SAFETY
Friend and colleague, Jeff Boyd, hired Pam, Paul, and I for an equine-assisted learning (EAL) session. Jeff’s client was a large international pharmaceutical company (40,000 employees) headquartered in Germany. They hired him to provide two days of training, for their managers and their direct reports, eighty-five people. Their time together was designed to focus on two of their organizational competencies, Winning Vision and Managing Performance.
Winning Vision: Creates excitement and inspires others to deliver results to grow the organization. Develops a compelling sense of purpose and positive direction for the team to achieve success; Translates strategies into plans that deliver superior value to internal and external customers.
Managing Performance: Prioritize activities and initiatives rapidly regarding their importance to the organization, maintains the correct balance between the short-term and long-term; Sets stretch goals and high standards for self and others, raises the bar; Supports progression, requests and gives timely, accurate and constructive performance feedback on progress, outcomes, and improvement possibilities; Remains effective and self-motivated om the face of set-backs, supports others to do the same; Gives and shares credit for success.
Our part of the retreat was called Leadership Presence: The Equine Challenge. The equine session was selected because of the transparency of intentions, thoughts, and motivations. Jeff recognized that equine activities might support some of the breakthroughs they were seeking.
Jeff’s core team met several times to review and plan all the logistics; the equine team also met to coordinate our roles. Pam drove down to farm we were renting to meet the owners, the horses, and verify that the facility would accommodate our objectives. She reported back to us that “the owner, Cristina could not be nicer and more accommodating, the horses are so well behaved and beautifully kept and the facility is really impressive.” The agenda set, flights secured, and logistics identified we were prepared and ready to support Jeff and his team reach the company’s retreat goals.
The eighty-five people were divided into Group A (43 people) and Group B (42 people). The client assigned the people to the groups, so we had no way of knowing their relationships with each other or within the company. Each group would be spending a 3-hour block with us, one in the morning and the second one in the afternoon. Our plan included a sequence of equine and non-equine activities designed to increase their self-awareness, helping them reach the organizational goals.
At the opening session of the event Jeff framed the experience for the whole group, explaining that behaviors are tools that we choose to apply to get the results we desire. He pointed out that we are best served if we begin with the end in mind, choose the best behavior to build the desired result, and unbridle our extreme potential through growing talent, managing performance, and having a winning vision.
Jeff, then helped tee us up by explaining “Why horses?”. He shared that by experientially partnering with horses, the employees would be better able to:
*To Grow Talent through practicing observation
*Manage Performance through understanding what motivates others.
* Winning Vision – we communicate the vision, first in intention then through influence. They needed to align the vision with the company activities and goals by being clear congruent, and consistent in their communication. He suggested we do that by creating opportunities for people to achieve by applying pressure and having them contribute their efforts to achieve a winning vision.
Pam, Paul, and I split the groups into thirds, facilitating several opening activities focused on direct and indirect pressure, intention, and winning vision. We brought everyone back together, then Group A quietly entered the arena for Billiards. Billiards invites the group to move the horse(s) into a “pocket”, or space defined by pvc pipes. Group A completed the activity successfully by communicating effectively, calmly working together, and having a shared vision.
Following lunch and the opening activities, Group B came into the arena with an air of confidence and excitement, an entirely different energy than the first group. They shared with us later that they had learned about the details of the activity from Group A. Thinking they knew the solution, they strutted in with an arrogance that was cocky. What they didn’t recognize is that in EAL, moving horse(s) into a pocket isn’t the win, it’s the “how” you do it that matters.
To make the situation even more unpredictable, after the break, we traded out horses from our first activity to give them their lunch and some rest. The new group of horses included a mare that was in heat. In heat means that she is receptive to breeding. When a mare is in heat, the geldings (boy horses), sometimes notice and can be a bit more excitable.
The humans heightened energy was not only noticed by us, the human facilitators, the five four-legged facilitators shifted from wandering in the arena to moving at a trot, kicking up a little dust. When the participants started moving together, trying to push the horses into the pockets, things really got wild. The horses started cantering, bucking, and kicking out in a effort to move – quickly – away from the pressure of the people.
The participants in Group B thought this was exciting. They started whooping and hollering, spurring the horses into even more of a frenzy. Pam, Paul, and I shared panicked looks at each other, because we recognized the potentially dangerous situation playing in front of us. We started motioning up and down with our flattened hands, seeking to non-verbally encourage the participants to settle down. The group completely ignored us.
Paul couldn’t take it anymore. He stepped into the middle of the arena and shouted, “SHUT THE F*CK UP!!”. Stunned, to a person, they stopped their catcalls. The horses responded by slowing from a canter to a trot and eventually down to a walk. Breathing heavily, their chests moving in and out, the horses sought to catch their breath after such vigorous exercise.
The dumbfounded participants just stood there, as Pam and I moved from the sides of the arena to stand next to Paul in the middle. Paul recognized he’d lost his cool, that he acted unprofessionally. He cleared his throat, then apologized to the group for his outburst. He explained to them that his reaction was to the real and present danger they were in that they did not recognize.
We later learned that the first group was all lower to mid-management. They were people used to working together and being told what to do. Group B, on the other hand, was all the higher-ups. They were, mostly men, who were used to competing, fighting for resources, attention, and prestige. At the end of the first day, during our debriefing with Jeff and his team, we all agreed that each group’s behavior mirrored their behavior at work.
Jeff and his team made plans to transfer this learning experience back to the organizational culture. They devised activities to support the competencies, Growing Talent, Winning Vision, and Managing Performance. This led to a rich discussion, where they created action plans to support how they could apply the lessons from The Equine Challenge. Where could they put in guardrails to help them identify potential risks? Were there ways to reward the clear, congruent, and consistent communication? Once again, lessons did not personally orchestrate were exactly what the participants sought.
Recall a time where you didn’t immediately recognize a dangerous situation. What kept you safe and got you out of that risky circumstance?
How can you use what you learned from the experience to keep yourself or others safe?
In the future, when you consider safety, do you plan to pay attention to more than your physical safety?