Major Metro Paper Integrates Team Building Adventure into Training Agenda

The Need

A nearly 150 year-old Pulitzer prize winning newspaper was preparing to undergo a major shift - moving to cross-functional advertising teams. The leadership team wanted to break down barriers among departments and improve customer service. Since this transition to teams was a big culture change, the newspaper hired a consultant to lay the foundation and do the team training. The consultant needed a way to accelerate the team bonding and trust, so she called Adventure Associates.

The Adventure Associates Process

Each of the teams participated in the high-level training. The consultant covered team development, communication skills, leadership and change management. Adventure Associates worked closely with her, taking time to thoroughly understand her approach and adapt our experiential component of the workshop to address the course content. The Ropes Course activities were an excellent venue to address the issues that came up during the training. Building trust, camaraderie, increased understanding of the problem solving and decision making processes and improved communications were all outcomes of the ropes course session.

Results

Sales and support teams completed the training, building common knowledge and creating a common experience for the entire staff. Departments that interacted infrequently in the past are now openly communicating, eliminating misunderstandings and greatly reducing ad mistakes. The Advertising division has adapted to the team approach increasing overall sales by 13%! Having a way to hardwire the learning, while having fun and making new connections was an invaluable component of the transition to teams.