Lessons in Teambuilding From Sailing Cape Horn

Navigating Stormy Business Seas With Lessons From Real Ocean Danger

Feb 19, 2009

Consultant Rob Duncan took his life in his own hands sailing around Cape Horn, the "Sailor's Everest." He came away with these lessons on managing business teams.

Author Rob Duncan draws parallels between his experiences tackling the “Sailor's Everest” and leading a newly-minted team through a business project in Haul Away! Teambuilding Lessons from a Voyage Around Cape Horn (2005 Author House, ISBN 1-4208-3032-5).

Duncan is quick to see how navigating this difficult voyage forces the sorts of personal improvement and team development that would benefit any business venture. From learning to handle the ropes to earning the coveted gold hoop earring worn by Cape Horners, he identifies ways that each of his key experiences from the voyage could be translated into valuable business management lessons.

Summary of Duncan's Voyage

A management consultant and professor, Rob Duncan signed on for a 75-day trip from San Diego to the Falkland Islands, mirroring historic trips around the Cape. The crew members learn critical skills and drill together so that they can execute tasks smoothly during the dangerous conditions common to the Southern Ocean. The one stop at Easter Island gives the ship an opportunity to pick up new crew members, and the crew a chance to reflect on the journey and prepare for the most difficult leg.

During the journey, Duncan must learn to contend with stormy seas, onboard fires, men nearly swept overboard, unpleasant companions, and all the rigors of a long journey. He masters skills he initially thought were beyond him, becomes a specialist at refinishing wood and metal hardware, and becomes a sailor so competent that he seamlessly integrates himself into any group task. The elation of completing his quest is followed by disappointment that his dream is now behind him, and he must mourn the loss of the crew – his team.

Sailing Lessons for Business Teambuilding

Duncan observes the captain, his fellow crewmembers, the ship's routine and himself closely during the voyage, and takes note of what works on board and what doesn't. He uncovers management gems in a surprising amount of daily shipboard routine, including:

Duncan explains sailing terminology for the landlubber and uses it as a vibrant context for lessons in getting disparate individuals pulling in the same direction.

Mix of Anecdote and Management

The book is organized into distinct vignettes about Duncan's adventure, arranged chronologically and interspersed with parallels from project management in business organizations. The lessons are broken into “Personal Insights” and “Teambuilding Lessons,” and each chapter concludes with a series of personal development questions. The style is sometimes choppy like the Southern Ocean as Duncan moves back and forth between telling his tale and analyzing it from afar, but the structure makes is understandable given the thesis of the book.

In some cases Duncan struggles to generalize a broad lesson from the specialized knowledge of a sailor; however, the fault is more in attempting to write the book for a broad spectrum of businesses than in any lack of understanding on the author's part. One can alleviate any confusion resulting from vague wording by replacing one's own specific business for the generic organization Duncan is forced to write about. His later work, Competitive Intelligence, shows none of the same overly broad writing.

A quick read, Haul Away! contains more valuable nuggets of teambuilding wisdom than its size would suggest.

The copyright of the article Lessons in Teambuilding From Sailing Cape Horn in Business Books is owned by Terence P Ward. Permission to republish Lessons in Teambuilding From Sailing Cape Horn in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.