Graphic map of Terra Nova
(drawn by Sabine Soeder)

CLIENT TESTIMONIALS

“There was something noticeably different today, when I came to the office this morning. There was a definite buzz in the air in the DAF division and people were visibly still under the impression of yesterday's retreat. I must confess that I did not expect the day before the retreat to be at this juncture: the DAF division filled with all this positive energy and ready to “rock the boat”.”

The day after the Terra Nova session - Director of division of Administration and Finance , WHO Regional Office for Europe 

„I just wanted to say thanks for helping me make this session a success. I asked a number of participants for feedback on the workshop and without exception they all not only enjoyed the Terra Nova simulation but felt we hit home on the key points. I myself saw a number of light bulbs go on during the debriefs which always makes me happy.”

Organizational Development, Baker Hughes

„Thank you for a tremendous day and a very insightful session. I know that going forward this experience will be one that I can really leverage with my team. It has also laid the foundation for me to start implementing the changes that I need to get our centers to take the next step in its evolution. Thank you again and I look forward to working with you again.”

Director, Davis & Henderson

CASE STUDY

Demonstrating the benefits of strategic collaboration in a fast-paced, challenging, constantly changing environment.

Business Issue

The Global Learning & Talent Development Team of a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market had consisted of three teams that worked separately. A few months earlier, the Vice President of Global Learning & Talent Development reorganized the teams so they now work together and report into one person.

The Director, to whom all three groups would now report, was relatively new to the company and had been exploring projects, processes and principles to help them work better together. She indicated that working together doesn’t happen naturally for these teams and she felt like she was forcing collaboration. All three teams were accepting of the change. Conceptually, they understood that the integration was a good thing and they saw it as positive; they were simply not in the practice of collaborating. Her people were busy in a fast-paced, challenging, constantly changing environment. As they applied effort to accomplishing their tasks, they defaulted to work in the familiar and comfortable silos of the past.

We needed to bring them to clear realization of the benefits they could experience by working more closely together and motivate them to do so.

Terra Nova is a 'silo-busting' simulation that teaches the skills to achieve extraordinaryresults cross-functionally. It is a superb tool to help your team achieve absolute clarity andstrong alignment in order to maximize results while minimizing the challenges of working across teams.

Process

We chose to use our Terra Nova business simulation to allow them to experience, first hand, how they could benefit from working together. Individuals are engaged in different teams representing departments, regions, or functions. They must work together with a high level of integration to meet a common vision and achieve success.

In Terra Nova, each team has it’s own unique goals, values and interests. Despite the common purpose of making Terra Nova prosperous, there is a high probability of friction between teams as they each work from their own vantage point. For Terra Nova to prosper, participants need to align individual, team and organizational goals. By focusing on skill sets in the areas of communication, role clarity and conflict resolution to achieve alignment, participants will create an organization that removes bottlenecks, drastically improves productivity, and achieves outstanding business results.

Participants experienced:

• Improved morale and productivity as they improved their strategic collaboration
• Increases in efficiency and a decrease of rework due to sharing of best practices
• The importance of stopping to make sure everyone is on the same page, especially in a fast-paced, multi-team environment
• The importance of sharing and communicating the vision
• How to best build buy-in and motivation with other teams

Terra Nova provides participants with a debrief after each quarter of the simulation focusing on what’s working, what’s not, what needs to change, and how the experience relates back to the workplace. This allows them to adapt over the course of the simulation and to practice and apply the skills and tools that they have learned. This “learn-practice-apply” methodology allows for easy transference of skills back at the workplace.

Result

Participants walked away from Terra Nova having experienced the real benefits of collaborating. In four short hours, participants moved from a chaotic environment where everybody worked in silos with low productivity and low morale, to a collaborative environment that lead to high productivity and high morale. Throughout the simulation, participants were struck by how the challenges they tackled in the simulation are the very same challenges they faced in the workplace. They were motivated by their ability to find solutions to overcome these challenges in the simulated environment. Having found ways to collaborate successfully, and to overcome hurdles in the simulation, they walked away with a viable game plan and new skill sets to move more rapidly and effectively to the level of collaboration that their leadership desired in real life.

“Thank you for bringing your energy and experience to our team!”

SENIOR ADVISOR, GLOBAL TALENT MANAGEMENT

Click here to download the case study as a PDF file.