2-4 times a year the EBS Competence Center arranges EBSUniversity for employees from all functions and organizational levels in Elkem. New this time was the focus on logistics, sales and market. It was only natural then that the event took place in Rotterdam, or actually in Ridderkerk – a small town adjacent to Rotterdam, since this is the location of our distribution, maritime and logistics center. We couldn’t have asked for a better host! Everyone at the Rotterdam office was service minded and competent, and the facilities corresponded perfectly with our needs. I’ll be back!
All the participants, including the manager of Elkem Rotterdam (Ellen Groeneveld), and three of the EBS coaches outside Van der Valk, Hotel Ridderkerk. For 5 days 34 participants, 4 EBS coaches and several lecturers worked together from early morning to late afternoon with improvement work. This is of course key in handling the challenges we are facing in the market now. The activities in bullet points: - EBS basics -
Strategic problem solving; Root cause analysis and other EBS tools - EBS tools
- Field training with relevant / real life cases - Lego simulation - Lots of team work with presentations - Presentations from guest lecturers - Coaching session
A focused Claudia Andersen preparing for the next run of the Lego simulation.
We were fortunate to have our CEO Helge Aasen come and speak to us about Elkem’s business case and strategy, including his own experience with EBS. He also took the time to answer questions from the participants, before taking off to Iceland for a board meeting.
We were able to squeeze in some social activities as well intoour busy schedule. The Norwegian football team were namely playing against the Netherlands (trying to qualify for the World Cup in South Africa 2010) at the Feyenoord stadium in Rotterdam, and thanks to extraordinary effort by the Rotterdam office we got tickets for the whole group. I will not elaborate on the weather conditions or the result…
On our way back to Schiphol we visited both the gigantic port of Rotterdam (4th largest in the world after three ports in China) and an information centre which focused the port’s future development – “Experience FutureLand”.
Torbjørn Engebretsen and Trond Valberg, Elkem
Bremanger. "Vi gir alt, alt for Norge..."
The closing dinner had sort of a ceremonious touch;
every participant was given a diploma, and the Best Performing Team was awarded
as well. This was a really fun night, and I was relieved as well. This was my
first EBS University as a coach. It was hectic, challenging, fun and inspiring.
I really look forward to round two! The next post will give you a glimpse
of some of the social trainee activities I have experienced recently.
Hilde, Ellen, Øyvind and me at the
closing dinner.
In the meantime, take care! Today’s word of wisdom:”Habits start by being too weak to
be felt and end up becoming too strong to get out of. Before you realize that
you have got the habit, the habit has got you. We form habits and habits form
character. If a person has positive habits, then he is considered a positive
character. If a person has negative habits, then he is considered a negative
character.”
