Raiders Inc.: The "forward" team en route the final destination strategises its next move

BOOKEND

This is it," I remember my frantic mind screaming to me as I fell off my sham-of-a-raft and started sinking like a stone in the ice-cold waters of river Pala. I don't remember how long I lay under water on the rock-spiked sandbed of the river, but the hand that finally dragged me back up seemed forever in coming. I also don't know if it was a nasty joke that my editor was trying to pull on me when he nominated me to participate in a three-day reality learning programme conducted by the National Institute of Sales (NIS) for a cement manufacturer, but this certainly wasn't my idea of a joke.

You see, I am the kind of guy who'd rather curl up in a sofa reading a Marquez, with a glass of Macallan rather than schlep some 1,400 kilometres (fine, by air) only to get myself killed. Besides, I had always thought that these reality learning programmes were a bit of a sham-instead of picking up any vital lessons in management, you only came back with a waist a few inches bigger. In fact, I had smiled wickedly to myself when just two days before I set off on the "expedition", NIS' Sanjeev Duggal told me that it was a different kind of a training programme because it would "push my mind and body". But second day into the programme on the rain-lashed slopes of Darjeeling, just 60 miles away from the snow-capped mountain of Kanchenjunga, I was beginning to see adventure-based learning with new respect. After all, it was team work that saved my skin.

ADVENTURE ON PALA

Will This Thing Float?: That's the question Mitra (first right) seems to be asking himself, hands akimbo

Splash!: Mitra moments before he fell off the raft and into the ice-cold Pala waters

Hurray!: Moments after Mitra has been fished out of the river, the team strikes a winning pose

Day One

My 16 companions from the cement company reached Darjeeling on the morning of June 20 via the Siliguri foothills from Kolkata, and I joined the pack the same evening, winding my way up the steep and narrow 81-km macadamised road that links the hill station to Siliguri. By the time I checked in at Hotel Sinclairs, the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine-a simulation exercise where participants are supposed to "maximise the returns on investment"-was underway. It was raining outside as I made my way to the conference room, where the two trainers-Captain Shantanu Chakravorty and Nilanko Chatterjee-and the participants were already an hour into LDGM.

The indoor exercise had the 16 participants break up into teams of four (being a late-comer I wasn't part of any), where each team was handed a resource pack that would help them "mine gold" in a virtual landscape. The trainers, on their part, heightened the difficulty level by simulating hostile weather conditions that changed every two minutes, and the participants were ranked on "accuracy, timeliness and completeness". (Sadly, the group could only mine half of the $60,000 worth of gold available.)

LDGM was followed by an exercise that sought to help participants document the obstacles they were facing, if at all, within their organisation. The group of 16 was split equally into two and both were given two big flip charts on which they were to list their workplace obstacles. Issues top of the charts: communication, resource utilisation, dead stocks, inventory management.

Day Two

The 17 of us lined up the next morning for something NIS dubs able (adventure-based learning experience). We were herded into three Jeeps and taken 54 km from Darjeeling to Bhalukhop (bear's cove in Nepalese), near the orchid town of Kalimpong. Here we were introduced to Dhrubo Kumar Gurung, a former chief flight instructor in the Army. In Gurung's classroom, Chakravorty took us through the training module, designed on military simulation. Handing us maps, compasses, wireless sets, bush hats and numbered T-shirts, the captain explained what we were about to embark upon. Our task was to build two ordnance factories.

Before any of us could say cakewalk, Chakravorty pulled out a rough map that resembled a flying saucer, where he marked off the top half as Red Land and the bottom, Blue Land. Then, he laid out the scenario in which we were to build the ammunition factories. Red Land is waging a guerrilla war in Blue Land, which has decided to plug the problem by building two ordnance factories on the common border. "There is a major water body (river Pala) that criss-crosses the road and is littered with mines," points out Chakravorty, as some of us thank god that this is only a simulation.

Cross-Currents: The picture makes crossing a river seem so easy. It's anything but that

The briefing over, we were given half-an-hour to come up with our operation nomenclature and organise ourselves into forward and command teams. Needless to say, senior managers in the team got into the act and came up with "Operation Giant" as we grouped ourselves into two teams: 10 forward and seven command members. The role assigned to me was that of the mine-watcher, who must lead and inform the de-mining officer whenever a mine is spotted.

From the starting point, all the 17 of us had to reach a designated command post (we were handed four photographs to lead us there) littered with mines. We reached the first post without any mines blowing up. But I obviously wasn't keeping a sharp eye out on the second leg of the trip, because I heard a blast right behind us. Again I thanked god it was only a game. My fellow miner messed up the next time, missing a mine kept sideways. We were blasted for the second time. "Bloodied" and possibly a "few men down", we reached the command post, from whereon it was the job of the forward team to make it to the final destination using directions from the command team. Navigation and communication skills were tested to the hilt and home run seemed highly improbable. But the 10 of us in the forward team braved the elements and somehow reached a green hut perched atop a hill-the finishing line. Time taken: 47 minutes to cover a 1 km stretch.

The game wasn't over yet. We now had to guide the command team, which had the pictures but no clue about the lay of the land. It took us three-quarters of an hour to guide the eight-member command team home. After a short lunch break, we were off again-to engineer our own rafts and test them on the churning waters of Pala. You already know what happened to yours truly on these treacherous waters. Our adventure on Pala ended with me being fished out of the cold river and the teams heading back to Darjeeling. That night I slept like I never had.

Man In Black: Capt. S. Chakravorty (in black tee) briefing the team ahead of an exercise

Day Three

The first half of our final day in Darjeeling was spent rock climbing at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute. I saw some of the intangible qualities of good management (self-motivation and pride) come into play as men in their 30s to 50s variously had a go at the 20-ft artificial rock face. As for me, I was the last to play Spiderman, with no Mary Jane Watson to fall back on. Never mind, I managed in a record 53 seconds.

Once the climb was through, we went back to the hotel and into the conference room. From an active participant, I became an observer again because the flip charts from the first day's evening session were the subject of discussion. I found out that the flip charts had since been worked upon by the trainers and turned into a solid action planning (SAP)-a process where all the obstacles are addressed individually and possible solutions logged, with timeliness. NIS, I later learnt, compiles a study of all the groups that have undergone such a training, and sends a post-training report to the respective companies. Going by my experience, I am sure it works. Especially if-like me-you return feeling lucky to be alive.