A635.6.3.RB - EcoSeagate

Seagate Technology, “ the global leader in data storage solutions” (Seagate, n.d.),  puts special emphasis on team building. Each year the organization sends 200 of its employees from around the world to an outdoor lab experience in New Zealand called EcoSeagate (Brown, 2011).  Despite the current emphasis on team building, Seagate Technology did not always place such high value on cohesive teams. Soon after becoming CEO of Seagate, Bill Watkins said, “They called it Slavegate.  People got fired all the time. The CEO had a grenade on his desk” (As cited in Brown, 2011).

EcoSeagate attendees experience team building through adventure activities such as mountain biking, repellings, whitewater rafting, and zip-lining (Chao, 2008a).  “With such a foreign and intimidating environment, everyone feels off balance and no one has an advantage over anyone else” (Brown, 2011). Participants are selected from among more than 2,000 applicants consisting of “a cross section of the company: top executives, managers, engineers, and factory workers” (Brown, 2011), and are split into teams of five.  “For five days, the teams go through a variety of competitive events that encourage each team to learn how to work together” (Brown, 2011). In addition, attendees learn from speakers about topics such as trust, communication, and how to positively manage conflict (Chao, 2008b).

When I first read about EcoSeagate I thought it sounded like a very expensive company retreat at a cost of around $2 million.  As it was described by Brown (2011) it sounded like a lot of fun, but I could not understand how the benefit of the event could possibly outweigh the cost.  Brown (2011) even said “Watkins has not been able to prove or point to quantitative results of EcoSeagate.” As I viewed the videos that documented the activities and the principles that the attendees learn I began to look at it differently.  I believe that one of the primary benefits that EcoSeagate has on attendees is it places everyone, regardless of their position at the company, on level ground. The weaknesses and strengths of everyone from leaders to factory workers are exposed.  By being placed on level ground and working together to accomplish challenging tasks the leadership charade, as described by Obolensky (2016) is demolished.  The leadership charade exists when leaders feel like they should know all the answers, and so they act like they do.  The followers know that the leaders don’t know all the answers, but they think they should, so they act like they do. I believe that EcoSeagate humanizes everyone involved, so they become more tolerant, more trusting, and more willing to communicate.  

The attributes of tolerance, trust, and communication are especially important for high performance teams and organizations.  Brown (2011) said that “The coordination of individual efforts into task accomplishment is most important when the members of a team are interdependent. Interdependence refers to situations where one person’s performance is contingent upon how someone else performs.” Because of the need for interdependence and cohesiveness, high performance teams benefit greatly from outdoor experiential lab training.  

I believe that Era Helicopters could benefit greatly from an event like EcoSeagate.  In addition to demolishing the leadership charade, it would place both leaders and followers on level ground.  It seems that the leader-follower relationship frequently turns into an us-versus-them relationship. Followers think that leaders have lost touch, and leaders do not understand why followers are making so many mistakes and simply can’t get things right.  Over the last four years as I have been a lead pilot I have been able to expand my viewpoint, because in a way I am a member of both groups. I am a line pilot, so I have the perspective of the workforce. However, as a lead pilot I also have the perspective of management.  I think outdoor lab experiences can help to decay the us-versus-them mentality as everyone works together to accomplish challenging obstacles. I believe that participants would return from the experience with a greater willingness to trust each other and a greater ability to see things through the lens of another’s experience.

References

Chao, M. (2008a, April 25). Eco Seagate 2008 1/3 [Video File]. Retrieved from  
https://youtu.be/zCOfOFMiLtE

Chao, M. (2008b, April 26). Eco Seagate 2008 2/3 [Video File]. Retrieved from 
https://youtu.be/Etwuap-_Azk

Obolensky, N. (2016). Complex adaptive leadership: Embracing paradox and uncertainty (2nd ed.) 
New York, NY: Taylor & Francis,

Seagate. (n.d.). About Seagate. Retrieved from https://www.seagate.com/about-seagate

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