Dave is currently working on Dartmoor taking a climbing course, then he’s off to the States to do more filming with Bear Grylls…. As soon as he gets back from that he’s off to the Alps to do lots of climbing out there!

http://www.missionperformance.com/Consultants.html#DavePearce

“Four weeks out here already. Time flies when you’re having fun, hey?!

If I’d written that after my first month on the Atlantic, it would have had a distinct whiff of sarcasm. The first month of the Atlantic Rowing Race was one of the most stressful, terrifying and depressing I had ever experienced. I was on a huge emotional rollercoaster, over-reacting to every change in circumstances and weather.

But it WAS a useful learning experience.

As the saying goes, experience is one of those things you get just after you needed it - so rather than let that intense learning experience go to waste, I decided to row another ocean. The best way to find out whether I’d actually absorbed the lessons learned two years ago was to put myself in an equally challenging situation and see how I coped with it. Could I face the Pacific with greater equanimity than I managed on the Atlantic?

And so far, so good. Although this voyage has had its share of fear and frustration - with high winds, big waves, a swamped watermaker and a temperamental sea anchor to contend with - it actually hasn’t been bad at all, and I’ve spent most of the time feeling cheerful, positive and determined. I’ve adapted quickly to life back on the ocean, and generally accept it for what it is - with all its discomforts, inconveniences, trials and tribulations.

Ideally, I would learn to be happy anywhere. My happiness would be inside me, independent of circumstances, so I could be equally happy in a jail as in the most beautiful place in the world. Happiness, surely, is seeing the perfection in everything.

OK, so in the last 4 weeks I haven’t actually got very far, but as Zen Dog reminds me, It’s not the destination, it’s the glory of the ride.”

Roz Savage
www.rozsavage.com

We (Chris Mcleod and Rich Tarran) have just completed two separate programmes for Schlumberger Integrated Project Management (IPM) a rapidly expanding sector of Schlumberger. The first was our tried and tested Leadership Toolbox for front line managers. The group was typically a multinational bunch from various parts of the Russian IPM operation but also from as far as away as Mexico and Houston. As well as the leadership models and tools we also delivered elements from the Polar Challenge story as a live case study of a high performing team. The accounts of frozen digits and performing in sub zero temperatures seemed to strike a cord with Siberian based managers who are of course well used to running operations on rigs in extreme conditions.

Having said that, the Siberian summer has literally just arrived and the weather is beautiful, although apparently the summer is typically very short lived; mid June to August on a good year!

The second programme was a Team Development day for the NEFTRACK Team based in Siberia. Again a multinational team of technical experts and drilling Side Track managers. Our task was to facilitate a common mission, a set of behavioural values to support this mission and to construct a communications plan that would be routinely tested by the nature of the operations in Siberia and the significant challenges of growth year on year.

Our approach was to work through our CCI model for high performing teams, defining Clarity for the team and all it’s parts, exploring and creating a robust set of values to form the basis of a team Culture and maximising the interteam understanding and Interdependence; CCI - simple but effective.

We finished our trip by attending an IPM Siberia dinner where awards for long service were handed out to managers with an amazing wealth of global experience in the oil service sector. This was followed by a pleasant stroll back to the hotel through Tyumen on a warm summers evening. Even late at night the streets and squares were full of locals soaking up the evening sun after what must be a long, dark winter.

Tyumen in the summer is a lovely place - although I suspect quite different during the long, harsh winter months. An interesting and rewarding trip.

I wonder how Rob is getting on in Cape Town with Clive……

Mission delivered a leadership programme in Cape Town this week for an international audience from Schlumberger. The programme was delivered by Clive Cosby and Rob Lewis. Initial feedback has been excellent. The team flew in overnight and spent a day preparing and taking in the Cape Town winter (much like the UK summer). The team were entertained at the Royal Cape Yacht Club by Paul (club president) and Nick a salty and experienced hand on the first evening and we joined the Schlumberger team at Moyo’s in Stellenbosch on the last evening. The feedback has been excellent. Off to Milan now…

Clive will be going out to Milan next month to deliver the next programme with Richard Paine.

Pictures of the trip to follow.

Mission is preparing, with its charity partner, to deliver a team development programme in India for RBS. The programme will take place in July on the east coast in Chennai (formerly Madras).

The programme will see the RBS teams working with their chosen charity to build a permanent dome for the benefit of the disadvantaged local community.

Rob Lewis (Mission) will be leading the project and working with a team based in Kathmandu. This in country team will be on site for a few days before the programme to prepare the site and to arrange for the local building materials to be delivered. 

This is an exciting project and one we hope to multiply in the months to come. Working with our international partners Mission has the capability to deliver programmes of this type. CSR and remote-global team development is an exciting area and one in which Mission excels.

Mission  will be using the SDI for this programme and be utilising the online variant which will enable Mission to deliver ongoing interventions for this team and store and analyse all of the data on line.

More to come including the chosen charity partners and an outline programme. 

A team from Buro 4 have recently returned from Tanzania, as part of their 24 month Talent programme. The group worked with local Tanzanians and the Mondo Challenge staff to equip the village with internet access and water capture technology that will allow them to surf the net & also extend their growing season. Rich Tarran was our man in the field and facilitated the transfer of the learning between the group and the experience. Future projects are being planned. Mission is very keen to work with organisations who are very much into ‘real play’ projects that fundamentaly inspire and help all people within a project and leave a lasting legacy as opposed to superficial, short term benefits. We like to link communities together and have achieved this with this project. We aim to do more of this in Nepal with the Dome concept.

Feedback from many of our clients indicates that coaching has delivered some of the greatest returns on their investment. Two programmes run over the past 12 months have returned significant benefit back to the client. 80% of delegates in one programme for example were promoted as a result of their performance on a talent programme run over a 9 month period. In addition programmes for the banking, construction and legal sectors are beginning to demonstrate significant returns. As a result Mission will be supporting all of its programmes regardless of seniority with coaching support, either one to one or in a group format. I will be posting more details as we develop a data base of continued success.