Some LEAP at Chance to Forge Teams

SANTA FE, N.M--Jumping from a 165-foot cliff wasn’t in their job descriptions. So there was some grumbling when Hewlett-Packard lab director Frank Carrubba asked 20 of his scientists to attend an “adventure-learning” program in the wilds of New Mexico. One year later, the Palo Alto, Calif., researchers talk fondly about their four days at LEAP (Leaders Experiential Adventure Program). The experience brought people from different areas together "in a bonding way,"Carrubba said. He said, the staff learned to look "at the emotional side of managing research." Carrubba and other R&D administrators believe that a successful research facility requires more than a technically proficient staff. Managers must be able to create an environment that stimulates imagination and risk-taking. With the increasing emphasis on multi-disciplinary projects, they also need to build networks among researchers from different fields. Managers also need to motivate their staffs. Unlike workers who are inspired by salaries, benefits and profit sharing, scientists and engineers are “looking for motivation and incentive at the self-fulfillment level," said Dundar Kocaoglu, director of Portland State University’s engineering management program. Developing good interpersonal and leadership skills aren’t part of the training of most technology managers, noted Richard Shipley, head of management-development programs at the Industrial Research Institute (IRI). As a result, many companies are turning for help to private firms. An increasingly popular approach is the one offered by adventure-learning programs such as LEAP and Outward Bound. They replace seminars and slide presentations with cliff-jumping and white-water rafting. "LEAP is a set of experiential metaphors that allow you to put yourself into situations that recreate the obstacles that have stood in your way," Carrubba explained. Located at the starkly beautiful 2,000-acre Pecos River Conference Center near here, LEAP is the brainchild of Larry Wilson, founder of the nation’s second-largest training firm, Wilson Learning Corp. Turn and Fall Besides the notorious 165-foot jump, in which participants cling to a pulley that sweeps several hundred yards down a steel cable, the training includes a backwards fall from a five-foot wall into the arms of support group members. In another exercise, trainees climb a 22-foot pole studded with tiny wooden slats. After they reach the top they’re expected to stand on a little wooden disk, turn a full circle, then jump and grab onto a trapeze. Such activities usually provoke a cold sweat and wobbly knees. But LEAP actually poses minimal physical risks. A system of safety harnesses precludes falls of more than a few feet through the high-desert air. What participants do risk losing is their inability to trust others. They are taught instead to heap hugs upon their colleagues as they navigate LEAP’s terrors. Over-coming fear through emotional support is the crux of the training. Carrubba is convinced that LEAP works. “"Over a four-day period, I’ve never seen such a change in a group of individuals," he said. Even those as "introverted and extremely precise as scientists," he added, "have found the training useful." Chris Yadav, human resources director of Du Pont’s Information Systems Group in Charlotte, N.C., said the experience also helped transform his computer scientists and engineers into team players. The group suffered from what Yadav described as "the hero" attitude: People felt, 'I know this product. Why do I have to work with someone on it?' Ken Pendley, a senior systems specialist with Du Pont, said that LEAP’s bonding exercises have made it easier for him to ask for help. "When you start moving out of a vey specialized environment, communications have to be there and relationships have to develop," he said. Unlike LEAP, which relies on contrived physical exercises, Outward Bound offers wilderness activities such as rappelling, back-country hiking and rock climbing at five locations around the country. In Outward Bound experiences, people accustomed to being the boss are thrown into situations in which they must rely on others to survive. Ralph Miano, a chemist turned product-development manager at Hoëchst Celanese in Summit, N.J., said a week of white-water rafting with Outward Bound helped him "discover features about myself that held me back in personal interactions."Everything about the experience, he said, from shooting the rapids to preparing the campfires, "served as a mechanism for bringing down the barriers that ex- ist between people." Human resource professionals are sometimes critical of short-term programs, likening their im- pact to a Chinese dinner. "Short-term exposure to an idea creates an immediate high response," Kocaoglu explained. "However, when an individual leaves that environment, the enthusiasm goes through a very steep decline." Other critics say the programs are a fad or, worse, emotionally dangerous. LEAP almost lost a contract with Dow Chemical after an article last November in Fortune lumped LEAP together with management programs run by the Church of Scientology and Werner Erhard, founder of EST. Participants hold a different view. Two years later, Miano said he still feels the benefits of the week he spent on the Green River in Colorado. Carrubba said his scientists regularly use the terms and knowledge they acquired at LEAP And advocates of the concept point to the respectability of its supporters, including publisher John Wiley & Sons, which bought Wilson Learning Corp. in 1983 for $10 million. The future of such alternative education programs looks bright, say administrators. "About 80 percent of engineers wind up in positions that have some kind of management responsibility," Kocaoglu said. And time is short— Charles Larson, IRI executive director, noted that companies often ask scientists to choose between the lab and the office less than five years after they have left school. With such pressure to move up the corporate ladder, it’s not surprising that some scientists have decided to jump off a cliff. Weisberg is a freelance writer in Santa Fe, N.M

Some LEAP at Chance to Forge Teams

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