Published: 22/01/2012
North Shore Rowing Club put 40 MBA students from the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) through three challenging experiences on Friday 20 January. Their lecturers, Wendy Grusin and Rosamund Christie wanted to use rowing to teach the students about the finer points of working in a team. The students, most of whom had never been in a racing boat before, were split into five crews named after some of the great cities of the world - Paris, London, Brussels, Tokyo and New York. Each crew had one of our experienced coaches work with them throughout the program. Coaches Sue Wannan, John James, Norma & Mike Perry and Tom Tressider took each crew out in an eight so they could learn how a crew must work together to make the boat move as fast as possible. To increase the team work nature of the activities, all were competitive with points being awarded by their coaches and activity coordinators.
When they were not on the water, students took part in two off water activities. Geoff Wannan and Mab Gross had them on the rowing machines mounted on slides. After some practise the students rowed pairs as hard as they could to get a good score for this activity. Kim Rudder was in charge of the problem solving activity and he had them putting together oars that he had taken apart for the challenge. All they had was a model of an oar plus a few tools and they had to use their creativity and problem solving skills as a team to put 8 oars together that looked the same as the model.
At the end of the 3 challenging activities, the students were treated to a delicious home made lunch planned and prepared by Janet Mathews and Selina Pyle. President Sue Wannan presented North Shore medals to the London crew who achieved the highest number of points.
The program was very successful and 40 tired students and two lecturers left us having had a memorable experience and learned a lot about team work while having a good time. Sarah Reed sent this message to Sue Wannan:
"I was one of the participants at the leadership skills/AGSM function this morning.
What a wonderful experience. It was clear that a great deal of time and effort went into planning the day for us and for that I thank you and the other club members. You were wonderful hosts. My coach John was so patient and clear in his direction and critique, the skilled volunteers came up with compelling activities, the home made food and coffee was delicious and you gave an interesting and informative welcome and overview of rowing to set us up for the day.
It was a memorable activity and had a great impact on me. Many thanks.
Regards
Sarah Reed
AGSM MBA Student
Class of 2013"
North Shore members working together - a great example of team work!!
Linda McDonald
Vice Captain
P.S. Photos will be posted in a few days