Guinea pigs on the briny

Now here's an interesting team-building experiment.

Take 12 identical ocean-racing yachts, enlist the services of about 300 volunteer crew (inexperienced) and appoint 12 skippers (experienced). Randomly mix 17 of the former to each one of the latter, ladle into yacht, add in several thousand square miles of seawater and stir vigorously.

As the BT Global Challenge competitors straggled into Wellington last week after reaching halfway point in what is billed as the world's toughest yacht race, they were quizzed not just on physical weather conditions.

Detailed checks of the on-board emotional atmosphere were also being carried out to provide data for a research project focusing on teamwork and leadership.

The idea is that each of the yachts starts from Southampton on an equal footing - same technology, same boat, same amateur crew. Their race performance is therefore determined by how well each team are welded into a competitive machine along the way and that rests very much on the skippers' leadership abilities.

Just to make things a little tougher, their race around the globe is against prevailing winds, heading southwest from Southampton to Buenos Aires, Wellington, Sydney, Cape Town, La Rochelle, and back to Southampton.

Teasing out factors that contribute to the overall team performance is the task of performance-development consultancy Inspiring Performance.

Under scrutiny are the leadership styles of skippers, team dynamics, and how crew personalities affect each other. Central to this exploration is the role of "emotional intelligence," says research director Andrea Bacon.

"How much does emotional intelligence impact on the performance of individuals and therefore of the team? Does the leader need high emotional intelligence levels to be effective in keeping the team together?

"What we're looking for is what makes a difference in terms of sustaining performance levels. We know from the last study the intellectual aspects of behaviour that make a difference - but once you get to a high [performance] level, how do you sustain it?

"We feel that emotional intelligence is the area that makes a difference in terms of sustaining performance and that's what we're checking."

Already some interesting findings are emerging.

"The skippers that started off with a much more intense focus on performance and less on the people/fun side of things have realised they can't maintain performance levels without a bit more balance. People need some fun."

When on watch, crew work hard and have to be focused, but they want a change of atmosphere below decks. Some boats have introduced celebrations to mark events such as dateline crossing or crew birthdays. One even has theme parties.

"Getting a better balance has become more important."

Race positions have been changing. One boat that came in last on its first leg has steadily moved up to second.

After 37 days in the Southern Ocean, capped by a Cook Strait special - 70 knots of windy welcome - it is perhaps inevitable that a few stress cracks start appearing in previously well-oiled team infrastructures.

While data is still being collected and analysed, it seems that behaviour is changing under pressure. Spending 24 hours of every day cramped into a 22m steel sloop with your work team means there is nowhere to hide bad performance or bad moods.

Skippers are starting to come up with innovative solutions. One has introduced a "bad glasses" day. If someone is feeling out of sorts, they don a pair of special yellow glasses, says Ms Bacon.

"It's a novel way of being open about how you're feeling, so that other team members know what's going on and don't waste time worrying about what is causing a team-mate's offhand behaviour."

Having crewed on the race herself a couple of years ago, she has had personal experience of extreme team environments and has co-written a book (with Humphrey Walters) on the leadership lessons learned.

They pinpointed five essential management skills demonstrated by successful skippers which have strong parallels in the business world.

These include clear job allocation, providing information, delegation, avoidance of blame, and quick resolution of conflicts.

While such skills remain key elements of good teamwork, the present study goes a step further by focusing on the emotional dimensions.

Variations in team structure, such as role-shifting versus role-speciality, or swapping people between watches, will also be studied.

At the end of every race leg, all skippers and one core crew member from each boat are interviewed, as well as two other crew from that boat plus the two crew members who are getting off (two are replaced at every stop).

By the time the race ends in June, all participants will have been quizzed on their views on the performance of the team and its skipper. Findings will be published before the year's end.

The race is open to anyone, and this year includes 18 nationalities. Those with disabilities are not excluded. Race organisers do initial interviews and selection; crew members see it as a valuable learning experience, paying £25,000 ($81,857) for the privilege.

This year, for the first time, the skippers chose to do a bit of pre-race bonding with their allotted crew, which has apparently paid off. They will no doubt be busy during their Wellington stopover repairing emotional stress fractures before tackling the Tasman.