April 8, 2009 – 1:38 pm
Our venture was in two countries: our “comfortable” base was in Ushuaia, Argentina, but most of the hiking, rock climbing and kayaking was done on the Navarino Island in Chile.
In the morning of the first day the main task was to cross the Beagle Channel, transfer to the base camp and get prepared for several days of hiking in the mountains.

Few people know that crossing the Beagle from Ushuaia is subject to constraints: for security reasons, the Chilean side prohibits boats with more than 12 people on them from docking in Puerto Navarino. That means that we could not just get on a big boat and arrive in one big team. Instead, we had to make several trips on three small boats. This took a bit of time, but I think the Vertical, who was responsible for the logistics of the trip, has done a decent job at organizing and managing this. As the day was quite chilly, the HOT coffee and tea prepared for us on the Chilean side in Puerto Navarino was very appreciated - a small thing, I admit, but it added a lot of comfort.
When we had all the people onshore in Chile the first task was to set sail on a big schooner called “Victoria” to a lagoon where indigenous people used to live.

To me it was an important experience, as I witnessed how the randomly selected group of six completely different people that I was a part of transformed into a team on that boat. The key to that was that we were very active and involved in steering the vessel. We became instrumental as all the communication on the boat between the skipper who did not understand English and the passengers-turned-crew was done via the interpreter on our team (yes, a Lauder guy, too). We discovered that we were all very open and sincere people, and this allowed us to build an atmosphere of support and trust by encouraging and helping each other. This had an amazing power - strong enough to help some of us overcome the fear of heights.

Continued on May 11, 2009
What endured afterward was four days of hard-core trekking in the mountains with the team. The way to the base camp was the most difficult part — not just physically, but also psychologically. Our backpacks were loaded with (A LOT OF) gear, food, water and whatnot and most of us have not trekked in the mountains in quite a while.
While the day on the boat was important for establishing the team spirit and for initial bonding, the first day in the mountains was really the key to finding practical ways of finding solutions under stress. We got tired and cranky and crisis resolution became a very useful skill. Do we go east or west? Up or down? Simple questions like that are not so easily answered when you have a 100 pounds of extra weight in the backpack.
I was amazed at how well we worked together! Everyone on the the team was flexible and respectful of others so we were able to overcome our personal differences and capitalize on each others’ strengths. The more we hiked the more we learned about each other, and this was a great part of the experience: not only did we get to know what our professional and personal backgrounds were, we also learned about each others’ true characters and personalities. It is amazing that when a person is not in his or her comfort zone for an extended period of time, his or her personality is seen as if through a magnifying glass.
We even thought that trips like this should be more widely used in personnel selection and screening: say, a week’s worth of hiking trip in the Rocky Mountains would tell it all about the candidates for a particular management position. An HR manager would then get a complete, unbiased portrait of every single candidate in no time at all. Oh well, I am sure someone somewhere is already doing this sort of stuff.
What did I discover about my team? Well, in addition to being super intelligent, they are amazingly happy, fun, honest, strong and endlessly wise people. Their wisdom and happiness made the rock climbing, hiking, living in tents, cooking together, endless discussions, stories and jokes so much more meaningful! To sum it all up, I am truly happy that I made such good friends in such a unique and beautiful place like Patagonia. My Wharton Leadership Venture has been an amazing experience!
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