated in the debriefing that followed. Some of the elements used two trials in order to provide a striking, experimental flavor to the element.
The second part of the program was entitled "high elements," which focused on individual self-esteem and personal effectiveness. These activities were labeled “high” because they took place from thirty to fifty-five feet above ground. All participants were checked for safety by trained program administrators.
To illustrate, one of these was entitled "The Wall," which required participants to select one of three routes up a 52-foot wall. The three routes varied in difficulty due to the amount of space between steps. A platform to rest was placed at the mid-way point. Participants who could not climb to the top were let down to the ground by ropes. Upon reaching the top of the wall, participants were then allowed to rappel down the opposite side of the wall. In this, as in all the high elements, participants received encouragement from team members who were either on the ground or who had already completed the element and were waiting up above.
The third part of the program was classroom instruction. Four sessions, ranging from one to two hours in length, were presented to cover each of the four dimensions of team building. The instruction included lecture, small group discussion, personal application, job application, exercises, and simulations. In many cases, teams were asked to make decisions and commitments regarding the material. For instance, under goals, teams were required to reach a consensus on the goals they would work together toward for the next six months. On roles, participants were asked to designate a work role (e.g., expediter, information giver) and a personal role (e.g., harmonizer, morale booster) for each of their other team members and then discuss what roles the team lacked and how they could be filled. For relationships, team members first participated in a discussion which generated productive conflict and then joined together in working through the "Prisoner's Dilemma" simulation.
Items were then constructed to reflect each of the four dimensions of interest in the program. They were constructed on a five-point semantic differential, ranging from strongly agree (1) to strongly disagree (5). Each item was prefaced with the phrase, "There is at least one member of my team who..." The higher the score, the more developed the team. One item needed to be recoded, which asked, "Who has different strengths and weaknesses from other team members?" The recoding of that item was necessary because strong agreement, indicating diversity of positive skills or attributes among team members, is viewed as a strength to team development. The Cronbach alpha was .80 for the pre-program questionnaire and .81 for the post-program questionnaire.
Each participant in the program was asked to complete the questionnaire six weeks in advance of the program. The identical questionnaire was distributed six weeks following the program. The questionnaires were grouped into the actual teams with which the participants worked in the company as well as through the training program. In order to match the questionnaires with the appropriate teams, anonymity was not granted. However, participants were informed that their questionnaires would be kept confidential and that the results would not be traced to themselves as individuals. Thirteen participants either did not respond to both questionnaires or changed positions with the company.
To test whether the program had made positive gains on these 12 team-building items, t-tests were performed for all participants. The 12 items were then grouped into a composite score, with three items representing each dimension. The individual scores were also aggregated into team scores. For each of these composite dimensions, t-tests were performed in order to determine if teams reported significant gains. Finally, the pre- and post-team means were compared to determine how many teams gained, regressed, or maintained their status on each of the four dimensions.
Research Results
The results indicated that the program was responsible for significant advances in team development, as measured on these dimensions. For individuals (N=140), significant positive gains on 10 of the 12 items were achieved (see Table 1). For teams (N = 34), significant gains were achieved on all four composite dimensions (see Table 2). For all four of these dimensions, a vast majority of the teams reported improvement (see Table 3).
Table 1
MEAN SCORES FOR INDIVIDUALS
N = 140
minimum: 1 / maximum: 4
Question / Before / After / tKnow well as person or professional / 2.31 / 2.87 / -7.32**
Has different strength/weakness / 2.98 / 2.99 / -0.11
Job performance suffers
from non-work demands / 2.75 / 2.94 / -2.81**
Unclear about goals and objectives for the job / 3.00 / 3.29 / -4.69**
Not committed to goals and objectives for job / 3.14 / 3.35 / -3.04**
Says company policies and procedures inhibit / 2.56 / 2.83 / -3.95**
Blames others for own sub-par performance / 2.88 / 3.01 / -1.96*
Needs to make changes in giving/receiving feedback / 2.37 / 2.59 / -3.07**
Ability, support and effort need improvement / 2.45 / 2.70 / -4.12**
Gets defensive in conversations/meetings / 2.47 / 2.62 / -2.34*
Do not trust / 3.01 / 3.13 / -1.84
Useless to question or argue with / 2.84 / 3.03 / -2.71**
* - statistically significant; could only occur by chance 5/100
**-very statistically significant; could only occur by chance 1/100
Table 2
MEAN TEAM SCORES FOR DIMENSIONS
N = 34
minimum: 3 / maximum: 12
Dimension / Before / After / tRoles / 8.11 / 8.83 / -6.78**
Goals / 8.79 / 9.42 / -4.64**
Processes and Procedures / 7.77 / 8.30 / -4.07**
Relationships / 8.44 / 8.75 / -2.19*
* - statistically significant; could only occur by chance 5/100
**-very statistically significant; could only occur by chance 1/100
Table 3
TEAM CLASSIFICATION CHANGES FOR DIMENSIONS
N = 34
Dimension / Improved / Regressed / EvenRoles / 30 / 4 / 0
Goals / 24 / 5 / 5
Processes and Procedures / 24 / 7 / 3
Relationships / 20 / 10 / 4
Summary and Conclusions
My purpose in writing this report was to demonstrate the value of EBTD training toward improving overall productivity in the company branches of Verbatim Insurance Corporation. I began my report by describing EBTD programs. I then provided a suggested model for use in transferring communication skills to the workplace through an EBTD program. In addition, I discussed my research hypotheses, methodology, and results.
In conclusion, I find that Experience Based Training and Development (EBTD) provides structured support for team members as they transfer team-building and leadership skills experienced outdoors to the workplace. These transferred skills improve employee morale, team-building skills, and overall productivity in the workplace. To further support my conclusion, I would like to present five particular features of the transfer process that seem important to individual employee growth and team development.
A Commitment to a Relational Process
The development of on-going interpersonal relationships resulting in the establishment of trust was important to the success of the transfer process. Without building strong relationships, the transferability of leadership skills would have been more difficult. Through EBTD, team members are better at predicting other member’s behaviors. Through the establishment of an interpersonal relationship with each team member, members experience a more strategic and comfortable communication style with colleagues in different settings. With a basic understanding of another person, one can know when to delegate, praise, interact, etc. Predictability reduces uncertainty about a person’s behavior, and allows one to relax and feel more comfortable with team members.