CLIENT
CHALLENGE
The Boeing Corporation needed to bring to life the challenges
of leading from a middle management position. They were about
to open their new $70M leadership training facility with three
key programs, one of which would include our custom-designed
program for mid-level managers. Boeing required a world-class
learning simulation and failure was definitely not an option
on opening day!
The program required five linked, three-hour
simulations to be embedded within the five-day Leading from
the Middle program. Each day's experience needed to build
from the previous day’s learning, deliver against the
current day's learning outcomes, be unique, surprising and
dramatic, and progressively work towards
a positive and profound conclusion by the last day.
CREATIVE RANGE
We were given very strong, creative latitude in this project.
In researching the culture and the company, it was clear that
Boeing is an organization with great pride and an honoured
past. The more we learned, the more we were convinced that
we needed to pay tribute to Boeing’s unique role in
the future of flight, space and aeronautics. We wanted to
ensure, through their experience within the simulations, that
participants would feel the awe-inspiring mission and the
immense capabilities of their own company. We also wanted
to ensure that each of the day’s individual learning
objectives was rigorously and powerfully felt.
e! SOLUTION…
The Confederacy of Stars:
First Light - Aquanauts - Alien Contact – WorldView
- Journey Home
“Welcome to the Confederacy of Stars,
cadet! You will be placed in disorienting and strange environments,
which are not set up to be either fair or hospitable. You
will never have enough authority, time, resources, or information
to make perfect decisions as a leader in the Confederacy.
Your goal is not to obtain perfect conditions for success…
it is to excel despite not having them. Your team objective
is to accomplish your mission and to survive the significant
hazards that you will face—from the enemy, the environment
or even from within the team itself! Your individual goal
is to accumulate a sufficient number of Star-Points in order
to graduate from the Confederacy of Stars, earn your wings
and assume your responsibilities as a Commander of your own
Starship!”
With these words, participants are plunged
into an exhilarating learning adventure in a galaxy one thousand
years in the future. They confront challenges and choices
designed to bring them face to face with their own abilities
as managers, leaders and team members. Together they strategize,
plan, take actions and face the consequences of their choices
(without the real-world consequences of failure) in an overwhelmingly
creative, sometimes stressful, and enjoyable experience. Participants
take risks, learn, and take a quantum leap forward in their
own understanding and development.
The Confederacy of Stars provides participants
with an engaging learning environment based on many elements
of today's challenging business and organizational life. Throughout
the experiences, they are challenged to develop and hone key
managerial, leadership and team building skills. The value
of each of the five experiences is maximized through facilitated
group debriefs, which build logically and intuitively from
the previous day's experience, and drive home each day’s
learning outcomes. Participants draw key insights from their
experiences, which translate directly to immediate real-life
application.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Participants learn how to use learning as a strategy, understand
business stewardship, explore the difference between adaptive
and technical challenges, and begin to see the company from
a whole systems perspective. They learn the importance of
networking and the need for leveraging diversity. They practice
being a bridge between strategy and execution and see a general
synthesis and integration of all they have learned during
the week.
RESULTS
The Confederacy of Stars simulation series has been a huge
success at Boeing and is consistently rated by participants
as one of, if not the most powerful training experiences ever.
The program, launched in 1999, continues to be experienced
by thousands of managers from across the world! Boeing conducts
six-month and one-year follow up evaluations with participants.
The power, impact and practical usefulness of this learning
experience continues to be observed.
The Confederacy of Stars and each of the
simulations within it have since become off-the-shelf programs
used widely by e!’s global clients in a variety of learning
programs and events.
THANKS
There are many people to thank for this product (including
the brilliant content designers at Boeing). We want to particularly
acknowledge our client, Carol Yamada, for her vision, her
faith, her support of the process, and her hard work at ensuring
the integrity of the whole program. The Boeing Leadership
Center is truly the finest facility at which we have ever
worked; the staff and the resource team there were tireless
in their efforts to develop the seamless implementation of
the program. |
