Porsches help build teamwork

FORT COLLINS -Mike Cimino and his staff found that the rules were changed when they participated in MasterDrive’s team-building workshop.
Exercises such as coaching a blindfolded partner through an obstacle course bring new meaning to communication and teamwork – especially when the blindfolded person is at the wheel of a Porsche.
Cimino, general manager of Phil Long Ford in Colorado Springs, said he saw immediate changes among the staff who participated. “We had a lot more respect for each other, for sure,” he said.
The team-building program MasterDrive calls the Master’s Challenge is challenging, Cimino said, but also fun. “At no time do you say ‘What am I doing here?’ It keeps you going,” he said.
MasterDrive is a driving school based in Colorado Springs. The Master’s Challenge, sometimes referred to as the “Porsche Program,” is one of a variety of driver-training and related programs the company offers.
“We’re looking to improve the driving environment for everyone, one driver at a time,´ said Grant Dewey, MasterDrive general manager.

Clients vary
With locations in Colorado Springs, Denver and Fort Collins, MasterDrive teaches some 8,000 students each year statewide. The company offers driver’s training courses to new drivers, elderly drivers and professional racecar operators.
MasterDrive also trains emergency-vehicle operators and offers corporate fleet-safety programs.
“We believe the driver is the key to changing the driving environment,” Dewey said. “While the rest of the world is trying to improve the driving environment and the vehicle, we’re working on the driver.”
MasterDrive has its roots in tragedy. Eighteen years ago, Ronn Langford learned that his youngest daughter had been killed by a drunk teenage driver.
Already a successful Colorado Springs businessman, Langford took his passion for coaching and driving and turned it into a positive thing, Dewey said. Starting MasterDrive from scratch, “he figured there had to be a better way to train new drivers.”
MasterDrive focuses on driver training, as opposed to driver education, Dewey said. “Education can happen in the classroom. Training has to happen hands-on, in the car. So we are a skills-based driver-training program.”
Classroom education remains an important element of the driver instruction that MasterDrive offers, but programs emphasize hands-on training.
The Master’s Challenge aims at improving a range of business functions using driving as a platform for exercises that boost communication skills, enhance teamwork and improve decision making.
As the company grew and developed, the idea that driving could be a platform for teaching team building began to develop as well.
“Working with the race teams, we were focused on the driver quite a bit,” Dewey said. “What we found is that it became important to work with the whole team.”
The staff at MasterDrive came to realize that a day’s work with a race driver to gain a half-second or more per lap could be quickly lost in the pit if the team working with car and driver didn’t function well.

Team-building emphasized
Meanwhile, the growing business was emphasizing team-building and leadership development internally.
“Each year, we do a full day of training, and we typically wanted to do something that was experiential,” Dewey said. MasterDrive employees participated in outdoor-learning programs, did ropes courses, attended ball games and raft trips together.
“We found them OK, but thought maybe we could design something better,” he said.
With exercises such as Mr. Magoo’s Sunday Drive (the blindfolded driver on the obstacle course) and Slippery Slopes of Business (drivers are observed for decision-making skills and stress response as the car they’re driving is put into a skid) the Master’s Challenge is unlike the typical team-building events.
“It’s not corny,” Cimino said. “A lot of times you feel like they’re corny, and this is not.”
The driving exercises incorporated in the Master’s Challenge take place in Porsche 944s on a closed course.
That’s a great handling car with some sex appeal that’s set up for the track, Dewey said. It’s also a safe and stable car. But the Porsche is not the point.
While the driving experiences participants undergo through the Master’s Challenge are likely to yield better drivers, that’s simply a valuable byproduct, he said. “The big payoff is the opportunity to work with a team in multiple levels of interaction.”
By using cars and driving, the Master’s Challenge offers a fairly level playing field to employee groups. Almost everyone is familiar with the act of driving, Dewey said. “It’s not a gender thing, it’s not a body-style thing, so it’s a great playing field for bringing your team out.”
The fact that driving is such a common part of everyday life gives the Master’s Challenge program added emphasis.
“Being in a car, you reconnect with the training every day,” Dewey said. The daily act of driving to work can serve to remind employees of lessons learned through the Master’s Challenge “so you get much better follow-up and payback or return on your investment.”
Each session of the Master’s Challenge is customized to meet the needs of whatever group or organization is participating. The outcome can range from simply getting a team of employees together for a shared experience to an activity where significant team-building and leadership development takes place.
Companies are typically looking for something that falls at the middle of that spectrum, Dewey said. “They want to do something significant and have fun.”
A staff of top-level trainers with backgrounds in education, training and organizational development as well as driving helps clients articulate and break down what they hope to achieve from the Master’s Challenge, Dewey said.
“We help guide the process a fair amount,” he said. “Most leaders and managers recognize the need but don’t always have the time or the resources to recognize the specifics.”
The time spent in a Master’s Challenge session varies. A full day is typical. Costs range from about $200 to $400 per person, depending on how long the sessions are, the number of people who participate and the number of elements included.
Cimino hopes to take his team of managers back to the Master’s Challenge next year. “We had a super time there,” he said. “It brings entertainment value and a true sense of team building into perspective.”

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