ECC Leadership Development Course - Spring 2006: Part 1

8-13 January 2006

In the winter month of January, I headed to The Nature Place for a week long leadership development retreat. Selected as one of 13 ECC employees to attend, I met the others for extensive classroom and team building exercises in the Colorado mountains near Florissant. Housing was with roomates in cabins complete with fireplaces and a view of Pike's Peak!

We had been assigned an overwhelming amount of business leadership literature to read and started classroom work the first night we arrived. The course itself has been developed as a MBA project by one of my colleagues and was team taught by two brothers from Denver University School of Business. Guest speaker one day was Carl Larson, who has studied great teams throughout the world and was hired to work with NASA after the space shuttle disaster. As a class we discussed various leadership models, evaluated our personality profiles and leadership styles, conducted role playing situations, worked on negotiation skills, journaled and then broke into two teams to learn orienteering and work to accomplish some amazing physical challenges.

Here are some snapshots of our adventures! Blindfolded, we were to take commands and accomplish, as a team, a task we had never seen. This is a picture of my team! I had to lead the spider web challenge. The object was for all of us to pass through our own hole in the spider web, without touching it, to the other side and without talking once we got through. It took some planning, but we did it! The picture of us all standing on a board is our team trying to figure out how to all cross the "acid river" with only 2 boards and a few rocks...

Next we were issued helmet and climbing gear. Love the pic of us "blue heads!" We had to make it up the corporate ladder by climbing horizontal logs. What you can't tell from below is that they get progressively further apart at the top and you must drag, climb, push and pull your partner to get to the top! Thanks to my giant colleague, Eric, we made it.

Just when I thought the worst was over, we headed to the high wires. These suckers got further and further apart the further from the pole you walked. And whatever you do, don't look down! As you can see Mirna and I had a little trouble, but did much better on the second try! Hang on - here we fall!



Believe it or not, I went back for a second week of brain drain and physical challenges in March. That adventure coming soon to a blog near you!

- Tiffany

Short Reading List:
"Business Leadership" a collection of articles by the biggest names in leadership - great resource!
"Getting to Yes" by Roger Fisher and William Ury
"When Teams Work Best" by Carl Larson and Frank LaFasto