REACHING BEYOND BOUNDARIES

Execution and Teamwork through a Navy SEAL Mindset

DON MANN
SEAL Team SIX Endurance Athlete NY Times Best Selling Author

Presentation and take-home PROGRAM

Reaching Beyond Boundaries

Execution and Teamwork Though a Navy SEAL Mindset
Purpose
This course applies the mental toughness and self-discipline derived from competitive athletics and Navy SEAL experiences to the day to day combat of working in todays competitive, challenging, world of work in order to reach and exceed your boundaries, achieve stellar results, and enhance team functioning. This package includes Don Manns Reaching Beyond Boundaries presentation on the Navy SEAL mindset, and a (take-home) Navy SEAL training exercise designed at enhancing individual and team performance, and a dynamic debriefing exercise to surface and anchor for future use the following capabilities:

Learning Goals

REACHING BEYOND BOUNDARIES Don describes how a competitive, team-focused COMBAT MINDSET has served him as a world-class athlete and Navy SEAL, through life-threatening situations where giving up, lack of a superordinate goal, and failure to work together were detrimental to the mission, often resulting in loss of life. You will enhance:
Mental Toughness and Self-Discipline in times of facing extreme challenges. Turning Macro Goals into Micro Goals to make lofty tasks manageable. Team and Mission Focus to always maintain integrity in the face of adversity.

SEAL TEAM SURVIVAL TRAINING (take home exercise)

This Navy SEAL simulated training exercise demonstrates how well teams think and interact in stressful situations, and how group interdependency aids in the cultivation of: Mission Focus to guide strategy analysis and set precision objectives. Intra-Group Communication to improve information flow, conflict management, and flexibility. Information processing skills to optimize critical information analysis and group decision-making.

Nothing can STOP the person with the right mindset from achieving his or her goal(s). Nothing can HELP the person with a weak mindset. - Don Mann
Author, Inside SEAL Team Six

5/21/2013

Slides and Notes

DON MANN

Reaching Beyond Boundaries

Tracking Your Corporate Combat Mindset
Purpose
To retain the elements of the SEAL Mindset and apply them to your own mission.

Directions
Please jot notes on the next few pages to help you capture the ideas that resonate most from this presentation, and after Don is finished, on page 11, rate yourself on each of the Combat Mindsets ten ingredients. Since this session is aimed at being both motivating and at making a practical impact, reflect upon how the concepts apply to your own individual and team results on these few pages. You may be given time to discuss your insights with a learning partner.

Turn Macro Goals into Micro Goals

Key Ideas Relevance to My Life

Set Your Goals High

Key Ideas Relevance to My Life

Although there were always so many athletes so much faster, stronger, smarter, and more experienced than I have even been, my mindset allowed me to compete in the same arena with them and I played to win.

- Don Mann
Author, Inside Seal Team Six

REACHING BEYOND BOUNDARIES 5

Reaching Beyond Boundaries

Tracking Your Corporate Combat Mindset
Know and Defy Your Personal Limitations
Key Ideas Relevance to My Life

Giving Up is Never an Option (Professional vs. Novice Mindset)

Key Ideas Relevance to My Life

A man must not withdraw from the sport without having given at least once in his lifetime, all that he had!

- Mark Allen
Six Time Champion, Ironman Hawaii

DON MANN

Reaching Beyond Boundaries

Tracking Your Corporate Combat Mindset
Commit to Excellence
Key Ideas Relevance to My Life

Dont Give Up On Your Dream

Key Ideas Relevance to My Life

Youve got to live before you can afford to die. -John Steinbeck

REACHING BEYOND BOUNDARIES

Reaching Beyond Boundaries

Tracking Your Corporate Combat Mindset
Maintain High Integrity in the Face of Adversity
Key Ideas Relevance to My Work/Life

Welcome Pain as Building Strength and Stamina

Key Ideas Relevance to My Work/Life

The more sweat and tears shed in training, the less blood shed in war.

- Don Mann
Author, Inside Seal Team Six

DON MANN

Reaching Beyond Boundaries

Tracking Your Corporate Combat Mindset
Stay Focused on the Mission/Objectives
Key Ideas Relevance to My Work/Life

Stay Committed to Your Team/Comrades

Key Ideas Relevance to My Work/Life

One of the greatest tragedies in life is not Death. But what we let die inside of ourselves while we Live

- Don Mann
Author, Inside Seal Team Six

REACHING BEYOND BOUNDARIES

Slides and Notes

Thank you for your attention and self-reflection during this presentation. I wish you great success in applying these combat mindset principles to your life.

Don D. Mann
"The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday "

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DON MANN

Rating Yourself on Your Combat Mindset

Mindset Components
Turning Macro Goals into Micro Goals

Poor
1 1 1

Fair
2 2 2

Average
3 3 3

Good
4 4 4

Excellent
5 5 5

Set Your Goals High

Know and Defy Your Personal Limitations

Giving Up is Never an Option (Professional vs. Novice Mindset)

Commit to Excellence Dont Ever Give Up on Your Dream

1 1

2 2

3 3

4 4

5 5

Maintain High Integrity in the Face of Adversity

Welcome Pain as Building Strength and Stamina

1 1 1

2 2 2

3 3 3

4 4 4

5 5 5

Stay Focused on the Mission/Objective

Stay Committed to Your Team/Comrades

Jot notes about any changes you can make in order to be even more effective:

The real tragedy for most people is not that they set their goals too high and do not achieve them, but that they set their goals too low and do achieve them.

Don Mann
Author, Inside SEAL Team Six

REACHING BEYOND BOUNDARIES 11

SEAL Survival (take home) Exercise

Overview
SEAL Survival Exercise at a Glance
The Navy SEAL Team Survival Exercise involves a notional mission that requires group members to prioritize a list of items they can take with them for survival. Because the exercise first involves individuals rank ordering the survival items and then discussing and reaching group consensus, the experience allows groups to gauge very quickly how well the participants think and interact with the rest of the group. This SEAL exercise allows participants and observers to understand and respond to individual and team strengths and weaknesses. The exercise also demonstrates how depending on one another increases chances of survival and success in business.

Exercise Purposes and Outcomes

The Navy SEAL Survival Training Survival Exercise provides an opportunity for teams to practice and improve: Working in a stressful environment while employing the Combat Mindset philosophy discussed in the Reaching Beyond Boundaries presentation given this morning; Teamwork, the power of working together, mission focus; Listening, communication skills, engaging with a team; Individual and group decision-making, processing information, interpersonal problem-solving.

Steps of the SEAL Survival Exercise

1) Briefing (13 min.)- Your team will together read the Mission Briefing to provide an overview of the Exercise. This Briefing can be found on the next three pages of this Workbook. 2) Set-Up (2 min.)- Each team will appoint a Timer, Scorer, and Observer, 3) Rank Ordering and Scoring Survival Items- To emphasize individual versus team decision-making, the Survival Exercise is split into two parts: the individual ranking and team ranking. Individuals make their own individual selections first, on Workbook page 23 (5 minutes) Groups then discuss and create a team list (25 min.). Each team is required to list its rank order of all 15 survival items prior to seeing the SEAL Team POC responses (Answer Sheet). The exercise is to be completed without the use of tactics such as voting, trading in or averaging. The facilitator will look for participants that might avoid conflict or changing their minds simply to come to agreement and will watch for an over-emphasis by anyone needing 100% accurate answers. Consensus may be hard to reach, but the objective is for all participants to at least partially agree to each ranking. Next, the Team Scorer with retrieve the Answer Sheet (SEAL Team POC responses).

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Teams compare individual and team performances according to the SEAL Team POC responses (Answer Sheet). The Team Scorer awards points to each teams choices. See scoring directions on page 21. The lowest score wins (and survives).

2. Self Reflection, Large-and Small-Group Discussion and Debriefing- A structured self-reflection activity

and debrief phase will help participants distill their personal and group insights and learning to apply.

REACHING BEYOND BOUNDARIES 11

SEAL Survival Exercise

Mission Briefing
Background
You have successfully completed the mandatory basic training required to provide operational and logistical support to Naval Special Warfare (NSW). You have been vetted and approved by the Department of the Navy to provide support in select missions on the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). Since your team has just finished a five-day convention in Casablanca, Morocco and you have two days of free time before your return to the US, you have been requested by NSW to support Delta Platoon, SEAL Team One (ST-1). Given your close proximity to Delta Platoons area of operation (AO), you are the ideal team to support this mission requirement. Delta Platoons AO for the past four months has been the Algerian desert. They have a specific request and for cover reasons they require civilian logistical support. All of your communications to the SEAL Team will be through a SEAL member who was selected to be your POC as he is considered one of the top desert survival experts in the SPECOPS community. Your cover for status for this operation is that you have just finished attending a business convention in Morocco and decided to do some additional adventure travel in the area.

Intelligence Report
On 20 Sept. 2013, thirty-seven foreigners of eight nationalities were killed by militants in a well-planned attack on a remote gas plant. The four-day crisis at the InAmenas gas plant located in Algeria, deep in the Sahara, produced one of the worst hostage bloodbaths in years. The CIA reports the deaths of seven Japanese, six Filipinos, three Americans, three Britons, two Romanians, one Algerian and one Frenchman. Algerian Special Forces rescued 685 Algerian and 107 foreign hostages during the rescue operation. Five survivors, who have been targeted by the terrorists, have been evading capture since the raid by hiding out in a small desert cavern and are awaiting evacuation. North Africa is becoming a magnet for jihadists from other countries, and the threat there now outweighs that from terrorist hotbeds in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Most Intelligence reporting states the attack at InAmenas is only the beginning of many more planned attacks. This is the primary reason ST-1 is actively engaged in missions in this AO.

ST-1, Delta Platoon, is tasked with providing hostages with basic survival gear until they are rescued in the next 4-7 days. The only survival items available in the AO are the items you will carry with you and deliver. Your team is to meet with a trusted asset who will provide you with commercial air transport over the Sahara Desert to Dakhla, Morocco, a small town approximately 1800 km from Casablanca. In Dakhla you will board a covert helicopter and will fly to an airstrip approximately 170 km inside the border of Algeria. Specific coordinates will be provided prior to your departure. You will soon receive instructions regarding when and where to link up with your ST-1 POC. It is advised that you wear suitable clothing for the 40 -115 degree F desert temperatures. Due to an engine fire your plane is forced to makes an emergency landing approximately 200 km short of the airstrip. You were able to send a situation report to your ST-1 POC and apprise him of your GPS coordinates.

REACHING BEYOND BOUNDARIES 19

SEAL Survival Exercise

Mission Briefing (continued)
Just minutes after your team exited the aircraft it caught on fire and exploded. The pilot and co-pilot were killed in the explosion but fortunately no one on your team was killed or injured. Your POC reports back that because of the political unrest in the AO, an evacuation is too risky at this time and it could compromise the SEAL mission. Your orders remain unchanged. Before the aircraft caught on fire you and your teammates were able to salvage the below items: Vodka Raincoat Map Book Flashlight 15 Gallons of water Pistol w/ full magazine Parachute Compass Salt tablets Pocket knife Sunglasses First aid kit Top coat Mirror

Your SEAL POC provided you with coordinates and instructed you to travel 30 km, at a 084 degree bearing to avoid compromise. Your POC will meet you at this location and will take the survival items from you to bring to the cavern. Because of the weight of the items and the size of your packs, your team is unable to carry all of the items you have recovered from the aircraft. With only being able to carry five of the select items from the wreckage, your team must discuss how will you survive, and what will you carry with you on this 30 km desert crossing. Your ST-1 POC requests that the team evacuate from the site as quickly as possible, so you must come up with a plan prior to departing the aircraft. In reality, during such survival situations, people who do not remain near crash sites, particularly in desert regions, do not survive long, due to the heat and lack of water. However, in this simulation, we are assuming that you are unable to remain with your aircraft, due to security reasons, and you were asked to evacuate the crash site.

Final POC Instructions

Your POC therefore requests that each member of the team individually rank the 15 survival items for the team to take with them, in order of importance. ( 1 being most important and 15 being least important). He requests that you write down your individually ranked list of survival items. He gives you 5 minutes to complete this task. Once the 5 minutes is up, he requests that you all work together as a team to create a team list and then send a Team Scorer to retrieve the correct responses with his POC responses Answer Sheet. He gives you 25 minutes to complete this task.

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SEAL Survival Exercise

Mission Briefing (continued)
Your SEAL POC requests that you adhere to the following guidelines: In order for you to come up with the best survival plan possible will require your team to employ a consensus in reaching its decision. This requires that each team member must agree upon the ranking for each of the 15 survival items before it becomes part of the final team list. Consensus is often difficult to reach, so not every ranking will meet with everyones approval. Still, do your best to make each ranking one that all team members can at least partially agree on (I can live with it.). Approach the task on the basis of a logical and rational evaluation of information and opinions. Avoid taking an entrenched position in defense of your own individual judgments. Remember that a Combat Mindset means to focus on the teams welfare and comrades as a greater good. Avoid changing your mind in order to reach agreement or to avoid conflict unless you have been genuinely persuaded by the arguments put forward by other team mates. Only support those solutions that you are able to agree to an extent. Avoid conflict reducing techniques such as taking a majority vote, averaging views held, or trading your vote to reach a decision. View differences of opinion as being helpful to the task, rather than as a hindrance to the decision that needs to be made. (Remember that a Combat Mindset means focus on the mission!]) Allow, and encourage, other team mates to express their opinions.

How to Rank Items and Score

Ranking Phase. Each individual first rank orders all survival items in Column 1 (5 minutes). Next (25 minutes), after listing each team member s individual rankings for each item in Column 2, each team discusses their rankings and reaches consensus about how to list the teams rank order choices of survival items in Column 3 prior to sending the Team Scorer to retrieve the SEAL Team POCs Response (Answer Sheet). Scoring Phase. To determine the Team Score for each item, the Team Scorer compares the ranking from the POC responses (Answer Sheet) with the teams ranking. If a teams item ranking is the same as the POCs, the score is 0 for that item (best possible score). If a teams ranking is either higher or lower than the POCs, the item score in Column 4 is the number of points the team ranking deviates from the POCs ranking. For example, if the POC ranked an item 4, the Team Score is 3 if the team ranked it 7 (+3 too high) or 1 (- 3 too low). The Team Scorer writes the correct item score in Column 4 of the Ranking and Scoring Sheet. Next, add up the TEAM TOTAL score. The lowest score wins (and survives), since this team score amounts to the fewest deviations from the POC answers. Naturally, each team member may want to also jot the score on his/her worksheet. as the team takes 20 minutes for this scoring and discussion phase as they compare the POC responses compared with the teams consensus decisions.
REACHING BEYOND BOUNDARIES 21

Slides and Notes

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Survival Exercise: Ranking & Scoring

Survival Item Flashlight Pocket Knife Map Raincoat Compass First Aid Kit Pistol (with full magazine) Parachute Salt Tablets (bottle of 500 tabs) Water (2 litres per person) Book: Edible Animals of the Desert Sunglasses for each person 2 litres of vodka (80% proof) 1 overcoat per person A mirror 1. Your Own Ranking 2. All Rankings
Separated by Commas (Optional)

3 .Team Ranking

4. Team Score

YOUR OWN ITEM SCORE TOTAL

YOUR TEAMS ITEM SCORE TOTAL

REACHING BEYOND BOUNDARIES 23

Survival Exercise: Observer

Directions
1. Your role is to add to the Survival Exercises successful insights and learning. 2. Below and on the next page, jot bullet points to help you give feedback to the group as a whole and to individual team members about their functioning during the debriefing. 3. Jot down objective, factual observations of helpful and hindering BEHAVIORS and the RESULTS or apparent impact of these positive and blocking actions by the group or individuals. 4. Be constructive by balancing positive observations about optimal functioning and constructive actions and by avoiding language that is blaming, vague, or inferential. 5. Stay objective and behavioral in your notes and language by using The Camera Test would a camera record it? For instance, a camera doesnt record rude, but it does record you interrupted someone seven times before they were finished with their thought.

Team Functioning as a Group: Actions, Patterns, and Outcomes

Positive Behaviors/Group Patterns Results or Impacts

Blocking Behaviors/Group Patterns

Results or Impacts

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Survival Exercise: Observer

(continued)
Individual Team Member Functioning: Actions and Outcomes
Persons Name:
Positive Behaviors Results or Impacts

Blocking Behaviors

Results or Impacts

Individual Team Member Functioning: Actions and Outcomes

Persons Name:
Positive Behaviors Results or Impacts

Blocking Behaviors

Results or Impacts

Individual Team Member Functioning: Actions and Outcomes

Persons Name:
Positive Behaviors Results or Impacts

Blocking Behaviors

Results or Impacts

REACHING BEYOND BOUNDARIES 25

Survival Exercise: Observer

Individual Team Member Functioning: Actions and Outcomes
Persons Name:
Positive Behaviors/Group Patterns Results or Impacts

Blocking Behaviors/Group Patterns

Results or Impacts

Individual Team Member Functioning: Actions and Outcomes

Persons Name:
Positive Behaviors Results or Impacts

Blocking Behaviors

Results or Impacts

Individual Team Member Functioning: Actions and Outcomes

Persons Name:
Positive Behaviors Results or Impacts

Blocking Behaviors Results or Impacts

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Survival Exercise
Your Thoughts and Feelings About the Team Functioning

Your Constructive Actions and Roles

Your Blocking/Hindering Actions and Roles

Your Level of Rigidity Versus Listening

How Well You Employed a Combat Mindset

Focus on Higher Goals Focus on Excellence Focus on Self-Discipline Focus on the Mission Focus on the Team/Comrades

REACHING BEYOND BOUNDARIES 27

Slides and Notes

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DON MANN

Survival Exercise Debriefing

Observer, Self, and Team Evaluation
Directions
1. As a team, discuss your Observer s comments, as well as each team member s insights. 2. Jot notes below to capture your own conclusions from the activity. 3. Strive for giving constructive feedback about blocks in a non-attacking way that seeks learning, not blame. Similarly, aim for being non-defensive when you get input about your actions. 4. Also discuss how group decisions are more accurate than individual answers, and the importance of collaborative group decision-making. An important learning point of this exercise can be that sometimes a bit of give and take is necessary in order to move forward to a solution.

Debrief Questions
How did your team make your decisions? How did people feel about the decisions?

How could better decisions have been made?

What roles were adopted (leader, group process monitor, diplomat, devils advocate, etc.)?

How well did various team members listen to each other?

Did some team members believe their individual plan was better? How did they behave?

REACHING BEYOND BOUNDARIES 29

Survival Exercise Debriefing

(continued)
Debrief Questions (continued)
How was conflict managed?

What kinds of behavior helped or hindered the group?

What have team members learned about group functioning?

What would team members do differently next time?

What situations at work do you think are similar to this exercise?

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Reaching Beyond Boundaries

Course Evaluation Date Poor 1 1 Fair 2 2 Average 3 3 Good 4 4 Excellent 5 5

Overall Workshop Design

Overall Value Relevance to Job

Specific Content Helpfulness

Combat Mindset Concepts (Macro/Micro Goals, Never giving Up, Focus on Mission & Team) Reaching Beyond Boundaries Talk & Self-Rating SEAL Survival Exercise (Individual and Team Prioritizing and Consensus Building Activity) Debriefing the SEAL Survival Exercise

Poor 1

Fair 2

Average 3

Good 4

Excellent 5

1 1

2 2

3 3

4 4

5 5

Detach

Trainer: Don Mann

Overall Knowledge and Content Expertise Delivery (Knowledge & Inspiration)

Poor 1 1 1

Fair 2 2 2

Average 3 3 3

Good 4 4 4

Excellent 5 5 5

What Was Most Valuable?

REACHING BEYOND BOUNDARIES 33 35

DON MANN: REACHING BEYOND BOUNDARIES Corporate and Agency Training in Mental Toughness and Teamwork

Don Mann Contact Information:

www.usfrogmann.com don@usfrogmann.com 757-404-0213