Archive for the ‘Grand Dynamics News’ Category

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Tim Walther and Erick Erickson

What a program!  Nearly 1000 MBA Students (973 I think it was) converged in Boston to begin their 2 year MBA program at Harvard.  Grand Dynamics was contracted Cradle Rock Consulting Group to deliver this program with team of nearly 100 facilitators from around the country - and world.  Our team arrived over Labor Day and did an outstanding job. Hats off to Todd Walther, Holly Baade, Will Leggett and Josh Morris. 

Why would HARVARD business school invest in the first day of the student experience in a program like this?  Clearly Harvard understands the value of experiential learning - and the impact that programs like this have to quickly bring together the brightest business minds - as a way to kick-start their 2 year student experience. HBS utilizes a case study method, where students are analyzing business case studies together in their Learning Teams. Learning Teams are comprised of students who have expertise in a variety of disciplines - finance, marketing, consulting, sales, etc.  The idea is that each perspective will provide the team with a synergistic approach which will allow students to tackle the most difficult business dilemmas. Once the Learning Teams meet and discuss the case, the independently attend their classes where they face the Cold Call. This is where the professor calls the students out and ask them their opinion on the cases. 

The experiential learning program was designed to provide intensive relationship building, and lay the framework for the PROCESSES in which the team will operate.  We facilitated competency maps and intensive problem solving exercises which challenged the teams to analyze and work through difficult objectives. What an amazing program, with flawless execution and delivery for nearly 1000 participants over one full day. We look forward to working with Cradle Rock and Harvard for years to come!

The Centurion, which unfolds each Summer in Grass Valley, California, is sort of an underground “cult” adventure workshop.  Holly Baade first mentioned the Centurion to me in April.  The details of this gathering she kept rather vague.  Now I know why.  Would you show up to a conference where there is no agenda other than at some point over four days there would be a food fight and a freezing ice plunge?  

Holly did tell me was that Karl Rhonke runs the conference with his best friend Adrian Kissler (who I hadn’t met yet) and that people like Chris Calvert and Sam Sikes would be there playing with the best of them. One tool in Seeking True North I refer to in times of decision is the Prax Factor. In this context, this means that if you want to have a certain attribute in your life, consider those that have those qualities, and SURROUND YOURSELF WITH THEM. Well, if there is any one “Grandfather” of experiential education, it would hand’s down be Karl Rhonke. I first met him in Jackson Hole some 15 years ago and he remained an icon and model for experiential learning for me.  He wrote the foundational books on experiential learning including Silver Bullets, and is a model for play as a modality for learning. http://www.karlrohnke.com/ 

Say no more - lets just show up and see what unfolds.

Well, the first “ice-breaker” activity involved me plunging into a freezing cold vat of ICE water - double emphasis on the ICE to see how long I could hold my breath. Why?  FUNN!  Functional Understanding Not Necessary. This is a favorite acronym of Karl’s.  Which says you don’t have to understand the why. 

Give yourself permission to be a little wacky sometimes.  Laughter, doing something completely different, and just because. Play. 

Well a couple hours into the conference the clippers came out and people’s heads started being shaved. I went all in and next thing you know I had a MOKAWK.  Well - its three weeks later and i still have it! Although something tells me I should shave it off for my upcoming work at Harvard and for the television appearances with Hugh Downs! 

SO - What happened?  In brief, we created, played, shared, jumped, raced, laughed, connected, tricked, supported, questioned, networked, challenged, jammed, thought and well… had FUNN! We invented new games and initiatives and yes, had a massive food fight! Playing a new dice game with Adrian and Karl was just hillarious. The love and caring energy was ever-flowing.

At the 16^th Centurion, just passed, there were nearly 25 attendees. People came from Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and from all over the US. All who came, came to give. To give of their knowing and innovation and laughter. Often times, when going to a conference, the point is to “get your money’s worth.” Not so in this workshop. This week was about “giving as much as your money’s worth,” – or perhaps giving what money cannot buy – synergy. The synergy that can emerge between people, great people, when they are all working towards a common goal. Even if the only goal they have in common - is to have FUNN.

Thanks, Holly, for the invitation!

On June 27 Grand Dynamics got a break from the corporate world and shifted gears to working with 140 summer camp staff at a 7 week sleepover camp in Thompson PA called Camp Chen-a-Wanda. The program was named “The 1^st Annual Chenny Race” where participants had to complete a series of team building initiatives at different locations on the camp grounds. Will Leggett, Grand Dynamics North East Program Director delivered the event with a team of facilitators.  ”The blend of activities in this team expedition event was perfect, and the energy of the group was absolutely incredible,” said Leggett.

Program activities included Paddle & Perform, The Gauntlet, Cup of Dreams and Blindfold Bulls-eye. All the activities where designed so that it would challenges the teams both physically and cognitively but still having the end result be that everyone had fun and enjoyable time.

After 30 years of ownership Caryl and Morey Baldwin have passed the rains over to new owners Jon & Elissa Grabow who were the organizers of the event. They brought Grand Dynamics in to get everyone revitalized, energized and synergized for the 350 summer campers who were to arrive the next day. Like all programs the Grand Dynamics staff slam dunked the event and brought the summer camp staff community closer together all while having an enjoyable time. “This is exactly what we wanted - an fun energized event all focused on teamwork,”  Jon Grabow said. 

For next years “2^nd Annual Chenny Race” participants will have new problem solving initiatives and incorporate even more of Camp Chen-A-Wanda’s resources. 

Tim Walther

“Are we going to need extra layers for everyone up there?” were the famous last words of Molly Finkel, business manager for the Osteria Restaurant and participant in Grand Dynamic’s most recent team building event. Finkel and 37 other employees from the Osteria, the newest fine dinning Italian restaurant at Teton Village, weathered Grand Dynamic’s All Mountain Challenge - a dramatic high alpine adventure. Every event with Grand Dynamics challenges team members to work together in order to be successful. This program was no exception, however participants were asked to go one step further and do so - during Jackson’s major last spring snowfall - a powerful storm that swept across the peaks of the Mountain Resort ravaging the site with high winds, wet snow and near white-out conditions. “It was a blizzard up there. We had full-on conditions and eveyone stepped up. It was quite the amazing experience,” Grand Dynamics President, Walther, said.  

 

  Throughout the All Mountain Challenge participants engage in tasks designed to enhance individual and team performance. Areas of skill development include complex problem solving, consensus building, goal setting, resource evaluation, and navigation in unfamiliar territory. Each program is customized to challenge participants and support team goals.

 “There’s got to be something that goes beyond day to day work to hook my staff,” said Gavin Fine, owner of Fine Dinning, LLC., which comprises the Rendezvous Bistro, the Roadhouse Barbeque and, most recently, the new Osteria. “To gel them up and make them feel like a family - dedicated to each other and to the vision of the restaurant.”

Undaunted by the elements, participants set out from the base of the mountain beginning with a round of morning ice-breakers, bagels and get-to-know you games, then rose to the challenge - via Gondola to an elevation of 9095 feet. From there, the team both competed and collaborated with one another as they were asked in-turn to complete an olympics-style obstacle course and exposed alpine traverse to climb a vertical snow-covered slab with team belays. 

Over the course of the day, the mountain’s visibility went from bad to worse, but the group’s clarity of shared-value to one another became much more clear.

“Everyday we come to work, we don’t really know each other,” said Juan , who works in the back of the house at Osteria. “Today was different. Today we were a family. I hope work is like this now.”

 Grand Dynamics provided a translator so that all of the Osteria staff, Spanish Speakers Included, felt like an integral part of the team.  

The magic, for Fine and the new Osteria crew, was evident at the end of the day when, back at the base of the mountain, participants showed their trust and faith in one another participating in the culminating Inuit Blanket experience.

“I had a great day,” said George, one of the cooks, before being sent skyward. “Yep. That’s all I have to say.”

 Grand Dynamics, now again an official concessionaire for Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, will be working on the mountain all summer and fall – building strong business results for companies by teaching leadership, the technology of team building and the value of wanting to struggle together towards a common goal.

Article by Holly Baade; Photographs by Jamie Reilly; Grand Dynamics Staff: Tim Walther, Scottie McGee, Mike Dukart, Chuck Conelly, Holly Baade, Ann Anderson; Translator: JP Huser 

Greetings Everyone!  The Celtics are in the NBA Finals with the LA Lakers, and there is quite a buzz about this unique pre-game mantra that they have adopted this year.  The mantra is Ubuntu! Many of you may be familiar with this phrase from our Grand Dynamics events. Heres a bit of history and why this is so important.

About 7 years ago I sat on the porch with my good friend Erik Kampe.  We were talking about a greeting that we could open Grand Dynamics programs that would capture the essense of leadership, teamwork and a culture of coneecting with each other as a foundation for engaging in our programs, business and life. We were big into The Fifth Discipline, by Peter Senge, at the time and in fact, Ubuntu is referenced in the Fifth Discipline Field Guide and tells of the Africal Zulu culture and the meaning of Ubuntu being “People are people because of other people.” 

Soon enough, Erik and I were dancing around in my back yard, chanting and moving to the elements of what is now a hallmark opening ice-breaker for Grand Dynamics events. 

I think it is awesome that the Celtics (I grew up in New Hampshire) have taken this on and believe it has a great deal with their comeback and record year!  Ubuntu, at the core, is about the pholosphy of acknowleging others, and a system for working together positively in a community. Yet another method of Seeking True North! 

Nelson Mandela once described Ubuntu this way: “A traveler through a country would stop at a village and he didn’t have to ask for food or for water. Once he stops, the people give him food, entertain him. That is one aspect of Ubuntu, but it will have various aspects. Ubuntu does not mean that people should not address themselves. The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you be able to improve.”

Here’s a video of him describing the concept. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx0qGJCm-qU

Here are three articles about the Celtics and UBUNTU!

Article #1  http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=2497

Article #2 http://www.enterprisenews.com/sports/x99500244/South-African-word-ubuntu-a-rallying-point-for-Celtics

Article #3 http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hbvPxTmN0gXTk18y0ohZZnNqwEOgD913H1SG0

Have an OUTSTANDING DAY!  UBUNTU!

Tim Walther -

Grand Dynamics Turned 10 years old on Saturday!!!!!!!!!! And I turned 36!!!!!! What an amazing last year - with amazing people.  Birthdays are always a time of reflection for me. I particularly like the last year review. Last April I began by celebrating best-friend birthdays back to back in Mexico (Benak!) and Thailand (Sam!). This transitioned into athe culmination of a two year mission — and delivering an orphanage training program in Southern Thailand for over 60 directors. Josh, Rick, Jamie and I all converged with passion to make a positive difference in the lives of the orphan children of the tsunami. All the preparation, practice and passion culminated with a 2 year sport and education program for the children.  8 Months later I was delivering another training program - this time in Casablanca, Morocco for orphanage directors from all over Morocco from SOS Orphanage. This was a highlight (other than being attacked by a camel in the desert in the Sahara) of my 2 month rock climbing trip with Ryan Ernst through Spain and Morocco.

In between I had an incredible year of mountaining in the Tetons. And in celebrating previous adventures, Climbing Magazine featured my first ascent - The Spirit of Mokwai - in the annual EPIC edition last September. We’ve worked with the wyoming workforce extensively.  We’ve delivered Amazing Race Events and Emotional Intellgence Trainings for our corporate teams. The CFMA Advances and the CFMA Renewal rocked my world!  And I have enjoyed running commentary from the CFMA Renewal group over the last 8 months with stories of amazing transformation and connection. 

Will Leggett and our NY Office rocked the house!  Brother Todd Walther continues to inspire and amaze me.  Ann Anderson has finally transitioned and is doing amazing things.  Jamie Reilly has been monumental. And Erick Erickson - well… what can I say about the Master?   Seeking True North is a reality.  The next year is filled with opportunities for continued greatness…  Tim Walther