Teams tend to unite around a common goal. When one is not obvious, or indeed perceived to be out of reach, individuals will manifest their own and follow them. This can result in a breakdown in team cohesion with devastating results. During all my polar journeys I create a 'Keep Walking Scheme of Manoeuvre'; a planning aide that I first developed for my successful crossing of Iceland in 1994. The aide established a series of achievable goals that take into consideration terrain, fitness levels, sledge loads and altitude. When I left the edge of Antarctica heading for the South Pole I was not focused on the Pole some 700 miles away, but on a point 60 miles away. It is much easier to focus on small steps.
Wednesday
Keeping Your Team On Track
Having assumed leadership of a new team or group, or on taking over an existing one, your first task is to create a team charter. A team charter is a vital tool in your toolbox and creates the foundations upon which to build and sustain high performance. It specifies the purpose of a team, the boundaries of its scope and authority, creates team cohesion and articulates expectations of team membership.Whoever is creating the team should produce the team charter and share it with the team at its first meeting. This may not always be the formal leader. Individuals should be encouraged to discuss the charter, offer suggestions for changes and agree its final content. Frequently reviewing roles, communications strategies and resource allocation will ensure that the team charter remains current.
It is important that the charter is ‘owned’ by the team in order for them to become responsible for working as a team within its framework. Team members must be accountable to the team charter. If team members are not working within the team charter framework, discuss the matter with the individual sooner rather than later to avoid damaging team cohesion.
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Tuesday
Adopt a Positive Viewpoint
In the current world of global complexities, it is easy to lose heart when things start to go wrong or when unexpected issues threaten to derail even the best laid plans. An ability to take things in your stride and to stay optimistic can make the difference between ultimate success and failure.
Challenges are rarely dealt with by sole individuals, so the impact of the leader on the team has to be taken into account. An optimistic leader, with a 'can do' mentality, will have a major impact on the rest of the team. Find a successful and energetic leader in any field and one can also find a person who is relentlessly positive.
Emotional stress, which is often self-imposed, takes a toll on your energy, filling your mind with clutter that interferes with your pitch or presentation. So get rid of it. A positive mood will raise your energy, give power to your words, and boost your professional presence. Using positive language when talking to yourself releases powerful endorphins, or feel good chemicals, in your brain. These are same type of chemicals released during exercise. Do you see the connection? By getting more sleep, more exercise, and thinking more uplifting thoughts, your energy will soar. Your colleagues and customers will notice.
While others around you may feel like having their heads down, your positive attitude will ensure that progress through difficulty will be maintained.
Avoid being crushed by the very thought of all the challenges of the task ahead, divide task up into a number of much smaller goals within immediate reach and focus on them only one at a time.
There is never any point at crying over setbacks - it happens. In order to win at some of the big goals you are bound to lose at others along the way.
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Sunday
From Rocks to Bricks
I'm reading Narrative of a Voyage to the Polar Sea, the journals penned by Sir George Nares during his leadership of the British Arctic Expedition 1875-76, and came across the following passage;
‘At 10pm we arrived at Cape Isabella, and on Commander Markham climbing up to the depot he found the package of letters and newspapers left there by Sir Allen Young a few weeks previously; we gathered from them that a duplicate packet had been carried on to Cape Sabine.’
The practice in early polar exploration was to deposit letters, documents and progress updates in rock cairns built high on prominent landmarks and in view of passing explorers. The contents would be removed by these fellow explorers and eventually find there way to their destination – a letter arriving 2 years later was not uncommon. How times have changed…
At 18.34 GMT on the 1st April 1998, in a temperature of -30°C, I stood at the magnetic North Pole joined by eight Year 9 and l0 students (aged 13 to 15) and two teachers from Robertsbridge Community College in East Sussex. History had been made as it was the first British school party to reach the Pole and for good measure, 14-year-olds John and William Rigby claimed their own piece of the limelight in being the first twins in the world ever to set foot there!
The expedition, named Polar Watch, was the culmination of a grander geographical North Pole expedition that I was leading and set out to bring the ‘polar adventure’ to the classroom, or armchair. Internet was in its infancy and this was new territory. The BBC ran a piece in its Sci/Tech section titled ‘Internet to track North Pole walkers’. The tracking was quite rudimentary – we would call our UK Base Camp using HF Radio (relayed through a radio station in North Scotland) and answer questions that had been submitted by students and our website would be updated by our base Camp team afterwards. Of course this was assuming we were able to make radio contact in the first place.
In 2007 I lead a similar venture, with schools this time tracking my progress to both North and South Poles and a student expedition to the High Arctic and North Pole. Technology had advanced considerably by then and utilising Humanedgetech™ technology (www.humanedgetech.com) and equipped with satellite handsets, PDA’s and solar panels I was able to send text and images direct to the expedition website. Using a web-based map our position could be updated 'from the ice' as we inched ever closer towards the Poles.
This year Briton Felicity Aston (@felicity_Aston) completed the 1st female solo supported crossing of Antarctica – she ‘tweeted’ her way across using a satellite handset to send a tweet (a message restricted to 140 characters) each day to the outside world. Each tweet was automatically fed into a number of other social platforms such as Facebook, Linked and Blogger and streamed onto a multitude of individual websites and mobile phones.
In her sledge she carried a small yellow device, aptly named Yellowbrick (www.yellowbrick-tracking.com), which automatically transmitted her position every 5 minutes, and via satellite updated a web-based map of Antarctica. Live tracking step-by-step.
It will be interesting to see where technology takes polar exploration next!
Explore more in seanchapple.co.uk
‘At 10pm we arrived at Cape Isabella, and on Commander Markham climbing up to the depot he found the package of letters and newspapers left there by Sir Allen Young a few weeks previously; we gathered from them that a duplicate packet had been carried on to Cape Sabine.’
The practice in early polar exploration was to deposit letters, documents and progress updates in rock cairns built high on prominent landmarks and in view of passing explorers. The contents would be removed by these fellow explorers and eventually find there way to their destination – a letter arriving 2 years later was not uncommon. How times have changed…
At 18.34 GMT on the 1st April 1998, in a temperature of -30°C, I stood at the magnetic North Pole joined by eight Year 9 and l0 students (aged 13 to 15) and two teachers from Robertsbridge Community College in East Sussex. History had been made as it was the first British school party to reach the Pole and for good measure, 14-year-olds John and William Rigby claimed their own piece of the limelight in being the first twins in the world ever to set foot there!
The expedition, named Polar Watch, was the culmination of a grander geographical North Pole expedition that I was leading and set out to bring the ‘polar adventure’ to the classroom, or armchair. Internet was in its infancy and this was new territory. The BBC ran a piece in its Sci/Tech section titled ‘Internet to track North Pole walkers’. The tracking was quite rudimentary – we would call our UK Base Camp using HF Radio (relayed through a radio station in North Scotland) and answer questions that had been submitted by students and our website would be updated by our base Camp team afterwards. Of course this was assuming we were able to make radio contact in the first place.
In 2007 I lead a similar venture, with schools this time tracking my progress to both North and South Poles and a student expedition to the High Arctic and North Pole. Technology had advanced considerably by then and utilising Humanedgetech™ technology (www.humanedgetech.com) and equipped with satellite handsets, PDA’s and solar panels I was able to send text and images direct to the expedition website. Using a web-based map our position could be updated 'from the ice' as we inched ever closer towards the Poles.
This year Briton Felicity Aston (@felicity_Aston) completed the 1st female solo supported crossing of Antarctica – she ‘tweeted’ her way across using a satellite handset to send a tweet (a message restricted to 140 characters) each day to the outside world. Each tweet was automatically fed into a number of other social platforms such as Facebook, Linked and Blogger and streamed onto a multitude of individual websites and mobile phones.
In her sledge she carried a small yellow device, aptly named Yellowbrick (www.yellowbrick-tracking.com), which automatically transmitted her position every 5 minutes, and via satellite updated a web-based map of Antarctica. Live tracking step-by-step.
It will be interesting to see where technology takes polar exploration next!
Explore more in seanchapple.co.uk
Thursday
Adventure in Life & Work
Adventure provides the vehicle on which to extend our capability and capacity. Adventurers have for many decades faced the extreme of uncertainty and risk, where errors in judgement can be paid for with the ultimate price. In today's competitive and dynamic business environment adopting an adventurers approach we can provide dynamic results in risk taking and pushing back the frontiers of known endurance, self-confidence, resilience and initiative.
What is adventure?
My definition of adventure is a journey in work or life that involves people, risk and excitement in pursuit of a positive outcome. By understanding the value, and interaction, of the four key elements of adventure - Risk, Outcome, People and Excitement - we can truly unleash our full potential and achieve our full potential.
What are the essential values an adventurer?
Cultivate an appetite for risk
Maintain a positive viewpoint
Value individual differences
Seize opportunities
What makes a successful adventurer?
I believe that to be successful in adventure, and by that read work and life, you must first understand your desired outcome, if you don't know where your journey is going how can you put in place the resources your need to reach it. You must respect fellow adventurers, and value individual perspectives - through diversity comes real strength.
Risk is ever present and a good adventurer continually seeks knowledge to develop his situational awareness in order to reduce uncertainty and risk. And last but not least, a successful adventure learns regardless of the outcome and always enjoys the experience.
Adopt the Explorers Attitude : Think-See-Be
I have integrated my experiences, leadership and team development skills into my adventure-leader philosophy which I teach on my development courses. A philosophy that promotes a shift in attitudes to adopt those of an adventurer. It is about Thinking, Seeing and then Becoming the adventurer. By exploring your ability to experience more you will unlock true potential.
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