On Tuesday the 10th of May the inaugural intake of Panasonic Future Leaders set off to the assessment centre run by Call of The Wild in deepest darkest Wales. It had been made clear at the briefing and from the equipment list what we were in for, rain and pain for body and brain!
On arrival and introduction to our dormitories and bunk beds it was straight into the action – an introduction to Call Of The Wild staff was followed by night time orienteering. If you wanted the clues for your team’s activities the following day, you had to go find them. Into the dark went the 4 teams armed only with torches a map and a compass. Surprisingly all returned – a little muddy, tiered but clutching those precious pieces of paper. At the “debrief” it became clear that the 4 teams, A,B,C and D would have to work as two larger teams A+B and C+D if they were to complete the tasks for the next two days, and so began the team building process. The whole Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing theory of team building process was fascinating to be involved in and to watch, but perform those teams eventually did!
Wednesday dawned clear and bright, to the obvious disappointment of the trainers, who had ordered torrential rain for the duration of the 2 day development centre.
Following a couple of “ice breaker exercises” the real tasks of the day began. Each team with its partner team would have to complete tasks, each successful completion would give them part of their “vehicle” for the final days “race”. Between these stages, the teams would also have to approach the potential sponsors, and complete their unknown tasks to secure funds for race entry, transport, training and technical advise. These tasks ranged from designing a new children’s game, inventing a new country and identifying the emotional response to change! They would also have to complete all safety training and the training that they decided to buy, clearly this was going to be a very very long day, but you could already see that the growing element of competition between team C+D (the Grade 7 candidates) and team A+B (the Grade 6 candidates) who were determined to beat each other.
Each task had been specifically designed to highlight different leadership and team skills, and after each the team’s performance was reviewed and discussed by all, a real experiential learning process. This immediate feedback was an invaluable tool to improve performance as the course progressed.
As the day progressed it became clear that the two joint teams would be racing a wooden go-cart over (river-crossing training) and down (abseiling training) some wild terrain. To win your team was going to have to be a slick well oiled machine, and some of the participants were obviously very nervous of what the next day held in store and some were just making sure they were well oiled…..
Thursday – the day of the big race, and a miracle the sun is shinning again. So after another fantastic breakfast prepared by the chef Dave, it was into the transport with our trusty 4 wheeled steeds and ready for the off. The transport was very quiet – nobody knew what was coming next.
Team A+B went straight to the caves where they were to abseil down into the abyss carrying their go-cart with them, one piece at a time. Team C+D, well, we were off into the river valley to build a Tyrolean bridge (a high rope crossing) over the river which would have to get all the team and the go-cart to the other side. Following this we would then have to dismantle and re pack the whole thing in the fastest time we could, great fun! After finishing we then had to walk up the valley to rendezvous with team A+B at the caves, Joe Pugh and Brennan Payton doing a fantastic job carrying the go-cart along the narrow track by the river.
At the Caves it was pretty obvious looking at the other team that this was going to be cold and wet and that the abseil into the dark cavern was going to be a challenge to some. Into the darkness we descended and must have been an odd sight with the pieces of our go-cart, judging by the bemused expressions on the faces of the kids in the numerous school parties exploring the caves. But we did re-emerge, blinking, into the light.
All over? – not likely off to a final meeting by a lake and a realisation that the mornings toil was just to get to the actual race! Each team would have to build a raft to carry four paddlers and their go-cart, at the other side of the lake one person must be on the go-cart and the whole team would need to get back to the finish line. The bad news for team C+D we would be starting 2 minutes behind A+B after their faster overall morning performance. Counter strategy was to “build”, more like throw together our raft faster than team A+B, good plan for a start as we ended up with a head start on the lake crossing, however A+B soon were catching up despite the valiant efforts of our rowers to row and hold the raft together, team A+B were out of the water a couple of seconds in front of our team and that’s how the great race finished, everybody exhausted.
During the evening de briefing session it was clear that everybody involved in the Future Leaders Programme had learnt a huge amount from two very intensive days, and all had made new contacts across the whole company, many felt they had made new friends. The level of motivation, effort and openness to ideas shown by everybody was fantastic and is indicative of the quality of people throughout PUK. I am sure that the assessment centre will prove to be the springboard for the Future Leaders Programme being an ongoing success and I look forward to the rest of the course.
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