As the year unfolded, the individual LIT participants grew closer, weaving a support network for themselves across department lines. "There's a powerful bonding that goes on," says Davis. "It's like foxhole buddies. When you go through something like this, you really bare your souls to each other."
Davis's foxhole analogy certainly applied during the three days in September when the entire class, including the Budingers and the eight trainees from Scottsdale, met at a camplike retreat center called Sandy Cove, on the Chesapeake Bay. Bill Budinger hoped that a bit of Outward Bound- type training, undertaken in the context of the Rodel Way, would punctuate the group's overall experience.
It was a spartan regimen--early morning calisthenics, evening classroom work, no TV, no drinking. In short, it was no picnic. There was also a full day of adventure training. Fickett brought in Phil Bryson and Tom Lutes, a high-ropes team from On the Edge Productions, a company in Durango, Colo. They staged three action exercises designed to build confidence and teamwork, including the pole-jumping number that so frightened Tammy Casper.
In fact, it frightened everybody. "I was crying before I went up," admits Linda Ritter, a special-projects director. Don Budinger calls it "one of the most harrowing things I've ever done." But, he adds, "you cannot have a high-performance team unless you trust each other. You have to get people in touch with their fears, which the adventure stuff does, because later, in the classroom, you get a lot more ability to discuss what people fear in the workplace. That coaxes them to speak straight about the company's challenges and opportunities and not fear that what they say will somehow hurt them if it's negative."
For a second and final session at Sandy Cove, Fickett brought in Richard Strozzi Heckler, of Petaluma, Calif., a psychologist and fifth-degree black belt in aikido. Much of Heckler's leadership work is with the likes of Green Berets and navy SEALs. "It was very unusual for a small company to call me in," he says. "I found them open, curious, and willing to learn how to learn. They had a great program."
His work with the group drove at the importance of staying centered in the face of pressure or change. In one exercise, for instance, the students took turns standing inside a circle as about 25 classmates started coming at them--two, three, and four at a time. The objective was to remain focused and avoid panic by grasping the oncomers' arms and pulling them past as you moved.
Materials specialist Resler found that a good metaphor for business. "It really showed where I needed improvement," she says. "I saw how at first I got all frenzied, and how that got me nowhere. We learned a way to do it calmly."
By the end of that first class, Fickett , Wilson, and the Budingers had pronounced it a success, based on specific measurements. To build in accountability, Fickett had videotaped the individual presentations from the first two days, when the trainees received their leadership scores. On the final day, as they rose to recap their accomplishments, the tapes were played back. There was no ducking commitments made 12 months earlier. Furthermore, a second round of anonymous surveys told participants whether their coworkers had noticed a behavioral change. By and large, they had. "All of them grew to some degree," Fickett says. "You'd see it in how they carried themselves. And some people made truly amazing breakthroughs."
The most immediate payoff came from the project to reduce waste material. Even though the group failed to hit their percentage targets, they did save some $200,000 that year by Wilson's estimate. "The program cost about $40,000, including Lloyd's time," he says, "so we were definitely surprised and pleased. Remember, they didn't automatically have the cooperation of the rest of the company to accomplish this."
With results like that, Rodel ran a second group through LIT in 1995. A third class will begin this July, and it's unlikely to be the last. Without changing the main elements, Fickett fine-tunes each iteration, trying to squeeze out more juice.
The second group took on a different project, which involved reducing cycle time by 20% in all the company's work units. During their monthly sessions with Fickett and Wilson, which spanned a day or two, they also met with members of Rodel's executive committee to discuss big-picture issues--customer relationships, operating challenges, industry trends. In that way, they developed a rapport with the top management that helped build trust and teamwork.
"Leadership Intensive, this whole way of working together, is a phenomenal competitive advantage for us," says Dale Davis. "It brings to bear the talents of everybody in making decisions and improvements. We're not the biggest company in our industry, but nobody else has this culture. We live, eat, and breathe speed and response."
Meanwhile, dividends from the Rodel Way and open-book management have accumulated throughout the company. Nowhere is the before-and-after sense of ownership and common purpose more striking than in Don Budinger's monthly meetings. "Six years ago nobody had the guts to challenge us," he says. "Now people do. If they demand to see the expenses for a sales trip to Korea, we provide them. If they ask about the costs of the company plane, we tell them. They think of this as their company. Once you engage in something like this, you've got a tiger by the tail. When you inspire people and unlock the power that's in them, they will hound you to the ends of the earth if you don't perform for them."
Bill Budinger doesn't pretend that the transformation is complete. There's no finish line. But LIT and the other initiatives have kept Rodel in the game. Otherwise, he says, "I doubt we'd still be here."
Entrance Exam
Rodel's Leadership Intensive Training (LIT) program is by invitation only.
