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"Having used the excellent "Colourblind" game very successfully for some years, I bought Signlines from Future Fa ... More Special Offers
Signlines
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Blindfold Tank Driving, Cliff Jumping, White Water Rafting, Abseiling, Sumo Wrestling, High Rope, Low Rope, Zip Wire. Do any of ... More
future factory, Cork House 104 Constitution Street, Leith Edinburgh EH6 6AW tel: 44(0) 131 554 8880 fax: 44(0) 131 554 5880 email: office@futurefactory.co.uk |
Major Scottish Bank Experiences Supply ChainAnybody watching would have been wondering what on earth was going on. It was a beautiful Spring afternoon in the grounds of an Edinburgh hotel, and the Retail System Management Team of a major Scottish bank were playing a game that involved being linked to each other by lengths of cord, along which they exchanged coloured rings.Perhaps even stranger, less than an hour earlier they had been sitting in a room, blindfolded and describing plastic shaped pieces to each other. So, what was this curious behaviour all about? future factory was formed from a variety of backgrounds including specialists in sales and management training, business psychology experts, and the manufacturers of training materials. One of the products produced by the future factory, and the first activity in which the Retail System Management Team took part, is Colour-blind. Each participant is blindfolded and handed a couple of 2-dimensional coloured plastic shapes. The only way to complete this task was by working out the shape of the piece they themselves were holding - and then communicating that information to the other members of the team. By modifying their language, the team soon worked out that there was five of each piece in the set, and that each was a different colour. The team had learned, through active involvement, that communication on its own is limited value; it needs to be effective and efficient communication. "We are talking about development activities that are designed to encourage the individual to 'act out' the change process," says Geoff Cox, part of the design team with future factory. "This has meant developing innovative training solutions that engage the participants intellectually, emotionally and physically." Another activity in which the team took part is Supply Chain. This exercise involves the team members forming themselves into a working model of their own group or organisation by using a network of interconnecting cords between them. This structure of people and connections represented a model of the team's communication system. To represent resource management and the constant ebb and flow of communication and information, each participant had to collect four coloured rings from other members of the team. It all started well enough, with adequate planning and preparation, but the communication system soon began to break down as the model revealed flaws in the system. One by one, the participants came to realise that what they were doing was replicating their own system - acting out their daily tasks. The strengths weaknesses in their communication and resource management system became apparent as the exercise continued. Experiential learning, and replication of actual situation found in the workplace, makes perfect sense when it comes to personal development. It is also a million miles removed from other training programmes that involve the two ends of the spectrum: classroom-based learning or exhausting outdoor activities. The approach taken by future factory - while certainly unconventional - produces demonstrable results. And at the end of the day, that's what matters. |
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