20 Feb Unique Team Building Events – The Fighter Pilot Way

 Team Building, the Fighter Pilot Way

Afterburner has been delivering unique Team Building programs in Australia and Asia for over twelve years. Our pilots and clients have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to bring their two worlds together, if only for a day or two! One of the key reasons for the success of our team-building programs is the genuine motivation and interest that our fighter pilot coaches have for sharing the lessons they’ve learned after having millions of dollars invested in them by the Government.

We Have a 98% Success Rate – You Can Too!

Fighter pilots execute their missions successfully over 98% of the time, which in their world is business as usual. It isn’t something they pay particular attention to because it’s the benchmark and it’s consistently achieved. In business, the consensus on organisations successfully executing their strategy is anywhere between 13-30%. That’s a huge difference! We’ve realised over time that there are a few key reasons for this massive gap in performance and they may not be the reasons you think!

For starters, the majority of fighter pilots are incredibly average and the individuals coming through the recruitment process aren’t exactly ‘superstars’ in any particular field. So, it’s safe to say that trainee fighter pilots aren’t elite athletes, academic geniuses, or ground-breaking theorists. However, something very special happens once these ‘average Joes’ walk through the door to pilot training. A very sophisticated and proven system switches into gear and transforms these men and women into some of the world’s most highly effective practitioners on earth.

This system is what we call the Flex Methodology – a simple, repeatable, and effective tool that delivers some extremely useful outcomes including situational awareness and the ability to source the right information at the right time, alignment around a common purpose with those they are surrounded by, successful debriefing to streamline performance for the next mission, and incredible focus, even under the pressure of task saturation.

Avoiding Task Saturation

Task saturation is a silent killer that fighter pilots face every day. But it doesn’t just happen in the cockpit, it is happening in businesses all day every day. And that is why most businesses are only achieving a maximum 30% success rate in achieving what needs to be done. Task saturation is when there is too much going on, too much interference and interruption for one mortal to manage. Alternatively, accidents happen, and mistakes are made when there’s not really much going on, not enough to keep the mind active and focused. Either way, you need to protect against that loss of focus, and keep people to the plan.

In the most critical of fields, task saturation doesn’t only put success rates on the line, it puts lives on the line, and this is why we are keen on teaching how to deal with it and get through it!

It sounds simple right? Well, it is. However, the reality is that organisations struggle to let go of complicated processes and the false belief that focusing on many tasks with a few key people = success. The reverse is actually true. Following a simple process, focused on the achievement of no more than three objectives, results in 98% achievement of those objectives, rather than 30% of the many tasks that swamp us every day in today’s workplace.

The Two-Day Team Building Program

Through participation in a two-day dynamic team-building program, we are able to educate an organisation on how and why simplicity works. This is achieved through examples based on real-world successes in the fighter pilot world and business. We are able to break through functional silos by participating in a fun and energizing team planning exercise where teams are able to ‘experience’ the world of fighter pilots and in particular time-sensitive mission planning.

We are able to apply the lessons learned to an organisation’s real-world challenges and take these lessons into the future. Our second day is an immersive planning workshop where an organisation and their teams will leave with strategic objectives, supporting objectives for each leader, and enabling objectives for each member of the team, for a 90-day period, to be applied within the business to drive real and effective change.

Team building can be fun, dynamic, energizing, and most importantly relevant to an organisation’s day-to-day operation.  At Afterburner, we think that’s common sense or what we call a “no-brainer”. Why would you conduct a team-building exercise without extracting as much value for your organisation and in turn the clients and customers you serve? We don’t think of it as team building anymore. For us, it’s all about team growth and transformation!

Does this program sound like exactly what your team needs to take your business and all within it to the next level? Contact us to discuss a team-building experience that you will never forget!