Outbound Learning at Pegasus Institute,Bangalore

This is a chapter of two days of exhilarating experience at “Pegasus”, on an Outbound Training programme, away from the daily travails of monotonous work.

Every single detail of travel and stay was meticulously planned. Two cabs were hired from “Pegasus”, to ferry us to the destination. The journey started with the members playing games in the cab. Slowly, the hustle and bustle of the city traffic gave way to potholed roads on the village outskirts. Lush greenery stared innocently at our faces.

We reached Pegasus at 8:00pm,. The place was calm, quiet and pleasing to the eyes. A lot of planning had been done with reference to the “Learning environment” just like an “Army base” training platform.

We were then introduced to the “Facilitator”, of the programme, Colonel Nagarajan. He made us aware of the institute, do’s and don’ts, history behind the “Learning environment”- all this in a ten point. He put us all at ease and showed us the tents which were essentially our home for the next two days.

The arrangements were excellent, discipline- immaculate, the staff- ever humble, and hospitality – definitely the best! The staff members were employed from nearby 4 villages across the institute.

On 21st July 06, we assembled at “Central Peragola”, where we were introduced to the other facilitator, Mr. Alok Dubey, who played an important role in the two days of our Outbound Learning. The briefing on the morning session went on for an hour or so, with the learning graph exceeding our expectation.

The 13 step formula required to actively participate on the two day programme was successfully spelt out with 3 points standing out.


• Challenge your inhibitions.
• Grapple your fears and learn to manage them.
• Have a lot of fun along the way of learning.

The team members introduced themselves by briefly speaking about their hobbies and passions.

Mr. Alok, kept the whole group entertained with some skits and ten minutes fun sessions in between the regular group exercises and the learning sessions. We did some wonderful skits on social causes like “NO SMOKING” and other mono-acts by the members in between.

The first activity was in the form of group exercise. The name of the game was Dynamic Delivery. In this, the teams had to cross a particular barricade of milestones without the feet or any material touching the ground. The assignment was challenging. The ideas generated during the exercise were stupendous. The team kept on getting innovative inputs at every stage. Few members emerged to be the very enterprising as they were gutsy enough to reach the halfway of the target.

This event helped us unwind, fight our mental blocks and challenge our inhibitions and fears. The team pulled off every idea in the book to surpass the huge responsibility. Although both the teams could not finish the assignment, the learnings were mind boggling. The briefing sessions of 2 hours with both the teams that followed, made us aware of the nitty- gritties of business acumen and values/behaviours to execute it.

The facilitator was pin pointing the micro – details of the event and giving the analogy with reference to the “Tyco 4 Values and 9 Behaviours”. Special appreciation was given to those who made things happen even under adversity. The feelings/emotions of the event was raveled by the discussion that followed. We then had sumptuous lunch. The atmosphere was awesome and hospitality enthralling.

In the post lunch session, we had an exercise which comprised of one Project Manager and 3 teams who had 6 members with them. The new assignment was to build an assortment of “Design of wooden blocks”, to be built and practiced for an execution time of 110 minutes. The whole design had to be built with a cycle time of 120 seconds (2 minutes) by all the 3 teams put together.

The customer (Hypothetical) was very particular about the quality of the product as well as about the delivery time. No leeway, on these matters, as per the contract signed.

The 3 teams practiced the whole exercise by making the design of the wooden blocks at 3 different locations. Project Manager co-ordinated the project by constantly updating the progress with the customer and giving tips for execution to the team members. The bridging of communication was apparent in the whole activity. All the 3 teams followed their own methodology for executing the project. After 110 minutes elapsed , all 3 teams were asked to execute the project with combined cycle time of 120 seconds (2 minutes).
Team A performed the act in129 seconds, Team B in 46 seconds and Team C could not execute the project at all.


The customer (Facilitator) was furious and disappointed with the outcome and pulled the Project Manager for its failure. Negotiation skills came to the forte between the Project Manager and the facilitator. Bargaining for no penalties and punishment became the order of TYCO team. The team was adamant in not executing the project, if the conditions were not relaxed. The project was called off after a lot of deliberation between the customer and Project Manager.

Disappointments were lit large on the whole team after the entire exercise. The discussions that followed re-inforced the lessons that we had learnt in the morning session. Special mention was made in “Customer Focus”, “not to follow the least resistant path”, and to demonstrate “Managerial Courage”.
The day ended with dinner served promptly at 8:30pm with hospitality unlimited.

We had a quick walk around the campus, had some pep talk outside the tent and dwindled off the whole day with sound sleep thereafter.

The next morning everyone was up by 5:30 am, played a round of volley ball with team members for 45 minutes and then had breakfast. We all assembled at 7:45 am for another days learning.

It started with an exercise of building tents blindfolded. The team was split in 4. Each team was given 20 – 34 minutes to plan and execute this particular assignment. In this, the team leaders had to give instructions communicating at par…., and there was restriction on the movement of the leader.


This exercise took the maximum out of the participants. The issue was each member had his own way of interpretation of the tent. The team members went about the task with aplomb, but not looking at the “Big Picture”. This should have been done by the team Leaders. As usual the teams failed to execute the promised tent within the stipulated time. Now, it was the turn of the least bidder to execute the mission after watching the other teams perform.

Every team member was having a snapshot of this particular exercise. One team did a very good job. Each member performed their activity with sheer focus and immaculate execution. This team’s leader had nonchalant interpersonal skills, making the task look easy.

After the exercise, the usual interpretations of the whole activity were demystified in the eyes of the beholder, through a vigorous interpretation/discussion among the team members and the team leader. The learnings was chalked out in snippets and put forth across the whole group by each team.

The Learnings


“Customer Focus”, “Look at the big picture”, “Communication across various functions and among collaborative teams”, “Micro – detailing of the project plan”.


The 2nd exercise for the day was immediately chalked out by the facilitator. “Rafting” for sure…..

The team members were asked to change over to shorts and carry over a towel…. Shoes gave way to slippers and for the adventurous types …barefoot trekking…..
We were dumped on billet trucks and Sumo’s … we felt like we were going for merry making… The team traveled for about 4- 5 kms to reach the destinations, the facilitators were promptly making their plans to go ahead with appointing the Project Manager and the team members.

After a short briefing, each team was given the task of designing and quoting for the best raft a customer would ask for, with least lead time and competitive price. 2 NGO rafts (Rescue) had to be built. Each team worked out the details, after a lot of deliberation, the team started actually implementing the same.

The enthusiasm of building the raft was breathtaking the wooden logs(Long and short) were arranged for log work, knots tied across added for stability and balance. In between the customer was updated on the progress by the project Manager to the hilt. The first visit by the customer requested for a Cultural Presentation, the team happily sung “Vande Mataram” in tandem to show their respect towards the customer, here come’s the exciting part….


Off we go into the pond, with the rafts…., Alok – facilitator, gave a brief note on the Do’s and Don’ts how to take a left and right turn, what to do , if the raft overturns and general matters. The first Team’s raft was designed to the perfection and was balanced by the team members accurately. As we moved into the pond, the fears, inhibitions, thrill, joy, excitement, satisfaction, success, pride and youthful exuberance came into forte at various instances. One of the rafts was very adventurous, this raft overturned within a few minutes of embarking into the water.

We all thoroughly enjoyed the scenery- photographs tell the whole picture, and may everyone display this kind of enthusiasm in our day to day life. After the exercise, the “learning part” was jointly conducted by the facilitator; we had brunch session in between for an hour. Food was exemplary … yummy to the tee… got ourselves refreshed and started packing for return journey ahead…

We had the following lessons engraved in our minds

• Customer requirement on time and with correct specifications, adaptability to changing situations, flexibility for change, compatibility with external customers time plan and competition, teamwork and leadership demonstration.

The facilitator profusely thanked the team members for the wonderful participation, which followed by thanks from our team.

We wrote our “professional and personal development goals” to bring about accountability in our team.

We summoned our guts and determination, going forward with renewed vigor and pride to face the challenges ahead…the return journey was smooth and as we traveled back, the memories of the 2 days well spent, are crystal clear in our minds.

Hats off to Pegasus and Jai Hind to Colonel Saab and also Mr. Alok.
It indeed was a truly enthralling experience to cherish all our life.


Thanks
Roohul Haq.