Pinnacle practices.

Looking out for your teammates, was one of 10 points world adventure racer and keynote speaker Trisha Westman shared at the Women's Conference held at Stokley Creek Lodge in Goulais outside of Sault Ste. Marie, Sept. 29 and 30.

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In its second year, Judy Rebek, past executive director of Communities Quality Improvement, a not-for-profit resource organization which founded the conference, says it was a huge success, and its numbers are growing both in attendance and for those wanting to support its development and growth.

Environmental engineer and main speaker Westman delivered 10 powerful points and a motivating workshop on the energy and sport of adventure racing and its applications to the business world. As a sports enthusiast and endurance racer since childhood, West-man has participated in adventure races all over the world with her husband since 1999. She began speaking on the topic and its applications since 2001.

Adventure racing is performed in a team situation with four people, one of which must be a male or female. The race can vary from 24 hours up to six-days long. The team must travel together and work collectively navigating, strategizing and problem solving to reach required check points during the race and eventually, the finish line.

Its core disciplines are mountain biking, running (trekking) and a paddling activity such as canoeing, kayaking or white-water rafting.

Westman says prior to the race, you know the disciplines involved and the length of the race. Only on the night before, are they provided with a map and its various check points to where the team must travel. From start to finish, the team combines their resources, pushing their physical, emotional, and spiritual abilities beyond their limits.

"An adventure race is like a whole lifetime distilled and concentrated down into six days," Westman says, adding that each race is a moment frozen in time never to be forgotten.

Sponsored by Supplierpipelines Inc., West-man and her teammates began giving corporate talks on the sport itself, but now apply the team skills acquired during the race into the business world. The ten key points are as follows:

1. Watch each other, not ourselves. In business, people can become focused on themselves, so they lose sight of the bigger picture. By looking out for one's teammates instead of oneself, more sets of eyes are watching, keeping everyone else in tune with the other.

2. Never refuse help. In the work world, people forget they are working toward the same goal and they need the team to meet that goal, which comes before the personal goal. By accepting help, it is like saying: "Thanks for helping me see we're in this together."

3. Race to win, but don't expect to. When the race begins, teams go off in different directions, unaware of what the other is doing. In business, one may not know what their competitors are doing. Never sit back and say, "We just won this contract; we're on top of our game," because the competitor may have a new product at the ready.

4. No time saving is too small. In adventure racing, it is important to think outside the box. Westman has learned this by researching the race area prior to, and transferring that information the night before onto the maps they receive, which are the only maps they are allowed to take with them. "It saves us so much time out in the field." In business, doing one's homework pays off hugely in the end.

5. Maximize sustainable pace. One must look at what they have and figure out how to effectively use each of his or her tools to its maximum potential. In adventure racing, the tools are the teammates.

In business, it is important to grow the business at a manageable pace. As well, redistributing workloads to make everyone more effective will increase capacity output.

6. Communicate how you are doing on a scale of one to 10. One can't silently suffer through a race, because it is a disservice to the teammates. In the work world, people have to realize it is a team effort.

7. Only focus on the positive. When the chips are down, it doesn't take much for one person to have an effect on the whole team. "It is so easy to focus on the negative, so you have to realize that your actions have an effect on everyone."

8. Never give up. "It is so easy to throw in the towel," Westman says. "When you do this and you're out of the race, you are never happy about it. You can give up in a million different ways ..."

9. Focus on solutions. It is more important to focus on solving the problem than dwelling on how the problem arose or placing blame. The time for analysis is after the product is out the door.

10. Don't take it personally. "When you do a race, you really learn what makes people tick," Westman says, adding when people are in a bad place, they will try to unload all their pain and misery. Understanding where they are at, and that it is not related to the receiver will make it easier to deal with.

www.qualitycommunity.ca

By ADELLE LARMOUR

For Northern Ontario Business