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thedrifter
01-29-06, 08:58 AM
Job Market
Workers get training fit for Marines

By Katie Grasso
The (Cherry Hill, N.J.) Courier-Post

Push-ups before the morning meeting? Sit-ups with your coffee?

No, this isn't a New Year's resolution diet gone crazy. It's an employee-training technique that's catching on.

Business Battlefield Seminars, a Coop-ersburg, Pa.-based company, uses Marine-style training to help employees develop leadership, team-building and communication skills.

Owner Matt Daniel began the company after 12 years in the Marine Corps. He realized the leadership-training techniques that worked well in the Marines had parallels to the business world.

"Leadership is leadership," he said.

Michelle Davis, sales manager of Jack & Jill Ice Cream's Food Service Division, brought Daniel to the Moorestown, N.J., facility to help customer-service representatives — who field at least 200 calls a day — better handle calls.

The employees were divided into groups and chose a commander. They executed a simulated combat situation, which forced them to act as a team to work through different challenges.

"It took us out of our element and broke the ice," Davis said. "I think it built morale within the group."

After each combat situation, Daniel debriefs the group on their performance. This is where the employees make a connection to their job performance and learn how they can apply the skills used during the exercise at work.

"These missions help people realize who is on their team and what is needed to get the job done," Daniel said.

The seminars for companies vary. In one highly physical training session, employees spent more than two hours in groups in the wilderness, relying on each other's knowledge of a compass, map and communication devices.

Each group is joined by a Marine employed by Daniel and put in place to make the group's pseudo-military mission as difficult — and educational — as possible.

Daniel is a "commanding guy, but in a nice way," according to Davis and the customer-service reps at Jack & Jill, and he provided ways to make them better at their specific jobs.