It was a very engaging and interesting 4 days at the Syngenta Business Institute. I met 24 other superintendents who also had the same desire to learn and share information about their management styles, their operations and their experiences.

I was really impressed with the fact that this was hosted by Syngenta and we did not see or hear one thing about Syngenta products, it was strictly structured to help the 25 participants learn new items about negotiating, planning, budgeting, generational gaps and many more ideas that were thrown about the room.

The staff from Wake Forest was second to none. Truly professionals that know their business,  (no pun intended) and they are very adept at engaging their students to help them to learn.

Lastly the accommodations were absolutely awesome. Wake Forest owns the Graylon Center and the grounds that surround this wonderful mansion. It is too hard to explain but it was first class to match their teaching. It is a must attend event if you are a superintendent that wants to learn and progress in his own position. Thanks Syngenta for a wonderful learning experience.

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With the middle of the week upon us, the agenda for the second day of the SBI certainly kept our attention despite some peoples lack of sleep or jet lag (mostly my own).  The focus today was on management and negotiating.  Both speakers today, Sherry Moss and Bill Davis, kept us engaged with group activities and great content that we can take back tomorrow to our courses and begin to implement.

The highlight of the day had to be the example of positive and negative feedback using two men of hearty character, David Dore Smith and Bob Farren.  Both men were given a task of finding an object in the room based on the audiences response.   A video of what took place can be seen on Davids more detailed post about effective feedback.

The day concluded with a real estate negotiation which was our homework assignment last night.  While I didnt successfully negotiate the purchase as Id hoped, it could have been worse like Dave Davies getting taken out behind the woodshed by David Dore Smith and Troy Fink.

On our last night, after receiving our 2nd homework assignment, we got to enjoy going to the Demon Deacons mens basketball game.

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Sherry Moss provided an educational and entertaining seminar today on effective feedback. The premise of the discussion was delivering useful information to your employees in a manner that was clearly understood. Also discussed was the way in which information is delivered to your employees.

One of the most entertaining parts of the day was when Bob Farren, of Pinehurst, and I were asked to leave the room and participate in an experiment. Not wanting to give too much away for future attendees, the experiment involved the audience rewarding me for doing something correct whereas Bob was pounded with wads of paper for doing something wrong. This was to highlight the effect of positive and negative communication and the results were incredibly effective.

I was able to locate an unknown object in the room in under 1 minute whereas Bob, after 5 minutes of humiliation, was directed to the object by the other attendees through pure sympathy.

The exercise was an excellent example of the effects of positive reinforcement  and effective communication and the benefits they can have on your employees and your operation.

-- David Dore-Smith

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