October 25, 2023
Interview
Interview Description
For my interview, I interviewed Carter, a supervisor at Self
Help who has been bringing different corporate groups to
CLAS Ropes Course for five years. As a supervisor, he
constantly is working with new teams and uses CLAS to
unify to the team. Because of his years of experience with
bringing different groups to CLAS, I selected him to
interview. Due to scheduling and location, we did our
interview over Zoom.
Interview Guide
We did not know how effective the trainings were on
corporate groups and we did not know what the big
takeaways were for the participants. In order to help us
gather this information I asked Carter, a month and a half
after the training, about his takeaways, what he
remembers, and what keeps him bringing his teams back.
He has brought teams to CLAS for years so I wanted to
learn from him what got him started coming to CLAS and
what keeps him coming back and how that compares to
the goals of CLAS.
Focus Question: How effective are the CLAS Ropes
Course Corporate trainings at improving a team’s
community, collaboration, communication, and
responsibility?
Questions Asked:
Sub-topic: impact from the last training
What do you remember most from your last
experience with CLAS?
Sub-topic: overall experience with trainings
What keeps you bringing your teams back to
CLAS?
What effect do the trainings have on your
groups?
What changes, adjustments, or suggestions for
improvement would you have so that the
trainings would more fully provide what you are
seeking?
Interview Findings
Analysis:
From my interview with Carter, I learned that for him, there
is a major focus on team building and team unification.
There are areas in which CLAS can improve and there are
many areas in which CLAS is performing well. One
positive is that, months after the training, Carter and his
team willr months after the training,. That is the reason he
continues to bring his groups to CLAS Ropes Course. It
“jumpstarts team building.“ With all of the good CLAS
provides, he did explain that there were rooms for
improvement. Overall, Carter appreciates the trainings and
finds them beneficial for building connection and
collaboration amongst his teams.
Interpretation:
After analyzing Carter‘s experiences, it is clear that CLAS
is meeting two of it‘s main goals of building collaboration
and community. However, there are ways to make it more
effective for the corporate groups. One is by tailoring the
trainings to each group. The more tailored, the greater
the impact has been on the groups in accomplishing a
connected, collaborative team. The second is ensure that
the CLAS instructors believe in what they teach. When
the instructor believes in it, it makes them not obtain the
goals of the trainings. Improving upon these two areas
would improve the quantity of participants that leave with a
greater connection and greater collaboration within their
teams and would improve the quality of take aways for
participants. w
 October 25, 2023

Interview - Appendix
Appendix
Interview Transcript Example Affinity Diagram
Carter:
Anyway, so it, it really jumpstarts our group team building.
Themes:
And, and that's the main key, right? If we can get the group
Collaboration
working together and efficient fa as fast as we possibly can
“number one, it jumpstarts team building”
we, that's really the goal, right? And we've had groups that
Games on the ground pushed people to work
that haven't done the ropes course and have done okay.
together and lean on each other
And we've had groups that have done the ropes course
gets everybody to buy-in and jump full force into
and not been okay. Right, right. But they, they, it tends to
working together
help just jumpstart that, like I said, jumpstart that team
Less ropes course and a lot more traditional team
building it, get lets the, the families kind of get to know
building activities was great
each other, get to know us as supervisors. But it also gives
“90-95% of the groups that go, it’s a really
us the opportunity as supervisors to kind of see how the
good team forming and teambuilding activity”
families react to stress. It gives us an idea of their
Community
personalities, like individual personalities outside of a, you
”lets the families get to know each other”
know, we have our pre-construction meetings in the office,
gives the managers opportunities to see how the
and those tend to be pretty quiet.
families react to stress
We're kind of going over like, how the build is gonna go.
it “gives managers an idea of personalities”
It's a lot of me talking, it's a lot of members of our office
“Everyone was doing stuff together, but it
staff talking. But we don't get the families really like
wasn’t everyone together”
involved in and they don't participate a ton. And so this is a
Tent building activity got the manager involved with
good way for us to kind of get to start viewing those
the team
personalities, which helps us then form our sub like
Workplace Application
groups. It kind of shows like who's gonna be a leader,
“refer back to the ropes course when storming
who's gonna step forward, who's gonna try things? Mm-
a mode”
Hmm. <Affirmative>. Even though they may not be super
it usually will translate over to working together well
comfortable with whatever they're doing we, we can kind of
and, and forming and creating that camaraderie
see who is gonna be able to do those things. And so it, it
during the build
helps start that process as well where we can kind of get
Training Areas for Improvement
an idea and engage the group in that way. So yeah,
Split the group into two groups
number one, it jumpstarts team building, right? All of the
“Whoever is leading the group has to show
get to know you stuff working together as a team, trying to
their investment and belief in the training”
figure out like the puzzles that they have us do sometimes,
Previous training leaders have no bought into the
right? It, it all kind of incorporates in that team building. So
program and caused not of the participants to buy
we talk a lot about the TUCKMAN'S model. I don't know if
in either
you have done that at all.
General Training Positives
Jennifer built and has tried to tailor the program to
Michael:
Self-Help more
Heard about that. You called it the what?
“Jennifer has made changes and adjusted
things in such a way that going forward it will
Carter:
definitely be even more beneficial than it’s
Tuckman's model?
been in the past”
A