Snapshot
The Lost Civilisation of The Olmec TM is set in an ancient temple, buried deep in the South American jungle. Participants form small tribes and are challenged to achieve exceptional, values-based results, despite the pressures to compete and perform. This is the ideal option if you want an engaging and dynamic experience that develops the awareness, skills and mindsets to achieve exceptional and sustainable results by working effectively with others.
Setting the scene – the activity
Delegates congregate outside the room expecting to be ushered into a standard conference room. Instead, they are greeted to an ancient Olmec temple by a team of Inspiradora – leaders of the ancient tribes that make up
Olmec society and who have themselves passed the Test of The Olmec.
Each delegate is allocated a glyph, a symbol of the tribe they will represent in the quest and takes a seat at one of the tables arranged in the temple, with their fellow tribe members.
Suspense builds as they take in the mysterious objects on their tables, the tribal music and the subdued lighting.
The senior Inspiradora welcomes the tribes and explains their mission – to achieve exceptional bottom line results while also observing the Amas, a set of values that all aspiring Inspiradora must exemplify. They are invited to open the chest on their tables and spill out the contents – a collection of totems, rudiments, ancient scraps of parchment, and Inti, the currency used by the tribes.
As the briefing ends and the activity starts, tribes must trade, negotiate, barter to increase their net worth to achieve the minimum required standard – all while working within the Amas.
It’s not enough to pass half of the test. Only those who fulfil both components will demonstrate themselves as worthy of being recognised as Inspiradora. When the trading phase of the activity concludes, it is time to tally up the financial results – and for tribes to receive feedback on the way they conducted themselves during the Quest.
Making it count – the debrief
Participants in Olmec are challenged to achieve exceptional results while
working with designated values – exactly as great teams do in the workplace.
We replicate the workplace realities in which results must be achieved: urgent deadlines, constantly changing circumstances, competitive pressure and constant decisions about the way they choose to interact with other.
The debrief provides feedback on the way they approached both their bottomline results and their interactions with other tribes, and applies those messages to improved performance in their everyday working environment.
The Logistics -
Time: 3 ½ to 4 ½ hours including a short break. To get value from the debrief, we recommend a minimum of 3 ¾ hours.
Group size: Olmec can be run for any group size of nine or more, although a minimum of 18 is ideal. The activity is scalable and there is no maximum number – it can be run for 1000 participants or more.
