I must admit, before this week I had never heard of Seagate Technologies. According to Forbes (n.d.), Seagate Technology is a Dublin based producer of attached storage, data protection, internet hard drives, flash storage, etc. and has a worth of about 7.5 billion dollars. The company’s place in the business world was not as intriguing to me as their yearly outdoor lab experience called EcoSeagate. According to Brown (2011), EcoSeagate was formed as a way to prove the value of teamwork. CEO Bill Watkins began the outdoor retreat as a way to change the culture and morale of Seagate.
According to Brown (2011), when Watkins took over as CEO in 2000, the company was known by the name of Slavegate by its employees due to the propensity the former CEO had of firing employees at an alarming rate. Watkins knew that something must be done to save the organization, so EcoSeagate was formed in 2000.
What is EcoSeagate? EcoSeagate is a yearly outdoor lab experience where the company brings 200 employees (out of thousands that applied) to the mountains of New Zeeland for a week’s worth of outdoor team building exercises (Brown, 2016). If you are the type of person who enjoys mountain biking, kayaking, mountain climbing, running, walking through the woods with a very undescriptive map, and crossing canyons on cables to help build a better team environment, then this retreat sounds perfect for you! The most enticing aspect for the participants is that they get to go to the mountains of New Zeeland on the company’s dime, but hard work is required, so they must be prepared.
As I read about Seagate’s outdoor lab experience, I began to question the significance of the event. According to Brown (2011), the retreat costs upward of $2 million yearly, and Watkins has not been able to prove that EgoSeagate produces qualitative results. As an accountant who always thinks about issues in terms of funds, this was a bit intriguing to me. According to Brown (2011) outdoor labs are relatively new, and details of their effectiveness remain undocumented. “If labs are not introduced with planning and followed up correctly, they can become expensive topics of conversation at coffee breaks” (Brown, 2011, p. 276). So, why would the company continue to spend a large amount of money for an event that they cannot prove adds value to the company? According to Watkins, there is a gut feeling that the event is working (Brown, 2011).
The glaring question here is, is the experience worth the cost? As I pondered that question, I was met with met with a blend of both uncertainty and belief in the event. My initial thought was personally I do not believe I would put myself through the rigorous activities in the name of teamwork. I told myself that I was a great teammate and would not succumb to that much physical activity to prove the point. But, as I watched videos of the process, I began to change my mind. I began to realize the outcome depended on the individual. First, the individual must not be there for a free company vacation. There must be a mindset that this will be hard work but in the end, it will be rewarding and help construct team building and trust. According to Seagate’s, CEO, Bill Watkins, “You go with the program, you get in here and yell and scream, you start talking to people, you start doing it, and I make this promise right now you’ll have the experience you’ve never had in your life” (EcoSeagate, 2008, n.p.). The individual must have the correct mindset and put in the work to receive the rewards.
I have always believed trust and communication are critical to the success of an organization.
Without trust, not only between leaders and followers but also co-workers to co-workers, the culture begins to establish a little crack in the foundation that without being fixed could send the organization crashing down. Trust is also a major topic at EcoSeagate. The leaders believe that trust is the cornerstone of everything that occurs at the company and without trust, the company could suffer. The team building activities are designed to build trust. One individual uses a bungee to tie his bike to the bike of his teammate in case the teammate becomes tired. This action shows trust, compassion, friendship, and the mindset that the team is more important than the individual. As I watched the video, it was evident that the participants were developing the opinion that team was the most important factor, which was the purpose of the retreat.
Another aspect I found interesting was the cohesiveness created by the chanting and dancing activities. The videos showed the team members teaching each other the chants and dances and then competing in chant/dance competition (EcoSeagate, 2008). The joy on the faces on the winning team showed the bonding that took place during the exercise. The team was able to face a challenge that I am sure they never thought they would complete, and become a much more cohesive and united team while learning the chanting exercise.
I believe this type of outdoor lab experience would be beneficial for a high-performance team. As I mentioned before, the events available at EcoSeagate offer team building, trust building, and overall department building activities. If individuals can learn to trust one another enough to pull each other up the sides of mountains or through river rapids then discussing the plans for next quarter’s growth or developing the next product should be no problem.
I also believe this type of activity on a smaller scale would be greatly beneficial to my department. I believe we trust each other to a certain extend in the department, but with different generations and backgrounds working in the department, trust and cohesiveness could always be made stronger. If we were able to compete in trust and team building activities to strengthen our department cohesiveness, the department could only benefit.
References
Brown, D. R. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development (8th ed.). Boston: Prentice Hall.
Eco Seagate 2008 1/3. (2008, April 25). YouTube. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCOfOFMiLtE&feature=youtu.be
Eco Seagate 2008 2/3. (2008, April 26). YouTube. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etwuap-_Azk&feature=youtu.be
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