You would have thought they are a bunch of young couples setting out on a honeymoon but they are not. They are in fact (about 60 of them) all staff of the same company-Verdant Zeal embarking on a team building trip-this time, 4000 kilometers away in Ethiopia. This will be the 7th trip in the company’s history outside the country that has taken them to Benin Republic, Ghana, The Gambia twice, Senegal, South Africa and now Ethiopia.
The decision to make this an annual event comes from the hardest of business noses. Tunji Olugbodi, the company’s group managing director.
The purpose for this type of trip is to demonstrate that people matters, Tunji tells me.
“Our emphasis has been to focus on those types of reward that is not entirely money based. So we said to ourselves we can achieve that work place satisfaction through these type of trips.”
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Beyond this, it is an avenue for the company to prospect for opportunities. Today Verdant Zeal has an office in the Gambia and Ghana and are also looking towards East Africa to expand operation.
But those who can smell it knows it is the evolution of a work place culture designed to create atmosphere and possibilities-where individual differences are nurtured and people are allowed to do their best work.
It implies “the organization of your dreams.” To borrow from Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones in the May 2003 Harvard Business Review; In a nutshell, it’s a company where individual differences are nurtured; information is not suppressed or spun; the company adds value to employees, rather than merely extracting it from them; the organization stands for something meaningful; the work itself is intrinsically rewarding; and there are no stupid rules.
Some staff of the company summed it up this way; it is the dream organization.”
The staff’s enthusiasm is infectious. When I ask one of them, executive director, Lanre Oyegbola about the implication of trip for the company and staff as well, he lights up. “The trip is the heart of Verdant Zeal, our culture. This breaks barriers and fuels creativity. You need that freedom to be very creative. Our peers wish that they could do this. It helps the perception of our colleagues in a special way. It is a form of training in an informal setting,” he replies.
“You need to understand that if you have not ventured out, it will be difficult to know that there is more to education and enlightenment than what you learn within the four walls of a classroom in your own country,” Tunji tells me earlier. “So, that very cosmopolitan orientation was one of the things we were also looking at-to go to other places to learn new things meet people, socialize, engage and most often times it changes your world view.”
“It is very important to be exposed to different spheres of world to have a global impact. If you are restricted to only the things that you know then there is a problem because your approach to a global audience, especially when everybody is thinking globally will be a problem,” adds Bright Igho, the group’s creative writer.
Whether leaning yes or no, this ethos of teamwork has a tendency to balance goals and responsibility for each employee, simultaneously helping to break down barriers between individuals and departments while fostering an spirit de corps among employers-something lacking in many Nigerian organisations today.
The ethos of teamwork extends to every staff of the company. “We don’t leave out anybody, whether they are drivers or managers in the group when we undertake this travels,” said Tunji.
Tunji gamely confirms that the impact is reflected through the employee’s royalty to a cause.
“Everybody becomes responsible to the institution and people understand that this is not about one individual. In all, it enhances people’s attitude towards organizational objectives. And what you find is that people understand that there is more in working within an organization than any other thing.”
Indeed, this has important positive ramification for work place behavior particularly, within the context of accountability and commitment in the long run. It brings out total commitment and positive attitude to the job and makes even the not so good staff, in terms of skill, make up ground through strong work ethics. On accountability, the Verdant Zeal model is even more contagious. It brings out not only strong effort from the employee, it has the potential to turn the employee into an inspiring role model.
“Impact on staff is really huge often too difficult to express,” says Cornelius Onuoha, CEO of an arm of the Verdant Zeal Group.
Dipo Adeshida Creative Director of the group, describes the travels as very purpose driven.
That animal spirit-the urge for action-is instinctively ignited by this types of exploratory venture and ‘team building scholars’ will tell you it is an adventure that belongs to the brave, as well as calculated risk necessary for a company’s progress.
All of these elements are what you will find in a world-class company and Tunji tells me that from day one when they started, it was clear in their mind that they wanted Verdant Zeal to be a world-class organization.
“Our line of business is about people’s individual capacity, endowment, talent and attitude. So it is really not about technology and so it was extremely important to demonstrate that people matter,” he said.
“So the team orientation has also been extremely wonderful. Issues of mistrust or tension are generally displaced in this type of situation.”
Adeshida sums up the feeling: he says nobody leaves empty handed after the trips.
CHARLES IKE-OKOH
