It's not your ordinary treasure hunt. Grownups substitute for kids, candy-filled plastic eggs aren't buried at the end and "X" doesn't mark the spot -- satellites high in orbit do.
High-tech treasure hunts, or geocaching, are an increasingly popular activity worldwide in which people use Global Positioning Systems to track down "treasures" (buried by fellow geocachers) and then replace them with items for others to find.
But Sal Silvester of Boulder has given the game a new spin. At his company, 5.12 Solutions, Silvester uses the hunts to teach teamwork, leadership and problem-solving skills to companies' employees.
The caches contain questions to discuss, scenarios to enact (which may get filmed) or problems to solve. Sometimes the activities are more light-hearted, such as utilizing cards from the board game Cranium that require teams to answer trivia questions, play Charades or solve word puzzles.
Started in March 2002, the company also offers rock-climbing programs, rope courses and Habitat for Humanity workshops, but geocaching is the most popular activity.
"Geocaching creates a unique dynamic," Silvester said. "You have eight to 10 people trying to find a cache, and to do that, they have to communicate well, problem solve, make decisions and resolve conflicts if people don't agree on a direction. All those skills relate directly to the work place."
He began the treasure hunts last spring, and the 15 takers so far have included Corporate Express, the state of Colorado and Centocor.
"We were looking for a fun, team-building event that was outdoors and that we'd work together on," said Mary Ann Peters, regional office coordinator for Centocor.
So in September, 35 employees of the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical company hunted for treasure in Chautauqua Park in Boulder. With compasses, maps and GPS systems in hand, they roamed the hills beneath the Flatirons from 4-7 p.m. on a Saturday.
"Everybody loved it and raved about it," Peters said. "It wasn't too hokey or silly, and there weren't any eyes rolling saying, 'You're actually going to make me do this?' But there were still fun and funny activities."
She said the training helped break the ice among employees and improved communication.
"We saw what we could do as a team, no matter what the challenge was or how out of the box it was, which is definitely applicable to daily work," Peters said. "And if you can promote that, it has to be good for business."
Silvester, who was a manager at Accenture for seven years, said businesses need to have clear goals for their employees and a plan for helping them develop professionally. The consequences of not doing so are significant, he said.
"Unhappy employees means poor retention, decline in innovation and responsiveness to the customer, and a stagnant organization," he said.
5.12 Solutions tries to help companies combat that through its workshops, which range from a half-day to two days. The cost for a group of 15 to 20 is $1,700 for a half-day, $2,500 for a full day and $5,000 for two days. He said he has trained 30 groups this year, double the number from 2003, and revenue has quadrupled since 2002. Silvester said his business experience gives him an edge over other training programs.
"A lot of other facilitators come from groups such as Outward Bound, but I've been in the boardroom and understand the challenges unique to the corporate environment," he said.
Silvester tries to tailor training exercises to the specific needs of each client company. And for geocaching, he goes to the company about one week before the treasure hunt to teach a one-hour crash course on GPS.
"They're not experts at the end of the hour, but that's part of the experience," Silvester said. "They have to work together to figure out how to use it."
He holds the treasure hunts in the mountains, parks and even cities, depending on the company's preference. He breaks the participants into teams, which then track down the caches.
Teams also have to coordinate with each other, which Silvester said mimics the cooperation required among departments in the workplace.
Caterpillar Inc. was seeking improved cooperation in the workplace when it hired 5.12 Solutions in July.
"We have a diverse team. Some are in their early 30s and new to the company, while one gentleman has been here 35 years," said Anita Meeker, human resources manager for Caterpillar. "We found we all did great on our own individual work, but we didn't have the team environment we wanted."
So Meeker and six other company employees spent a weekend near Estes Park and, on a Saturday afternoon, hunted for treasure and climbed rocks. Initially, things didn't go as planned. We had one guy in our group who said, 'This is what we're going to do. We're going this direction,'" Meeker said. "Well, we got there, and there was nothing buried there. So we then discussed how we should all talk together and make decisions together."
At the end of the treasure hunts, Silvester debriefs the teams. They discuss what happened during the hunt, what worked well, what could be improved and how it relates to the workplace.
"During the debriefing, we started off talking about what happened during the hunt, but the conversation naturally turned back to the workplace," Meeker said. "It was very beneficial because it showed us how important every person [was] as a spoke in the wheel. What one person does affects the whole group."
Do the skills people learn on the forested hills of Chautauqua survive back in the office? Meeker thinks they did for her team.
"It made us more cohesive," she said. "We try harder to include others, we brainstorm as a group and we value each other as people rather than just co-workers."
After the training, participants create action plans explaining how they're going to apply their new skills in the office. Also, Silvester evaluates them before and after the training.
Silvester is expanding his program to Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and California, and he plans to eventually offer public seminars.
But for Peters, geocaching will remain the real draw.
"If you want a unique team-building activity that screams 'Colorado' and you don't want to drive two hours to do it, this is it," she said.