“I look back very fondly on my time at ARGO as a young trainer. There are many highlights and associations I could talk about.

One particular highlight: the 2017 VUCA event series “Polar Expedition Endurance.”

For a major client, we had designed an outdoor experience format on the topic of VUCA and recreated Ernest Shackleton’s polar expedition as a team-building event series for executives. However, the journeys did not take us to Antarctica, but across Europe to various divisional locations.

During one trip to Turkey, a small team of us carefully prepared everything on the hotel grounds to make the voyage to Antarctica feel as authentic as possible, even in the sweltering heat. We positioned the ship, organised essential survival supplies such as provisions and weapons, and hid the penguins. That’s right, we had stuffed penguins and seals with us, which the stranded participants had to hunt and shoot with bows and arrows in order to survive in the Arctic and achieve the day’s objective. However, while we were hiding them, a stray dog roaming the grounds watched my colleague very attentively.

When the participants simply could not find the penguins during their hunt and search, and we came to help by giving them clues, it suddenly became clear to us as well: the dog had carried off the penguins. Under difficult conditions and with a rapid change of strategy, the group ultimately managed to retrieve their prey, entirely in keeping with the VUCA theme, and to win the “sea dog” over as an ally. The dog stayed by our side for the rest of the day and even joined us for the reflection session, in which the experience was transferred to everyday corporate life.

As a young trainer, the experience of working with a wide variety of executives on their development was also a major development opportunity for me personally. It is incredible how many real and relevant insights about oneself, processes and teams can emerge in such a playful environment and be translated into valuable actions for everyday work.

The space for team dialogue, shared reflection and laughter, as well as the highly creative approaches I associate with ARGO, remain very fond memories and continue to shape me as a consultant to this day.”

ARGO works with what is there to create what is meant to emerge.