The TRACS Executive Retreat was supposed to start on a very testy and highly acrimonious note if not handled with extreme care!

WHY?

Being a very prestigious and successful multi-national, its managers generally regarded themselves as part of the crème dela crème of the country’s elite middle-class. Highly remunerated, well-educated and mostly foreign-trained, they came to the TRACS event with their noses understandably up there in the air. This was more so when they apparently had not heard anything about the Consulting firm that was to conduct the affairs of the programme!

The TRACS Executive Retreat, then being organised under a different name, was a 3-day and 4-nights engagement with each day starting as early as 5am under the supervision of a serving military-drills expert!

Having been fully apprised of the potential turbulence of the encounter during our usual pre-programme Strategy Session and supported by an ample dose of God’s grace, I guess the participants didn’t even notice when they cast away all the imported façade and came out in their normal personalities.

But we still maintained the discipline which our little firm was known for!

Which was why we were completely taken aback when, at about 11am, just when we were getting mid-way into the second core session of the first day, we were alarmingly informed that the HR Manager, a no-nonsense lady, urgently wanted to speak with our Lead Consultant about some malfeasance taking place at the programme!

But then he was the person conducting the session at that moment and so the Call had to wait!

When eventually he returned the Call, he was met with a stern reprimand as to what type of programme management our firm was running that made it possible for many of the participants to be sending text messages to several people at their Head Office, including herself and the Directors!

The HR Manager was so miffed at the calmness of our Lead Consultant in the face of such a complaint that she had to ask why he didn’t seem bothered at all with the matter. He still calmly explained that what he was hearing was not possible in a PROSELL Consulting organised event; except perhaps it was during Break-time or when the individuals doing the texting went to the Conveniences. Down along the discussion, it eventually turned out that most of the text messages actually happened during the Break-time!

That settled, our Lead Consultant made to return to the Hall but the HR Manager hurriedly expressed her surprise that he didn’t even ask what the messages were all about!

Our man’s response was a further surprise in return! “We are just starting with the most critical and delicate part of the programme and we need to maintain focus. I believe what the participants were texting about must have been their own business; otherwise, I trust that you would readily inform us accordingly.” And the HR Manager retorted, “No! It’s something you should be very concerned about and because of it I myself will be coming there later today to know what really is happening. Why should they be asking why they have not been exposed to the Concept earlier than now? What is special about it?”

Our man was like, “What have they even learnt about the Concept that they could be asking such questions? They had only gone through one and a half sessions of the most arcane or abstract part of the programme! We haven’t even started!” Not being a person of too many words, she just retorted, “Well, as I said, I’m coming there myself!”

True to her word, just as the last major session of the day was starting, she stealthily came in and quietly sat at the back; far away from the participants!

Towards the end of the session, she made to leave and then requested to meet with our Lead Consultant that she had spoken to earlier in the day without having met him for the first time.

To cut a long story short, after the introductions, she thanked the team and then requested our man to see her off to her car. On the way, she apologised for the earlier accusations and said that she has found out that what her managers were texting the Head Office about was indeed true! She said that she had taken time to engage some of them by phone during the Lunch Break and had also buttressed the feedback with what she had heard in the little time she had just spent with us. But according to her, the long and short of everything was that she herself had done her own texting too back to the Head Office!

Our Lead Consultant was aghast! “What did you text about this time?” She said, “I thought you don’t like to ask?” Our man, goaded on by her happy countenance retorted, No! You can tell me now. We are virtually done for the day.” “Well,” she said, “I’ve done my own texting and now my Executive Director will be here tomorrow morning. He too wants to come and meet with some of the participants himself and listen in a bit.”

Now, that was only on the very first day of a 3-day programme!

Of course, early the second day, the company’s ED-Operations came in and spent a brief time with us; participating only in one session. When he wanted to leave, he requested to also meet with our Lead Consultant and after the normal introductions, he jocularly informed him that he too had done his own texting; this time to his colleagues, including the Managing Director. But unlike the HR Manager, the response to his own texting, according to him, was immediate, though he would still let her stay on a bit longer and use the opportunity to inform us what it was about.

This time we didn’t wait for the HR Manager to settle down. As the man left, we immediately accosted her and fortunately she too couldn’t wait to break the news!

“Our Managing Director had decided that every manager in the entire organisation, irrespective of Function, would pass through this Programme!”

That became how we not only took on 5 batches of managers through the TRACS Executive Retreats (then its older format and name), but went on to engage virtually every member of the company’s Management, upto the Executive Directors and the MD himself; a phenomenon that ran through 8 whole tranches !!!