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Set Direction

NMA LeaderLabSURVIVAL SKILLS

Prioritize Requirements

Deliver Results

NMA…THE Leadership Development Organization2210 Arbor Blvd.Dayton, OH 45349937-294-0421Web Site: http://www.nma1.org

LeaderLab CEU Code 05001LL .1 CEU

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NMA LeaderLabs

Credits:

Developed by Pete Kurzhals, and field-tested by the Boeing Anaheim Leadership Association, Boeing Aerospace Leadership Chapter, and San Luis Obispo City Employees Chapter.

NMA provides the following presentation solely for the use of NMA chapters. It is copyrighted and only active NMA chapters have permission to present the following materials.

Copyright © 2006, by National Management Association, Dayton, OH

NMA…THE Leadership Development Organization, Dayton, Ohio

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NMA LeaderLabScenario

Your leadership team is on a business trip from San Francisco to Las Vegas in your company executive jet when your radio and radar system stop functioning. Shortly thereafter, your plane is hit by unexpected air turbulence which sends the plane into an extended spin with an attendant drop of over 20,000 feet. The pilots struggle to recover, but it’s too late; and the best they can do is to guide the plane to a controlled emergency landing in the Sierra Nevada mountains, where some peaks rise to over 14,000 ft. Both pilots are killed in the resultant crash, although your leadership team miraculously survives. But a fire breaks out and will reach the fuel tanks in twenty minutes or less, so you’ll need to act fast.

You have 20 minutes or less to evacuate the plane before it explodes, and to bring along any items you will need to survive afterwards. Fortunately, your team has quickly compiled a list of available items that could help you, but you jointly need to decide what items you will need first and why. Don’t forget that time is running out…

Before beginning, you must unanimously select a LEADER who will later debrief the accident investigation team, and an OBSERVER who will report on your process. Quickly review the list of available items, and then come up with a prioritized list of the top five items to bring with you as you evacuate the plane. The majority of your team has to agree on your rankings and on the rationale for selection of each item. You must complete your selection and develop your report in 20 minutes or less. After your successfully evacuate the plane, go over your results so that you can summarize these for the accident investigation team.

Each team will be allocated 5 minutes to report on its results. The team LEADER will use 3 of those minutes to present his selected list in priority order, along with brief reasons for each selection. The OBSERVER will then use 2 minutes to report on the process used by the team to reach their conclusions. There will be a hard cutoff at the end of 5 minutes.

The facilitator will take the last 5 minutes to present the recommended results and associated rationale, to handle the scoring and to briefly comment on the team inputs.

ThemeLL #1 SURVIVAL SKILLS* “Priorities under Pressure”

Scenario:

Challenge:

Operations:

Reports:

Evaluation:

* Extracted from survival lessons presented by J.B. Brown (Raptor 17), Chief Test Pilot, F-22 Air Defense Fighter

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NMA LeaderLab Items

The following items were identified by our leadership team as potential (available and accessible) things that could help us to survive in the snow-covered, sub-freezing conditions of the crash site, which could be anywhere between 50 and 200 miles from civilization. We are not sure of our whereabouts, and search planes have no precise idea of our location since our radar contact was lost some time ago and our descent has thrown us many miles off course. Aside from the clothes we’re wearing, which do not include coats, we have no other equipment. The list compiled by our team includes the following items:

1. A ball of steel wool2. A small ax3. A loaded .45-caliber pistol4. Can of Crisco shortening5. Newspapers (one per person)6. Cigarette lighter (without fluid)7. Extra shirt and pants for each survivor8. 20 x 20 ft. piece of heavy-duty canvas9. A sectional air map made of plastic (1:500,000 scale)10. One quart of 100-proof whiskey11. A compass12. Family-size chocolate bars (one per person)

Our task is to jointly prioritize this list based on each item’s order of importance for survival and to develop our prioritized list of the top five items in capital BLOCK LETTERS, along with the written reason for our selection, in the resultant ranked order (1-5).

NMA…THE Leadership Development Organization, Dayton, Ohio

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NMA LeaderLab Possible Prizes

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NMA LeaderLab Scoring

The greatest need is for a source of heat and the second greatest need is for signaling devices.* Each team should write down the recommended priority number next to each item on their list.

1. CIGARETTE LIGHTER (WITHOUT FLUID)…even without fuel this can produce a spark to start a fire.2. BALL OF STEEL WOOL…can catch a spark and start a fire, even if wet.3. EXTRA SHIRT AND PANTS FOR EACH SURVIVOR…adds body warmth and can be used for signaling or as fire fuel.4. CAN OF CRISCO SHORTENING…lid can be shined with steel wool to reflect sunlight and signal. Contents can berubbed on exposed skin for protection or melted into fuel oil. Empty can can be used to melt snow for drinking water.5. 20 x 20 FOOT PIECE OF CANVAS…can protect against wind and snow or serve as ground cover.6. SMALL AX…could be used to cut wood for fire or tree branches for ground insulation or tent frames.7. FAMILY SIZE CHOCOLATE BARS (ONE PER PERSON)…provides some food energy.8. NEWSPAPERS (ONE PER PERSON)…good for fire starting, insulation under clothing, verbal signaling (when rolled

up into megaphone shape) and recreation reading.9. LOADED .45 CALIBER PISTOL…can serve for sound signaling (3 shots), powder from shells for fire, butt can serve

as a hammer.10. QUART OF 100 PROOF WHISKEY…good for fire building, torch made by soaking clothes, empty bottle good for

water storage but do not drink whiskey (reduces body heat).11. COMPASS…useless this far from civilization, but glass top could serve as sunlight reflector for signaling.12. SECTIONAL AIR MAP MADE OF PLASTIC…similarly useless except as limited ground cover.

If you have a listed item not in capital BLOCK LETTERS, assign a score of 15 points. Any item without a written use, add 15 points. Then add the priority numbers for all items on your list…the LOWEST score wins and SURVIVES. When asked, each team should read out their final score before the evaluator feedback.

* This ranking was made by Mark Wanvig, a former instructor in survival training for the Reconnaissance School of the U.S. Army 101st Division.

NMA…THE Leadership Development Organization, Dayton, Ohio

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NMA LeaderLab Lessons

• FOLLOW ALL INSTRUCTIONS if you want to stay in the competition– List items in BLOCK letters– State use for each item

• ESTABLISH THE REAL REQUIREMENTS before you begin to develop your answers

– Source of Heat– Signaling Devices

• PRIORITIZE THESE REQUIREMENTS to select your solutions– Survive the Cold– Signal for Help Items

• STAY ON TRACK to meet your deadline

• “Not following procedures in your business will almost always get you in trouble….”

• “Understand your work situation before you try to fix it….”

• “Always address your most critical job needs before less urgent actions….”

• “Make sure you have covered and completed all assigned actions before your deadline….”

NMA…THE Leadership Development Organization, Dayton, Ohio

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NMA LeaderLab Facilitator Hints

• Project the LeaderLab cover page while you check in the participants, who should be asked to arrive 10 minutes before the session starts. Assign each team a number (Teams 1-5), and assign all participants to a team before beginning the exercise. If the exercise involves multiple sites, arrange for a local contact at each site who can oversee the action. Begin by projecting and reviewing the Scenario instructions. To add more realism, you can act as the captain of the LeaderLab flight until the crash, and then cover the survival task as one of surviving passengers.

• Next, project the Items list and briefly go over the situation and available items. Make sure you emphasize the importance of writing down their prioritized list in BLOCK letters (for better visibility in the smoke-filled cabin) and of writing down the reason for each selected item. You can again act as one of the surviving passengers for realism.

• While it is not essential to have a prize for the winning team, it will add to the fun if the facilitator (or the chapter) can come up with some appropriate items for each member of the winning team at each participating site. If this is done, project a picture of the prize and announce it before going on to the scoring. Also distribute the LeaderLab evaluation forms at this point, and ask all participants to complete those and to hand them in before they leave.

• Next, ask each team to report their results and rationale and the process they used to arrive at these. It helps to use the LEADER and OBSERVER approach in doing so, but that is not absolutely essential if the session is facilitated locally. Make sure that you hold each team to the five-minute reporting limit.

• After all team reports are presented, project and go over the Scoring chart, then ask each team to compute their score – making sure that they also grade themselves for both the written BLOCK letter and use compliance. Ask each team (in order) to report their final score.

• Award the prizes to the team with the lowest score for each site, then conclude with the leadership lessons addressed by this exercise. First explain the key message and its implementation drivers, and then comment on the corresponding business applications (in red).

• Go through all leadership lessons, then thank the participants and remind them to turn in their completed evaluation forms when they leave.

• Develop a summary page for all evaluations by adding all rankings and comments, and email that page to Karen@nma1.org for use in continued LeaderLab improvement.

NMA…THE Leadership Development Organization, Dayton, Ohio

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LeaderLab Evaluation Form

PLEASE CHECK THE APPROPRIATE BOX Excellent Good Fair Poor

1. The overall LeaderLab program

2. Appropriate use of the materials that made learning easy and enjoyable

3. Opportunity to exchange experiences and ideas with others

4. Length of LeaderLab relative to its objectives and meeting your needs

5. Applicability to your responsibilities, needs, and roles at home, work, and elsewhere

6. What is the most important thing you learned during the LeaderLab?

7. Which part of the LeaderLab was of MOST VALUE to you? Why?

8. Which part of the LeaderLab was of LEAST VALUE to you? Why?

9. What suggestions for improvement do you have for future LeaderLabs?

Check one ─

Your comments and suggestions are very important to us. Please take a few moments to reflect on your experiences at the LeaderLab. Your input will help us to continue to provide professional quality services

and maximize learning during the future LeaderLabs.

Yes No Did the facilitator(s)…

Keep the sessions “moving and interesting”?

Speak at a level that could be easily heard and understood by everyone?

Keep the discussions constructive, crisp, and well controlled?

Practice “good facilitation skills”?