Sir Earnest Shackleton: Escape From Elephant Island – an experiential training program on building trust sustaining resilience

An introduction to one Grand Dynamics International training and development program themed around one of the greatest adventure stories of all time…

“After the taking of the South Pole by Roald Amundsen in December of 1911, who, by a narrow margin of only days, beat the British Expedition under Robert Scott (of which Shackleton was a member), there remained but one great conquest of Antarctic journeying–the crossing of the South Polar continent from sea to sea. On August 1, 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton and a crew of 27 men (28 including one stowaway) and 69 sledge dogs set sail for the last unclaimed prize in the history of Antarctic exploration: the first crossing, by foot, of the Antarctic continent. Sir Ernest set out to cross the frozen tundra, a mindboggling 1,800 miles, from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea. But as you will see, his adventure was to be far bigger than he ever imagined.

This true story, is now your story.”

The larger event will be anchored by Shackleton’s 1914 expedition to the South Pole, where he and his crew survived some of the most harrowing conditions known to mankind. As the story unfolds, participants will take part in to relevant and specific activities that tie in to the real accounts, but more importantly, to what the team is going through together right now.

We will tap in to issues of trust, communication, creativity, adaptability and dealing with uncertainty. We will compare and contrast how Shackleton kept his men optimistic even in the toughest times, with what the expectations of this team are today. We will explore how he led from the front, extended trust and built a high trust environment, and how our leaders can/must do the same starting right now.

This adventure is experiential and active. Teams will be working together, exploring the Shackleton story while making connections to their own business processes, and cultural norms. Where Shackleton had major decisions to make, so too will this team as the story unfolds.

The adventure crescendos with a disorienting dilemma – Shackleton realizes that he has run out of options, and time. He decides to take the greatest risk of all, to convert the lifeboat they have been dragging for months across ice and rock into a sailing vessel and try to make it some 800 miles to South Georgia Island to get help.

The disorienting dilemma is directly connected to the clients desire to shake up the group, make them shift gears and adapt, and then draw parallels with what is currently happening in the business landscape…