Boot camp where employees learn teamwork

Government employees take part in team building activities at Outward Bound Mountain School at the foot of Mt Kilimanjaro. PHOTO | BRIAN OKINDA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The experiential learning seeks to roundly create the classical public servant imbued with selflessness, expertise, patriotism, honour, and service.
  • Prof Chweya points out that the smart public servant is one who continuously seeks new knowledge and increased competencies in the contemporary human society.

It is in the small hours of the morning, not quite dawn yet.

In the gradually receding darkness, a loud voice suddenly punctures the silence: “We-e-e!” From different corners comes a chorus of many voices, “Wa-a-h!”

As the interchange of the brief slogan is repeated, a mad rush ensues as men and women bolt out of their beds and out of the dormitory-style log cabins that dot the site. They all hurry to a small glade a short distance from the cabins.

They hardly speak to each other, perhaps the feeling of being jolted out of bed at an hour most consider unreasonable taking a toll on them.

Still bleary-eyed and listless from sleep, they hold hands forming a circle, and the bawler who woke them just a few minutes earlier steps forward still chanting, “We-e-e!”, eliciting “Wa-a-h!” from the participants.

The phrase is a contraction of the phrase, “We were (there),” and is used by those who have gone through the gruelling training to identify one another elsewhere.

The phrase is also an allusion to chirrups made by a bird that commonly inhabits the site’s lush thickets and tree groves.

PRODUCTIVITY

At precisely 5.55am, the group begins the session’s activities: skipping on the spot, stretching and jogging on the spot, among others, before leaving the site onto a dirt road that leads into the backwoods that define the setting of the site.

And off they disappear into the obscurity of the intermittent early morning fog that descends from the nearby Mt Kilimanjaro during the night, and the resulting gloominess that comes with it.

This marks the beginning of the group’s daily activities, which more often than not run into the evening. “No matter how you do it, whether you choose to sprint, jog or walk, by all means just do it quicker than you are accustomed to,” the instructor leading the joggers yells, as the group, made up of roughly 40 people, majority of them middle-aged, hits the road.

This is a typical morning at the Outward Bound Mountain School, set at the foot of Mt Kilimanjaro. It is a cantonment of sorts located not far from Loitokitok Town in Kajiado County.

The group of joggers is made up of civil servants working in various parastatals and ministries as well as different departments of county governments.

They are here courtesy of the Kenya School of Government (KSG) and are expected to emerge from the five-day training changed people, having internalised qualities that, according to the programme, are a prerequisite for effective running of duties in their different departments.

EQUALITY

The key objective, says centre manager David Kurao, is to jolt the trainees out of their comfort zones, and while at it, impart in them qualities that include resilience in conditions of privation, support and respect for each other, and a variety of endurance strategies.

These objectives are communicated by just about everything that one perceives and engages in on setting foot inside the school’s gates.

The small dormitory-style cabins that are somewhat spartan are shared by at least 10 people, so the need for personal privacy is beyond consideration; while some amenities therein, including the few charging ports for appliances, are communal.

As for the beds, they are as narrow as can be, therefore there is no luxury of unencumbered sleeping. The same lack of grandiosity is replicated in the dining area where the meals are eaten in togetherness.

And on completion of the meal, the rule is that no one leaves their used dishes at the dining table.

In this group are senior and junior employees, but despite where they stand in the social order, here they are equal, they receive the same treatment and are expected to queue and share everything.

HISTORY
If you’re wondering, The Outward Bound is a movement that was started in Britain during the Second World War to teach young seamen to develop qualities essential for survival, ranging from leadership, teamwork, perseverance and being their brother’s keeper.

The facilities are mainly located in areas that are punishing, for instance in heavily forested areas, in mountains and near lakes and seas. This explains the setting of the school in Loitokitok.

Currently, says Richard Mutuku, a course director at the facility, there are up to 300 such establishments, basecamps, centres and institutions across the world.

Founded in Kenya in 1951, the school is the only one of the global series in Kenya, and falls under the Outward Bound Trust of Kenya, which is a member of the Outward Bound Global Network whose secretariat is at Salt Lake City in Utah, US.

The school was initially founded as a way of building bonds of trust between young men of all ancestries. It would go on to become a means of preparing apprentices for the leadership roles they would play in independent Kenya.

Manoeuvres include Journey of Life (Trust walk), in which several participants are blindfolded and their colleagues tasked with guiding them through numerous obstacles strategically placed on their paths.

LEADERSHIP
There is also Berlin Wall (Climbing wall) in which participants have to help each other scale a high vertical wall without any grip nor climbing gear.

Others are Stepping Stones (Sea of confusion), Starting Afresh, Corporate Connection and Marble and Pipe. All the exercises seek to implant various values in the participants.

More than half a century down the line, the initiative that has interchangeably fallen under the ministries of Education and Defence, and is now run by trustees, has widened its scope to encompass corporate organisations without losing its initial core obligation.

The facility has, in the main, remained obscure, thus, not many know about it despite the key roles it plays in self-discovery and identification as well as shaping of morals.

The Loitokitok-based institution, despite being run by trustees, is still under government patronage. After all, it sits on government land. There’s also the fact that civil servants make up the bulk of its clients.

Experientialism, Kurao explains, is the main means of learning at the centre. The KSG party is made up of senior and junior employees of government institutions, including the courts, government parastatals, county governments and other governmental administrations.

They take part in all these activities, the envisioned outcome being to instil requisite leadership values in them.

TRUST

The sharing of sleeping areas, restrooms, dining areas, and the few facilities is, according to the programme, a measured move aimed to ensure that senior and junior staff are able to intermingle without an air of unease or trepidation.

It’s also a means of ensuring that resources are thoughtfully used, while at the same time ensuring that there is proper exchange of communication, Mutuku says.

“Sharing an open office space is, for instance, strategic in that while it saves on the resources that would have ordinarily been used to set up several offices and workstations, they can be accommodated within one open facility.

In such settings, there usually is minimal chance of inaccuracy, misinterpretation and miscommunication, since being in the same open space gives the staff an opportunity to promptly seek clarification in case it is needed,” he says.

The result, says Samuel Ombugu, a trainer and mentor in the programme, is that trust is created between the participants while leadership skills are inculcated in them, better communication skills and attitudes developed, and the value of support and working together indoctrinated in them.

POTENTIAL

There is also development of strategy orientation and vision-building, leading to finding one’s focus.

Gertrude Ayieko, the director in charge of administration at the Department of Lands in Kisii County, who went through the programme, notes that the experience has not only been eye-opening, but also mind-changing.

She notes that the titles and designations do not matter that much in an organisation as every employee, regardless of rank, has a role to contribute in decision-making.

“I also have learnt to view situations differently and embrace others because as a leader, I need that junior employee to execute my job competently,” she says.

George Mwangi Mureithi, an administrative services deputy director in the Department of Transport, Public Works, Infrastructure and Energy at the County Government of Nyeri, considers the experience beneficial. The training pushed him to the limit, making him realise his full potential.

“The programme brought down the walls that many of us had built around ourselves, bringing out togetherness, creating synergy and teamwork and crafting a level ground for everyone,” he says, noting there was a positive vibe that had not been there among those that took part in the training with him.

“We feel there is little that is impossible to achieve even where resources are meagre.”

ETHICS
Here, the experiential learning seeks to roundly create the classical public servant imbued with selflessness, expertise, patriotism, honour, and service, Prof Ludeki Chweya, the Kenya School of Government Director-General, says.

The professor notes that the idea of organisations and employers investing in such programmes was borne out of the need to instil morals in their staff.

The country, according to him, has for some time been struggling with diminishing ethics and principles in its workplaces to a point that lack of morals and values, as well as misuse and mismanagement of resources had become the norm, especially in government institutions.

It has become acceptable when a boss, for instance, uses the company’s vehicle for personal use, encouraging junior employees to do the same, or taking home smaller items belonging to the government, such as printing papers, pens, notebooks or sometimes leaving the office before time since no one monitors them, or “manning their work stations using their coats”.

Values, respect, ethics, morals, support, teamwork and strategy, among other qualities requisite in an ideal workplace, haveas been disregarded in these institutions, and according to Prof Chweya, pragmatic, rather than theoretic approach in instilling these qualities in staff, emerged as the most conducive method of addressing the shortcomings since what the participants practically go through will most likely than not stick in their frame of mind and disposition.

LIFE SKILLS
He points out that the smart public servant is one who continuously seeks new knowledge and increased competencies in the contemporary human society with ever-increasing complexities.

The course sees that pragmatic situations, using minimum resources, are used to impart in those who participate in the exercises, with life skills enabling their acquisition of optimally required outcomes.

And lessons that the participants get in these activities will, he believes, stick with them not just in their immediate work interaction situations, but in future as well.

A boot camp, a short, intensive and rigorous course of training, is essentially a setting where the process of pragmatically instigating a group of people to work together effectively as a team takes place.

This especially employs activities and events designed to increase motivation to work together as well as promote cooperation.

The success of most institutions depends on the ability of individuals to build effective teams, hence the main goals of team building are to improve productivity and motivation.

CREATIVITY

Corporate coaches say that taking the staff away from the office helps groups break down administrative and personal barriers that they may have cocooned themselves in, eliminate distractions and build avenues for supporting each other while having fun.

They also get an opportunity to tap into their hidden potential, improve morale and leadership skills, pinpoint barriers that hinder creativity, clearly define their objectives and goals and improve processes and procedures.

The staff can further improve the organisation’s productivity, identify the team’s strengths and weaknesses and strategise to come up with improved ways and abilities to solve problems.