A pharmaceutical company, with worldwide distribution, was enjoying multi-billion-dollar sales success for an exclusive drug, which had positive effects on a particularly devastating illness.  As the company faced the inevitable patent expiration for this drug, the senior executive leadership was in a quandary on where their future would be headed.  How do they now bring staff together as a cohesive group to work as a corporate team seeking for ways to continue their successes for the future?  How do they help their managers face the changes coming with a positive perspective and a hopeful outlook for their future with this company?

For several months, our team worked with business leadership researchers who were at the forefront of strategic change studies.  We eventually developed a three-day theory-based outdoor adventure program incorporating hands-on activities designed to deal with corporate change.  These activities required each individual to recreate a new mental map in order to find success with the challenges they faced in their outdoor experiences.

After their experiences with us, many of the managers and staff came away from our program seeing change not as a negative factor, but as a positive growth factor. Their paradigm opened up to new visions and possibilities. They discovered their weaknesses and strengths, but most importantly, their capabilities, especially as a cohesive group.

One participant, a vice president in the company, commented, “Next to my marriage and the birth of my kids, this program has been right up there as a very meaningful experience”.

Living in a world today where new technology today can turn archaic next month requires successful high-tech companies to constantly be energized to see possibilities where others do not. Thinking in a finite paradigm will cause a company’s demise. How can a global division management keep their R & D people thinking creatively? Can effective innovation strategies be taught and implemented? Can leadership put together a company environment of positive outlooks and support? How can a paradigm shift from finite innovative discoveries move to infinite possibilities?

An intensive one-day program was implemented, where participants had to face outdoor challenges designed to encourage them to use what they had learned from the innovation theory. Combining each participant’s personal skill sets and the implementation of the new paradigm, successful accomplishments were determined by how well the participants utilized what they had learned.

Nothing speaks with greater volume than success.  As challenging situations were placed before the participants, it became very apparent what participants had previously known and used would probably not work to overcome the current challenges.  What might have been a sense of frustration before turned to a renewed sense of optimism to solve their challenges using the theoretical principles.  Optimism turned to excitement, excitement turned to action, and action turned to peer encouragement for trial-and-error solutions.  Because identification of what they had to deal with was so evident and right there before their eyes, they also found working together was refreshing and brought about faster results.

Healthcare organizations, like any other business, must maintain a growing and successful organization with positive ROI’s and checks and balances.  In order to have a good chance of accomplishing this, a newly appointed CEO, the first without a degree in medicine, came into this organization steeped in tradition.  Having come from a highly successful business and pharmaceutical background, this CEO wanted to make sure his new environment was healthy so that they could continue to thrive.

The challenge was to help this new CEO create an organizational culture where conflict was viewed as a healthy thing, conversations were open and unfettered, change was considered productive, and investment in people was encouraged.  The goal would be built on the concept of improving the organizational health.

The senior leadership team was brought out for a three-day content driven experience.  Using organizational strategy theories on peak performance and organizational health issues, these executives participated in outdoor activities such as canyoneering, mountain biking, and ATV excursions where these theories were interwoven and applied.

Even with some hesitation and trepidation from the department leaders, all participated in some or all of the experience.  Although there was encouragement to participate from the senior executives, no one was forced to.  But, as the program got underway, even the hesitant ones saw the value in the experiences and began to jump in.  Fear became excitement, doubts became interest, experiences became stories, and co-workers became friends.  In the end, the program created organizational legends and personal insights.  Everyone gained an appreciation for the new CEO’s willingness to invest in their development and the organization’s health.