“The Project Delta experience pits two simulated companies in an intense competition…”

Summary of the Experience

In Project Delta, participants intellectually, physically and emotionally experience the powerful significance of Environment, Health & Safety (EHS) in the workplace. They do this in a highly experiential simulated world that is enjoyable, challenging and deeply rewarding. Throughout the program, participants are given the opportunity to reflect upon their actions, find solutions, generate and implement ideas for future processes and realize the importance of looking at the EHS leadership ‘big picture.’ They leverage their learning to create a plan for developing a highly functional work environment that is aligned with the principles of Environment, Health & Safety.

The Project Delta experience pits two simulated companies in an intense competition to win a contract for manufacturing the car of the future. Within each company, the General Manager feels pressure from the CEO (who is feeling pressure from the Board of Directors) to increase productivity and reduce costs. Every participant soon feels those pressures in his/her role, whether in management or on the shop floor. As the competition heats up, productivity must be balanced with EHS concerns in a noisy, stressful and bustling environment. In the first round of the simulation, the emphasis is mostly on production, thus performance and the balance between production and EHS suffers.

After a challenging first round, participants are provided with the concepts and tools to lead in a new way, such as new metrics that provide leading rather than lagging indicators. Both companies hold a strategic planning meeting to systematically apply the principles of EHS Leadership over two half-day workshops.

In the second round of the simulation, both teams put into play their newly strengthened EHS Leadership practices, which increases both EHS standards AND performance. EHS and Performance are NOT a trade-off.

The Project Delta metaphor mirrors the challenges of the participants’ environment, whether they are in manufacturing or in other industries. For example:

• Leaders and their teams must learn to integrate the skills and knowledge of workers, managers and EHS professionals
• Leaders must make tough choices, and reap the rewards and face the consequences of these choices
• Great leaders leverage high standards around both EHS and Performance – they don’t have to be a trade-off!

Debrief

At the conclusion of the program, participants are immersed in giving meaning to their experience and transferring it to an action plan for their workplace and teams. Impact!, a program that challenges participants to put their learning to work immediately in the workplace, is often used with Project Delta. It is designed to make a sustainable and measurable difference in their business. Experience It inc. has implemented multiple Impact! projects in many parts of the world; this program ensures that learning is transferred, applied and leveraged against the highest-priority EHS business performance goals.