„Four seasons in the Treasure Forest”
Management skill-development training programme I-IV.
The „Four seasons in the TREASURE FOREST” - management skill-development training programme is the innovative, orginally developed product of KONETT Team. The programme is a management skill-development training programme operating among unusual training boundaries. Our aim has been to develop a programme for the simulation, operation and practice of corporate complexity, in which practised managers, newly appointed managers and the next generation’s leaders can also get useful and adaptable experiences. The programme is both unique and original. The uniqueness and originality refer to the participant-created, -operated environment, the boundaries of the programme and the programme-management, as well.
The programme is put into a woody environment, the TREASURE FOREST. In this environment we have created an incorporation operating the TREASURE FOREST, the TREASURE FOREST Ltd. The management of the Ltd. forms the base of the management and organisational operation of the programme. The organisation of the forest is led by animals having also human characteristics and roles. The boundaries of the woody incorporation are created by the participants.
The programme slides between two dimensions: „INDOOR” and „OUTDOOR”. The events in the TREASURE FOREST take place „INDOOR”. The practical learning parts of the training operate among these boundaries, taking up 70%. This is the place for practices, roleplays, simulations and presentations. In the „OUTDOOR” dimension we leave the environment of the game, work up the experiences we have gained during the game and conclude them with the help of our everyday management experiences, practices, theoretical summaries and questionnaires.
General description of the programme
The aim of the programme
Preparation and production of a four-moduled, layered, complex management training programme. Development and intensive practice management skills and qualities.
Target group of the programme
Experienced and new managers, as well as high-flyers.
Competencies developed and practised at the management trainings
The programme developed by KONETT Team portrays such complexity in which the participants have the chance to develop and practice all their management skills.
Management skills and competencies:
- motivation,
- evaluation,
- forming opinion,
- delegation and tracking,
- decision making, taking responsibility,
- sharing information,
- personal development,
- stress management.
Competencies regarding corporate operation and management and group management:
- initiative skills and taking risks,
- achieving goals,
- effective organization,
- analysing ability,
- theoretical thinking,
- innovative skills,
- communicational style and convincing communication,
- teamwork and networking,
- change management.
Planned results of the programme
- The participant managers experience a compressed and intensive training. They are able to create a special corporate environment, in which they become inventors, managers and participants of the different phases of corporate operation. They can practice and develop their management and leadership tasks and roles. While being in different situations and roles, they can compete their competencies.
- The corporate and management knowledge of the participants can be widened, structured while their management qualities develop at the same time.
- The participants identify their management operation and the skills they are good at, they can keep correcting their strengthes and outline the directions of further development and define the steps still need to be taken.
- They can prepare, complete and finalize the orginal end product of the programme, the „personal management action plan” with their personal experiences gained in the modules. They fix both the action plan diagnosis and the directions of further development.
- Among the participants of the programme common language, management priorities and management culture, policy and behaviours set as examples during everyday corporate management are all strengthened and developed.
Period of the programme
2 days per each module. The programmes are all sleep-in.
The starting situation of the 4x2 day-programme is the TREASURE FOREST
The layered training modules of the 4x2 day-programme are put into a playful corporate environment.
The location of the game is the TREASURE FOREST, which is a corporate environment containing all four modules of the training. All the mainland animal and plant species can be found in the TREASURE FOREST. Choosing the animals and giving names and characteristics to them are the tasks of the participants.
In order to survive and provide better living standards, the animals in the forest create an enterprise under the name of TREASURE FOREST Ltd. (hereafter TF Ltd.).
The four training sessions during the four different seasons take place every 3-4 weeks. The four seasons represent four different corporate periods with their different corporate and management tasks and challenges.
The environment and the boundaries of the training form an artificially created and imaginary world, however, it does not take place in our imagination, but operates in the „here and now” with exact corporate situations and personified animals having human characteristics who run the TREASURE FOREST Ltd. by embodying numerous formal, determined roles.
The „Four seasons in the TREASURE FOREST” is a complex management quality and skill-development training programme with the above mentioned boundaries where the participants have the chance to imagine, meet and solve real corporate challenges.
Corporation and roles of the TREASURE FOREST Ltd.
The head of the TREASURE FOREST Ltd. is a main leader. They and their group, the TREASURE FOREST Ltd. BOARD (TFEB) run the whole corporation. In the organisation of the TF Ltd. there are three flocks. The flocks are functional corporate units, divisons. They are run by a bellwether. Of the three flocks one of them is the main one, having the main leader as its head. The bellwethers and the main leader form the three-membered Board. The flocks are put together randomly at the beginning of the programme.
The participants choose the animals that will make up the flocks at the beginning of the programmme. They embody them, identify with them. They have human characteristics besides their usual ones. These characteristics are determined by choosing the animals. They also add their personal characteristics to them. The animals play formal definated roles in the flocks. The two bellwethers and the main leader are elected by their own flocks by reaching a consensus.
During the four seasons the participants are forced to change roles and animals three times. With the help of the changes, they can practice different roles with the tasks and competencies related to them.
The trainers are the ghosts of the TREASURE FOREST. The ghosts of the TF moderate, give instructions and manage the process and the training, and in certain periods they hold personal and group consultations by being the consultants of the flocks, the Board and the main leader.
The strategical base of the TREASURE FOREST Ltd.
The mission of the enterprise is:
- to maintain the well-being, security and continuous financial and mental development of the animals of the forest,
- to make an income/profit to get the missing sources and to develop the enterprise or the forest.
Strategical aims of the TREASURE FOREST Ltd. are:
- to protect the animal and plant species of the forest against the inside impacts,
- to increase the estate of the forest,
- to enlarge the area of the forest,
- to make the corporate management modern, professional and convenient to international quality standards.
Reason behind the method
The chosen method and boundaries are not based on ordinary training set-ups and structures.
We have been looking for a method to be right for the participant managers to practice the complex management tasks of networking, development of strategies and operation of a corporation by personal experiences. It puts the target group’s management skills into a corporate environment and their competencies that still need to be improved into newer and newer situations. Our aim has not been the simulation of a virtual process, but the creation of a real one with the operation of a real corporation.
We consider it important that during these training programmes the participants experience complexity in that exact form as it is the basic ingredient of the operation and management of a corporate unit. The programme suggested by KONETT Team is a management competency- and skill-development training programme in which the participants can test their management practice, knowledge and competencies, try their skills in surprising and challenging situations, develop their strengthes and work on their qualities in different situations by numerous types of feed-backs.
Rules of the game
The training takes place in two dimensions.
One of the dimensions is the corporate world of the TREASURE FOREST created by the game and its participants. This is the „INDOOR” world. Events and situations in connections with the creation, development, target setting, controlling, management, group management, feed-backs and assessments of the corporation take place in the world of the created corporation („INDOOR”). The management skills and competencies can be practiced among these boundaries.
The other dimension of the training is the reality, the world outside the game, the „OUTDOOR”. The filling-in of the questionnaires, the short consultant summaries and one part of the personal discussions of conclusions and experiences take place „OUTDOOR”. The worlds of the „INDOOR” and „OUTDOOR” take up a 30/70% rate, changing rythmically.
Applied methods of the „Four seasons in the TREASURE FOREST” programme
Preparatory, personal interview with the principal of the programme about their expectations, the junctions of the programme, their expectations for the participant managers.
Preparatory group interview with all the participants.
Mangement audit questionnaires: Filling-in and assessment of ARP (Authority-Responsibility-Power), Questionnaire of the three types of work motivations, Motivational environment of corporations, MBTI questionnaire, Thomas-Killemann: Methods of conflict solving, questionnaires of Supportive communication, Personal and interpersonal management skills, questionnaires of coping with stress.
Questionnaires for the productivity of the programme.
- Programme feed-back questionnaire – the first questionnaire taken after finishing the programme
- ARP (Authority-Responsibility-Power) – We fill and assess the questionnaire at the beginning of the programme, the participant managers state the developing directions. We fill the questionnaire again at the end of the programme and contrast the changes with the desirable directions.
- Survey of management skills – 360 degrees audit questionnaire - We fill and assess the questionnaire at the beginning of the programme, the participant managers state the developing directions. We fill the questionnaire again at the end of the programme and contrast the changes with the desirable directions.
Syntetization and finalization. Overall summary and analysis of the statements of the preparatory interview and the data of the questionnaire, realization of the final topics of the programmes and discussion with the representatives of the principal.
The training is based on the method of learning through practice by creating original corporate and management boundaries and operating it throughout all the duration of the game. 70% of the simulations takes place in the created environment. The participants are active performers and creators of the programme. They contribute to the development of the management team and each other by taking personal responsibility and making active contribution. They can share their personal management philosophy and experiences during structured discussions and personal consultations. Besides the additional introductions and summaries there are structured and unstructured experience-gaining indoor and outdoor exercises.
Personal advisory consultations and feed-backs. The personal advisory feed-back of the results of the questionnaires and the areas still need to be developed are included in the different programmes of the developing process inside and outside the frame games.
Written advisory feed-back. Every participant is given written personal advisory suggestions regarding the consultant aspects of their achievements and operations.
Resource maps. Besides getting to know the models behind the questionnaires, the participants summarize the results int the perspectives of their groups. We set an example for these methods to be used in personal corporate management and operation.
Personal managemenet action plan. As an individual document it is one of the end products of the programme that helps categorize all the participants’ experiences learnt about themselves, the corporation and group operations. They summarize and realize their personal management action plans during personal advisory consultations. The sample of the action plan is included in the informational tender programme package.
Tracking register. It is the measurement form of the realization of goals stated in the personal action plan. The sample of the tracking register is included in the information tender programme package. We advise the tracking register to be filled monthly.
Participants’ complementary material. The document containing the topics of the programme modules, their theoretical summaries, information on the models and the questionnaires. We have applied traditional structure and perspective in this document. We have not included the environment of the TREASURE FOREST in this document. The participants’ complementary material is included in the informational tender programme package.