Business Lessons in Orienteering

[Gord Hunter]

As orienteering club presidents, we are often challlenged with making our sport appealing to potential audiences.

I'm dealing with a lot of JROTC instructors and they are looking for their students to become better leaders so I tout the benefits of orienteering for sharpening decision-making skills.

It works in other fields, too.

Recently on the Georgia Orienteering Facebook page I saw this article copied from a local newspaper page.

It relates how the skills needed for a business to succeed are pretty well the same as the skills that help us succeed in orienteering.

So what? Building the popularity of orienteering means getting positive messages to many groups and tailoring that message to each group's needs.

"Make it easy for them to say Yes', a businessman once told an audience I was in. If you get a chance to talk o a local business community about orienteering perhaps don't so much talk about getting yourself found in the woods but talk about decision making in orienteeering and business are about the same, adjusting to changing conditions are exactly the same and so on.

Well, go to the link and read the article. Post it to your Facebook page and enjoy.

https://thecitizen.com/2023/04/11/business-lessons-from-the-sport-of-orienteering/?fbclid=IwAR1W2oxv62PZC0RkUbaHpnvZBre_awptUPhwQjlZ2k0bXTMNqjBi5VP52pE

 

Cheers,

Gord Hunter

Suncoast Orienteering

[Barb Bryant]

Nice, well-written article!

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[Ellen Stefaniak]

Good article.  Thanks for sharing.  I've posted to our FB page & think others will enjoy reading it too.

Ellen

On Wed, Apr 19, 2023 at 3:02 PM Gord Hunter <gor...@rogers.com> wrote:

[Galen A. Moore]

Thank you for posting/sharing this, Gord.

 Has anyone out there got ideas they'd like to share about tailoring orienteering specifically to teambuilding?

 Something I've begun offering is an event where, after just barely enough instruction, teams of 3-4 are given a set of maps of a Yellow/Orange-level course. 

 Here's what I think would make it interesting; one map has landforms, another only veg, and another everything else (or some easily executed distribution of map information).  Each member looks only at their own map, verbally presents a route plan based on what their map suggests, and a leader distills the plans into a route choice that the team then executes.  Maps and roles are rotated after punching each control.  We can all imagine how ideal the terrain might have to be for this to be perfect, but in actual teams, not everyone has equal value to add at all times.

 I've no takers yet, but my efforts have admittedly been meager.   I'm certain that I'm not the first person to have thought of this sort of thing.

 Obvious, the strategic elements of team Score-O make it a great and practical teambuilding/leadership exercise as well.

 Thanks.

 Galen

[LARRY BERMAN]

I have always used the military as a good analogy to the decision-making of orienteering. A patrol leader takes his group out into the field. Once he leaves the start, they are on their ownThe leader has a plan to execute. If conditions change, a new plan is needed. No time to have a committee meeting, or wait for instructions from headquarters. All the while under pressure; the pressure is more serious than the clock that the orienteer worries about, but decisions have to be made.

At one point, the Israeli Army and the British Army were using orienteering as part of their training, and I don’t think it was for better land navigation.

Larry Berman
CSU

[Gord Hunter]

That is an interesting but seemingly difficult task Galen. I hope you get to try it.

The guy who for many years was (perhaps he still is) the guru of orienteering and corporate team building is Chris Cassone, formerly of the New York area, now I believe living the good life in California.

By BCC here I'm letting him know this is circulating around.

Gord Hunter

On Wednesday, April 19, 2023 at 07:43:19 p.m. EDT, Galen A. Moore <galen....@gmail.com> wrote:

Thank you for posting/sharing this, Gord.

Has anyone out there got ideas they'd like to share about tailoring orienteering specifically to teambuilding?

Something I've begun offering is an event where, after just barely enough instruction, teams of 3-4 are given a set of maps of a Yellow/Orange-level course. 

Here's what I think would make it interesting; one map has landforms, another only veg, and another everything else (or some easily executed distribution of map information).  Each member looks only at their own map, verbally presents a route plan based on what their map suggests, and a leader distills the plans into a route choice that the team then executes.  Maps and roles are rotated after punching each control.  We can all imagine how ideal the terrain might have to be for this to be perfect, but in actual teams, not everyone has equal value to add at all times.

I've no takers yet, but my efforts have admittedly been meager.   I'm certain that I'm not the first person to have thought of this sort of thing.

Because of the strategic elements, I'd think that team Score-O has a lot going for it as a practical teambuilding/leadership exercise as well.

Thanks.

Galen

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[Eric Concannon]

Yes, thanks for sharing this, Gord.

In response to Galen's idea and question about tailoring orienteering to team building: A local (Lander, Wyoming) outdoor leadership program (NOLS) has a custom education department which has been doing something akin to this for ~20 years. It's still offered on their webpage under the title of Leadership Navigation Challenge. Here's the full description for those who prefer to skip the link:

Get out of the office and take your team to the next level. Built around an urban geocaching adventure, the NOLS Leadership Navigation Challenge is a one- to three-day exercise in leadership development that distills the lessons we teach in the wilderness. You'll work with your team to navigate a challenging course, pausing to reflect on group functionality and to give and receive crucial feedback. NOLS faculty will guide your learning and provide relevant, impactful curriculum to build a more cohesive team.

I was among the folks called "NOLS faculty" for a few years, have participated in a one-day version of this exercise, but have not led one. It is essentially about group decision-making and conflict resolution with a variety of other leadership skill discussion and development woven in as the need or opportunity arises within the specific group(s) involved. The central activity, as noted, is a structured form of geocaching, but I have always seen it as equivalent to orienteering (specifically score-O') on simpler maps with small groups each getting one map. The only difference being that the teams aren't punching, they are collecting oddments ('gold' coins, McDonald's toys, small carabiners, etc.) that are found only at each cache location. There are usually several small groups of 3-5 people, and each group carries a GPS tracker. Two or three proctors (the "faculty") shadow the groups and interject meaningful insights at appropriate times. Tracking allows the proctors to move around between groups and get a broader sense of the entire course's (meaning all the participants) experience and outcomes.

I hope this explanation is helpful. Unfortunately, I'm quite sure that NOLS would be stingy with sharing of any curriculum documents or other resources they've developed to refine this course offering. I'm also quite sure we're all smart enough to extrapolate this readily to come up with a similar offering on one our maps. The real meat of it will come from having the skilled folks to help participants distill their experiences (and conflicts...these are common) into useful, transferrable team-building outcomes.

Cheers, Eric Concannon

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[gtssolstice]

Orienteering has been a useful part of a lot of team building programs in Virginia and Georgia. I've been a consultant/contractor to teambuilding organizations in both states. About 7 organizations and my own company over the years. I've made small o-maps of their properties, developed urban maps, utilized permanent O-courses, provided staff trainings, lead teambuilding events with 20 to 300 people, etc. Score-O lends itself well to planning, communication, goal setting, conflict resolution and other skills.

Sent from my T-Mobile 5G Device

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[Galen A. Moore]

@eric - Thanks for sharing that info/link!  It is helpful, and I think your point about the facilitation "real meat" is spot-on. I think I'd have to engage the org's Employee Development HR person to meaningfully provide that element.