| Profiling doesn’t just work in extreme conditions. The issues faced by the Polar Quest expedition need to be overcome when putting together any high performing team. Team development tools are as relevant to workplace situations as they are to trekking across Antarctica.
In November 2006, a four man team from the Royal Navy and Royal Marines departed from the coast of Antarctica to ski to the South Pole, hauling all their own equipment and supplies. This epic 2,800 kilometre, 65-day ski marks the first – and the longest - unsupported services expedition to the South Pole since Captain Scott’s famous journey in 1912.
The challenge followed on from the team’s successful North Pole trek earlier that year, when the Team Management Systems approach to good teamwork was used to improve their decision-making and problem solving effectiveness in the extreme conditions.
The expedition team shared their Profiles with each other before they set off. This awareness of their work preferences and individual approaches to tasks and people, enabled team members to communicate more effectively. They were able to maximise their strengths and work on any role gaps within the team, based on the Team Management Wheel model, during the trek.
Captain Sean Chapple, Expedition Leader, knows a lot about teamwork. He joined the Royal Marines in 1984, ‘from the first day you’re trained in the buddy-buddy system. You join as a member of a team, not as an individual.’
Adventure training is part of the Royal Marine’s Ethos: it’s seen as instilling qualities of personal courage, mutual dependence and leadership. The spirit of adventure is what motivates Sean, but he sees the Polar Quest project as much more than this, ‘Watching out for each other, finding your limits, having the courage of your convictions and trusting decision makers are common to any successful venture.’
Selecting the right team
‘Recruiting the right team from the 400+ naval services applications was key to the success of the operation. Sean explains, ‘I was looking for self-starters; people who could motivate themselves and think on their feet. I looked for exceptional qualities of team-work and motivation. Rank didn’t play a part. I gave them very little guidance and watched how they set about solving problems. You can make someone fit, but changing character is less easy…so, an in-depth understanding of characters and how they fit together is crucial to success. Which is why I decided to use profiling tools to support our expedition.’
Achieving success
The record-breaking Antarctic expedition promised to be even more challenging than the North Pole journey. In bad weather conditions, with white outs and severe winds, it can take as long as 12 hours to complete 2-3 miles. As well as all the other hardships, the team can also suffer the effects of altitude sickness as they are climbing the polar plateaus above 3,000 feet.
The good news is that the Polar Quest team reached their target and arrived at the South Pole on 27 December, just after Christmas Day, after pulling heavy sledges x miles across the plateau in temperatures of -35ºC. They then used traction kites to help them speed their way back to civilisation, completing a ground breaking 1400 miles in 72 days.
So how did they do it? Apart from sheer determination, and months of planning, the team used the Margerison-McCann Team Management Profile to help them bond together. Sean explains how understanding and appreciating the value of each member's roles within the team was key to their success.
Teamwork in practice
Having every team member’s major and related roles identified through their individual Profile reports has provided a powerful tool to improve on a range of key team areas such as communications, task allocation and decision making. The Profiles have enabled the allocation of tasks and responsibilities within the expedition to greater effect by matching the task to the individual and, as the task evolves, moving it on to someone else who may be more appropriately matched. Planning, organising and resourcing a £500k expedition with a team that is dispersed across the country requires a specific style of management and we've found the Profiles support this really well.
During the expedition, understanding each others’ team roles was vital in communication and decision-making processes. Polar travel, clearly extremely physically demanding, also demands a great deal of flexibility. With our progress south constantly hampered by weather, snow conditions, and the physical conditions of the team members, there was a need to continually review, and adjust our plan of attack on the Pole.
Opinion was always sought and through sharing our Team Management Profiles we had greater awareness of each other’s communication preferences and were able to conduct productive discussion before a decision was reached. Although every individual’s viewpoint was welcomed, indeed it was a rule that everyone had to share their own thought process and not just agree, thereafter as Team Leader I would summarise the discussion and, if necessary, set out the final decision.’Using work preferences for decision-making
‘As an Assessor-Developer, continually assessing our progress, I would look ahead for potential hurdles and present strategies to the team for combating them. I would seek feedback from my Concluder-Producer, who would really scrutinise the rationale of the proposal to the finest detail. I would then seek comment from the Thruster-Organisers who would naturally focus on the ‘doing bit’ and address the practicalities of taking the proposal forward. This combination provided the catalyst for further discussion and I would steer the meeting, summarising viewpoints and areas of agreement.’
The outcomes
‘The Team Management Profile provided a powerful tool that we could share in order to create more transparent problem-solving and decision-making discussions and enabling decisions to be reached quickly and efficiently.
In the middle of a blizzard at -35ºC, facing the dilemma of dwindling food stocks, and yet with still 200 miles to go, this is a powerful skill for an Antarctic team. This team approach made our progress surprisingly smooth, no arguments in 67 days with all decisions discussed and agreed with relative ease! The team works and we have demonstrated how to harness an understanding of work preferences to achieve high performance.’
Profiling doesn’t just work in extreme conditions. The issues faced by the Polar Quest expedition need to be overcome when putting together any high performing team. Team development tools are as relevant to workplace situations as they are to trekking across Antarctica.
Related Links:
Using the Margerison-McCann
Team Management Profile
Case Study : Polar Quest Expedition |
