Speaking personally, I love the idea of Outdoor Laboratories and I think that they work on a multitude of levels for team building, team development, and creating team collaboration. Earlier this year, the department that I work for held our annual department retreat and on the last day we went and did a ropes and zip line course. It was amazing to say the least. Even though we did not necessarily need someone to help us get to the next station, we did have to watch “each other’s back” to make sure we didn’t hit them when we were coming in. I don’t think I have heard so much laughter in a group before. We all had a good time and even though only 3 of us finished the entire course, everyone came out a winner. I find that being outside, working together, and being supportive of one another changes a team’s dynamics.
EcoSeagate is a very interesting organization and I think that they services they provide for the public is something that no one can take away. When you push a person or a group of people out of their comfort zones and ask them to work together to solve the problem, the participants don’t always see what they are working towards because it is not just one goal, it is a cluster of goals ranging from the task at hand, to working together as a unit, and trust. The value that I find for EcoSeagate is that they are not just providing a training tool for people but they are giving them skills that they can use both in and out of the workplace. Being in a team and being an effective team player is not a switch a person turns on in the morning but it is a tool they use all the time. I truly believe the EcoSeagate is helping to build on that in their team development processes.
Often high-performing organizations don’t take a minute to think about all the components of their organization. Work will get busy and people will stop valuing the time others put in to their jobs to help assist the whole organization. Also I have found that in high-performance organizations they forget to have fun and working with their fellow colleagues in all departments can be fun. EcoSeagate forces the walls of organizational hierarchy to disappear and now the person isn’t the CEO, he/she is your teammate, your life line, and the person to support you through the mission. I have found that people become less approachable when they get new flashy titles. I can vividly remember telling my previous supervisor that because of whom she is and her job title that her department is afraid to joke with her as a person; her title made her unapproachable. If a high-performing organization wants to maintain their success I believe that it is pivotal that they become a person and not a title.
Embry-Riddle is such an interesting organization and although I think we could benefit from using a company like EcoSeagate I still feel as though we are slightly behind in the times in finding new and exciting ways to infuse team building into the organizational structure. In order to have this type of experience with ERAU it would take a good sales pitch to our President who I think might be less inclined or open to the idea but I know the wave of the future is coming and this might be something to think of incorporating as it would force people to get to know each other.
This is the wave of the future is organizational development and team development. I would love to see more qualitative and quantitative data from these types of organizations because this will change how we learn to trust and work as a team in any type of organization. What is great about this type of development is that it doesn’t require the organization to be huge and powerful; it just requires willing individuals who want to grow and learn from each other. As the generational changes take place in the workplace and more Baby Boomers retire, more Millennial’s will be taking over which (for me) mean more laziness and those who are less enthusiastic about working so if they could experience training opportunities like this it might begin to change how the workplace looks moving towards the future.
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