A few years ago, I took my team through one and a half days of a team development experience which involved horses.  The objectives for the next fiscal year were defined and challenging.   We were facing a great deal of changes, re-organizations, huge goal increases… and we needed to be candid with ourselves about the level of value we were creating for our stakeholders.

As the leader of this globally dispersed team who identified as much with their stakeholders in the organization as they did with their own teammates, I recognized that we had a great deal of innovation – in silos.  People saw value in keeping their information to themselves and serving their stakeholders vs. helping the team be collectively successful.  There was always a reason why something couldn’t be done – as opposed to seeking out new solutions.  Postures were defensive, and we needed to shake things up.

Originally I had thought of our planning meeting to be three days in the office, and then a day and a half outside with the horses to end on a positive note.  Thank goodness the facilitators could not accommodate my dates – we went to the horses first as a team.  I was unprepared for what I experienced, even though I had worked to plan the topics for focus.

Horses make the difference in team coaching …

We would have a few debrief sessions throughout the day.  The tone and emotional content of each session became so much more cohesive as the day progressed.  Innovative ideas surfaced.  Respect for one another and their perspective increased.  Seeking to understand vs. to just say something for the sake of contributing or piling on to an idea became the norm.

Everyone left saying this was the best experience that they had ever had in either personal or professional development.  They went out of their way to share it with others.  The most dramatic shift was what STAYED.

In a lot of training, the impact of the experience usually lingers for a few weeks, then it tends to go back to ‘business as usual’.  For this team, there really was no going back.  From that day forward, they started referring to our team as the ‘herd’.  They proactively reached out to each other for advise and support.  They formed an alias to brainstorm ideas and share approaches which worked.  The herd was still a highly performing team – even two years later.

As the leader, I could only smile as I watched the dramatic transformation on the team, and I also was thrilled to see the personal changes in some of the individuals.  One overcame his fear of horses, and forged a deeper relationship with his mother-in-law, who is an avid horsewoman.  He even went on to ride a horse for the very first time.

Another went from being fairly isolated to proactively reaching out to the herd – delighting his teammates and stakeholders (and his family).

For yet another team member, understanding partnership on a different and bringing collaborative energy to a situation assisted him greatly.  It is not easy to persuade a 1200 pound animal to do anything unless it is done with mutual respect and awareness. I noticed my team putting in more assertive personal goals into their development plans, and the level of excuse making vs. responsibility and accountability taking increased dramatically.

At the end of the day, the team shifted to be highly functional, capable of looking at results objectively, and we far exceeded the aggressive goals we were given at the beginning of the year.  We actually went beyond being a team to becoming a true herd – while we all had defined roles and individual contributions, it was the support and focus of the entire group that made us all successful.