27 March 2007

In 2006, the Deputy Chief of Army, Brigadier Vryenhoek, tasked the AATC with conducting a leadership development activity for the NZ Army’s senior leaders. This task was examined in detail during the AATC’s annual Strategic Planning week in April 2006, when the AATC began designing a framework of leadership development exercises to support the current leadership review being undertaken by Army General Staff.

The senior leadership group comprises officers of colonel and above, and warrant officers who hold appointments of FSM or higher. This group are the strategic decision makers in the NZ Army and form command teams so, where possible, it is desirable that they learn and train together. It was recognised that whilst the Army would continue to send its senior leaders on both overseas and internal seminars and courses, such training would seldom focus on many of the simple aspects of leadership which remain relevant at all levels of command.

Accordingly, the AATC established five development factors that they would target for this group, recognising that whilst senior leaders may already demonstrate strength in these areas, a world-class army does not, and cannot, rest on its laurels:

• Core values: The NZ Army core values of courage, commitment, comradeship and integrity are central to our success as an army, and it is important that our senior leaders live and uphold these values.

• Challenge: Challenge is a strong recruiting draw card for those joining the NZ Army, and is normally well catered for through training, exercises and deployments. However, as one moves up the promotion ladder, physical challenges become less frequent, and there is a risk that our senior leaders could lose their willingness to embrace physical hardship and adventure.

• Networking: Teams that share challenging experiences develop strong bonds of commitment and comradeship. Reinforcement of these values in our senior leaders enables a strong network at this level, and is crucial to the effective leadership of the NZ Army.

• Risk aversion: Senior leaders must be comfortable balancing opportunity against consequence. Deliberate exposure to situations that require risk-taking can be used to encourage and reward this behaviour.

• Role modelling: Credible and effective leadership relies, to a large degree, on leaders being seen to practice what they preach. We want our senior leaders to live our core values, embrace challenge and have an adventurous mind-set, work together in teams, and embrace risk when opportunity is presented.

Exercise Hei Tu Rangitira, Hei Tauira Rangitira was designed with the above factors in mind. Individual development was then further targeted with each participant completing 360-degree reporting and a series of personality profiles prior to the exercise. This enabled each participant to be more aware of their individual and unique leadership behaviour, and to identify two or three key leadership strengths to further refine and strengthen over the course of the activity. This process, known as “good to great”, seeks to maximise a leader’s existing strengths to even greater advantage.

During the course of the adventure race, participants were regularly required to review whether they were achieving their targets.

The comprehensive exercise debrief focused on leadership behaviour, with teams discussing and providing feedback to each other on the individual plans. Participants then completed the final step of developing longer term plans for continuing to work on these strengths back in the workplace.

Exercise Hei Tu Rangitira, Hei Tauira Rangitira was a valuable and highly successful exercise. It provided the NZ Army’s senior leadership group with a very challenging leadership development activity, and enabled the AATC to showcase its developing expertise as New Zealand’s leading centre for experiential leadership education.

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Exercise Hei Tu Rangatira, Hei Tauira Rangatira

Stand tall and proud, for you are a great example

If the competition was to best represent Army’s core values, then Team 3, limping in to the finish line in third place, was arguably the winner.

Like the other two teams, each comprised of five senior Army leaders, Team 3 began the race determined to be first over the finish line. But after losing one team member early in the race, and another coming down with a severe chest infection, they revised their strategy.

Their new strategy – “have fun; work hard; all finish” – was hardly the easy option. Completing, over a four-day period, 27 hours’ walking, 29 hours’ cycling, five hours’ sea kayaking, and five hours’ rafting, with an ill competitor, Colonel Peter Cunninghame, took guts, determination, and a fair helping of comradeship, commitment, courage and integrity.

COL Cunninghame, the Army’s Chief of Logistics, spent months stamina training for the event, fitting training around heavy work and personal commitments. When he became sick half way through the race there was “absolutely” no question that he wouldn't finish – but finishing with his mates by his side made the uphill battle easier, he says.

“Simply knowing I had their support was physically as well as mentally supportive; it helped considerably. It certainly helped me put one foot in front of the other! And knowing they were supporting me in my goal made me more determined than ever that I was going to make it to the end.”

It meant the team sacrificing their goal to win, he says. “The team knew my goal was to finish, and they were more concerned with supporting me in that goal than they were in being competitive, knowing full well that by supporting me in my goal, it was costing us time.”

The team that came in second, Team 2, also focused on staying together and finishing as a team, in the best time they could, said Lieutenant Colonel Paul Curry, Commandant of OCS.

“There were a couple of periods there when we were bashing through the bush, pushing our bikes up hill; when it was just the case of one step in front of the other. You knew you had to finish eventually so you just tried to stay focused, helping each other out as much as you could and encouraging each other along.”

Meanwhile, Team 1 remained determined to be the first team home. “We’re all fairly competitive and the idea was that if we were going to try and do something, we were going to do it to win”, said Team 1’s Colonel Sean Trengrove.

Team 1 member Brigadier Phil Gibbons, the Land Component Commander, said their strategy involved ensuring they were exceptionally well-organised at the transitions.

“We had LT COL Howie Duffy running each transition in order to reduce the time wasted. We also wanted to make sure our navigation was accurate. WO1 Danny Broughton did a great job of keeping us on track and, as a result, we made very few errors.”

COL Sean Trengrove said the success of the team also came down to teamwork. “Everyone worked as hard as they could; everyone was fully motivated and fully competitive – there was no need to say, ‘hey, come on, get your A into gear’, or anything like that.”

BRIG Gibbons said, “I think the biggest lesson for us was that our military skills, albeit they were a little rusty at the start, gave us a huge advantage in this type of event”, adding that he commended those officers with the courage to undertake it.

And courageous they were. With an average age in the late-40s, the 15 competitors had a few more years under their belt than the Kippenberger cadets who recently completed the same course (see page 06).

LT COL Curry wanted to participate in the exercise to experience the physical and mental challenges that the Army throws at officer cadets. The experience did not disappoint. “It was the hardest continual thing I've ever done”, he said.

But the experience also taught him that people are capable of doing more than they think they can. “You can actually go past the ‘I'm dying here’, and do more. It’s amazing how resilient the body is. You can ask or, if you have to, demand that people do more than they think they can do, at times.”

COL Cunninghame admits that it was a huge challenge for the middle-aged officers. “I'm 51, and I haven’t done anything like this for years!” he said. He said the fact that they were able to was also due to the advice and guidance they received from the AATC team and the Army dietician.

“The fact that we all got through what was an extremely demanding physical activity is a testament to them as much as it is to us.

“I was impressed with [the professionalism of] each and every one of them [AATC instructors]; they were fantastic; I have the utmost respect for them”, said COL Cunninghame. “I think they are an organisation that is undersold, in terms of their quality and what they offer us.”

COL Sean Trengrove says he took such a myriad of learning from the experience that he was prompted to write a letter to the AATC’s Major Rob Hoult. “One of the basic things I learnt was that getting older is no handicap”, he said. “There is an awful lot of experience and training gained over the last 30 years, and thinking about things and applying that experience – and a wee bit of determination – you can come up with some pretty good solutions.”

COL Sean Trengrove was at officer training school with fellow team member BRIG Barry Vryenhoek, and was a young soldier with BRIG Gibbons, so exercising together again more than 30 years later was a special experience.

“I didn't realise how much I was going to get out of it by doing it with my peers”, he says. “Now with a week to reflect over it, I can state that it was a life-affirming experience for me. There are a lot of personal reflections about leadership, team building and cohesion, and physical ability circulating through my mind. I am undoubtedly stronger in all these aspects as a result.”

Although COL Sean Trengrove said that by his age “you've pretty much got your act together”, he had identified some ways he could “tweak” his leadership skills. The exercise was also an opportunity to be fully focussed and committed to one goal, and practice the core values they preach, he said.

“It was an empowering, affirming kind of activity, the kind that brings our core values right to the fore. We were pretty tired, and people got a bit scratchy, but there was no shouting or anything because we have a set of shared values and an understanding of who and what we are, and how we fit together.”

Team 3 also shared the same spirit of comradeship, said COL Cunninghame. “One thing we learned was how well the senior leadership responded to the stress of that endurance environment. The whole time I don’t think I ever saw any negative activity in anyone who was involved. That speaks volumes for the calibre of leadership and the training that has got us to where we are.”

AATC director and course instructor Major Rob Hoult said the instructors were really impressed by the maturity and determination shown by the competitors.

“I can’t think of any New Zealand organisation that would take 15 of their top managers and put them through this – they wouldn't survive the first day”, said Mr Sean Waters, ATTC instructor and course manager. He said the pre-race leadership development, which involved a discussion of Army values as well as the leaders getting feedback from their peers and subordinates (“360 degree reporting”), was also successful. The Army senior leaders would do follow-up leadership training in 3–6 months.

Even the drivers, all from 3 Transport Company, Privates Adam Colligan, Vinnie James, and Brad Lawson, and Lance Corporal Berchess Read, seemed impressed with their teams. They were a constant companion for each team at the transition areas, supporting them with gear changes and loading and unloading equipment, while PTE James drove the LOV in support of OC 3 HST MAJ Brendan Wood. At one transition, Team 2 driver, LCPL Read, was overheard saying, “That’s my team; I've got to look after my team – they’re awesome!”

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Love these Army rations The officers also had their diets put through the hoops in preparation for the Senior Leaders Adventure Race. Several months before the race, the officers were given nutritional guidelines prepared by Army Dietician Captain Nicola Martin. The guidelines included nutrition and hydration tips, advice on what should form a meal, and how to structure a diet for optimal performance. During the race, the officers ate operational ration packs, plus nutritional supplements such as sports bars and drinks. “The idea was to introduce the senior leaders to various sports supplements that can be utilised within Army to support soldiers on exercise, and particularly operations”, said CAPT Martin. She said it was important for senior officers to experience living on ration packs. “We really wanted the senior officers to eat ration packs, and simulate, from a nutritional perspective, the situation for our soldiers on operations. A lot of them probably haven’t had a ration pack for a while.” Colonel Peter Cunninghame said the nutrition advice received was crucial in getting them through the event. However, that doesn't mean there weren't a few grumbles about the food during the race. Team 2’s WO1 Christine Willan said, “I'm so sick of all these muesli bars! All I want is some fish and chips, with tomato sauce.” In Team 1, the Deputy Chief of Army, Brigadier Barry Vryenhoek commented, “If I never see another muesli bar again…” “I didn't think about a beer once on this trip”, Team 1’s Colonel Sean Trengrove was heard saying – yeah right!

An instructor's view In the dead of night we set off on a cycle leg. Not far from the transition area we had to dismount our bikes and push them up the very steep hill. After 30–40 minutes BRIG Vryenhoek was heard to say, “We should get a refund for our bikes because we aren't riding them”. Quick as a flash, SGT Terry Simpson, an instructor with AATC and accompanying them on the ride quipped, “Well, they are push bikes...”. The Brigadier groaned. Once at the top, some 30 minutes later, morale was good and we raced like demons down the hill. Eventually the road flattened out and we came to a natural ford, and a quick rest stop was taken. COL Sean Trengrove did a quick scout of the ford and advised, “The left line is the best option”. He then mucked with his clip in shoes complaining about the mud that was in them. Eventually he clipped into his pedals and proceeded to negotiate the ford. Half way across he veered off to the right, pausing. Not able to unclip his feet, he fell sideways into the creek. Needless to say, the remainder of his team let out an almighty roar of laughter and even a snort was heard. COL Sean Trengrove quickly re-gathered his composure, completed the crossing, and waited eagerly on the other side. Much to his disgust, the remainder of the team made it through unscathed.

	Brief description / Length of journey	Tasks to complete	Time of day	Penalties incurred
Leg 1: Cycle	Farmland/forestry road 500m ascent 3 - 7hrs	Supplementary activity 1: involves balancing risk ie, futureproofing bike repairs for the rest of the race against extra time taken	Day 1: start 0800 to mid-afternoon
Leg 2: Walk	Untracked beech forest: 600m ascent 7 - 12 hours	Navigation problems	Day 1: mid-afternoon to midnight	900 press-ups
Leg 3: Cycle	Gravel road and tar seal road 4 - 8 hrs	Problem-solving activities to earn rafting equipment	Midnight-early morning Day 2
Leg 4: Raft	Buller River, Grade 3 section 5 hrs		Day 2: morning
Leg 5: Cycle	Tar seal road - gravel road - farm track - bike carry through untracked beech forest 600m ascent 6 - 8 hrs	Compulsory overnight at the end of this leg after 24 - 40 hrs' exercise time	Day 2: afternoon/evening	Team 1 arrived 1629 Team 2 arrived 1752 Team 3 arrived 1732
Leg 6: Sea kayak	14km on lake. 2hrs		Day 3 0600
Leg 7: Walk	Track and poled routes on open tops. 1500m of ascent: 8 - 15hrs	Artistic endeavours to earn time bonus	Day 3: throughout day and evening	Winner of artistic activity gains 2 hr, 2nd = 1 hr
Leg 8: Sea kayak	14km lake paddle: 2 hrs		Day 3: night
Leg 9: Cycle	Four wheel drive track 500m ascent: 3 - 5 hrs		Day 3/4: all night
Leg 10: Orienteer / walk	Rogaine activity for 3 hrs	Strategic choice of checkpoints to collect in order to maximise points	Day 4: early morning	Top score gains 1hr 2nd=30mins
Leg 11: Cycle	Gravel road 250m ascent: 1hr		Day 4: morning
Leg 12: Walk	Track around open tops. 600m ascent		Day 4: morning early afternoon
Leg 13: Kayak	Lake paddle to finish. 30mins		Day 4: mid-dayish Total exercising time = ?	Team 1=54hrs Team 2=57hrs Team 3=54hrs

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