Taking the plunge: Survival course instills teamwork
Groton — Renée Grady had just walked everyone else through how to do it.
Yet when the time came for her to take the 14-foot plunge into Survival Systems USA’s indoor pool, she hesitated.
An avid coach with CrossFit Inguz in Groton, Grady didn’t lack the capacity to try new things. But, she explained later, she isn’t a strong swimmer.
Ten seconds went by. Then another 10. And another. “I Believe I Can Fly” played in the background. Grady’s peers below began to whoop and whistle for her. Instructor Jon Ehm leaned in, repeating the instructions one last time. Then, he counted down: 3. 2. 1.
It may have felt like the longest minute in Grady’s life. But she did it.
“That was the worst part for me,” she said, calling it a “huge accomplishment.” “That was terrifying.”
It wasn’t the first time instructors with Survival Systems had seen someone struggle with the leap. The nationally recognized company for years has been using its custom pool — it can simulate hurricane-like weather and airplane crashes — to teach military, police, fire and medical personnel survival skills.
But it was one of the first training sessions in which the students were participating not to learn the skills, necessarily, but instead to strengthen their teamwork. In Monday's class, 10 CrossFit coaches were joined by three members of the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut's Leadership Program.
The idea to create a team-building course came when instructors began noticing a trend, said Adrienne Romano, the company’s commercial business developer.
“A lot of people that come through our (aviation survival) training will leave and say their team has extra confidence, is more well rounded, has more command presence,” she said. “Our training really does give people those leadership skills anyway.”
In developing the course, Survival Systems kept the core exercises, but tweaked much of the rest.
That was obvious from the outset, when instructors dimmed the lights, filled the second-floor pool space with fog and set a disco ball spinning while "Thunderstruck" roared in the background. (The students broke into smiles at that.)
The team-building course also breaks from the original in that a student leads each task. They get a briefing from an instructor, and the instructor remains nearby, but it’s on the student to tell his or her peers what to do.
In most cases, the students first tried something they thought would work, then learned from instructors the proper technique.
For example: The full 13-person class was asked to imagine they were stranded in an open body of water with life vests. Help probably was on the way. How should they link themselves to stay together?
The students attempted a two-person-wide school bus formation. They quickly learned it limited their vision.
The better approach, Ehm explained, is to line up facing one another in what’s called a carpet formation. Each person places his or her legs under the armpits of the person in front of them, which allows for better visibility and more warmth.
“Do you feel like you could do this for a couple hours if you needed to?” Ehm asked.
The students nodded.
“Good,” he said, deadpan. “We’ll be back after lunch.”
It was one of many jokes he told Monday — something he said he does in the regular courses, too.
“For many people, the stuff we asked them to do can feel off-putting,” Ehm explained. “It can be scary. Injecting humor at every opportunity takes the edge off, builds rapport and trust and gets people to accomplish the stuff they need to.”
And that jumping exercise? He picked Grady to lead it on purpose.
“I knew that, despite her being uncomfortable with that, given the opportunity to find a way to succeed, she would,” Ehm said.
A day out of the office
About five such trainings had occurred prior to Monday. But unlike Monday’s, the others were a full day and included a segment with the METS™, or modular egress training simulator. That’s the device that replicates the inside of a plane and can be flipped over and placed in the water.
Monday’s training was a pilot run of a half-day program, which omits the METS™ exercises. The idea was to create a less expensive and shorter course that’s attainable for more companies but still effective.
By all accounts, it was a success. Each task ran mostly within the time frame employees had set. Participants never appeared to feel rushed, and they emerged changed.
Romano said both lengths of the course are ideal for just about anybody.
Has a structural change made things awkward in the office? Work it out in the pool.
Have longtime employees who need reinvigoration? Flip them upside down in the water while they’re buckled in a chair.
Want to show your thanks for hard workers? Give them a day out of the office.
“At the end of the day, it’s a powerful experience,” Romano said. “It’s a fun experience. It’s humbling. And it’s confidence boosting."
“Anybody that wants those factors to be given to their employees should take the course,” she said.
'A wonderful opportunity'
Reflecting on Thursday, La Grua Center Executive Director Lori Robishaw said she plans to recommend the course to her friends who work in companies that do team-building exercises.
Robishaw, like three others, participated in Monday’s class as a member of the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut’s Leadership Program. At 57, she pointed out, she was older and less fit than her peers and the nine CrossFit Inguz coaches in the pool with her.
“I got my private pilot’s license about 25 years ago,” Robishaw began. "Sometimes I look back and think, ‘Where is that bold woman who did that?’ I discovered on Monday, ‘Oh, she’s still there.’”
The training benefited her professionally, too.
She wanted to change along with her small, Stonington-based arts and education nonprofit, which is going through a transitional period.
“I thought it would be a benefit to me to do something scary and off-putting," she said, calling the course "a wonderful opportunity.”
Jason Combs, a co-owner of CrossFit Inguz, had gone through many of Monday’s exercises years ago, when he did basic Navy training.
But in going back through them with “civilians,” he recognized something he hadn’t before.
“When people come to our gym ... CrossFit, from the outside looking in, is an intimidating fitness model,” he said. "There's lots of weights, there's tires, we're doing pull-ups, we're climbing ropes."
Placed in an environment they weren’t used to, however, some of his peers were visibly nervous and scared.
“I hope they remember that feeling when a new person comes in,” Combs said.
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