1 SAIC LA JOLLA STORY from Interpersona ... - Interpersona Oy

Eero Lehtinen’s final summary of Global Challenge:
”This project has taught me more than any other work experience before”
In this report Eero Lehtinen, the Finnish skipper
who participated in the Global Challenge
2004-2005 yacht race around the world, sheds
light on the entire race both in an integrated
way as analytically analyzing. During the entire
race Interpersona’s Mats Kockberg operated as
adviser and coach to the SAIC La Jolla crew and
Eero Lehtinen in challenges with leadership
and strengthening of team spirit.
Leadership and teambuilding where top priorities when
Team SAIC La Jolla participated in the Global Challenge.
The entire crew is in the picture.
Statistics:
Portsmouth – Buenos Aires – Wellington – Sydney –
Cape Town – Boston – La Rochelle – Portsmouth
2.10.2004 - 16.7.2005. SAIC La Jolla sailed 32.350
sea miles, the shortest distance among the 12 crews.
Besides the skipper 15 basic crew members sailed in
SAIC La Jolla’s crew. Four of them were women, 14 sailed
the entire race, one had to quit the game in Boston
due to backache, but he traveled on his own expense
to the remaining harbors in order to be part of the team
until the end! In addition to that 11 leggers sailed with
the yacht, 5 of these were women. From Cape Town
onwards we had the same two leggers, because they
didn’t want to leave the boat before the race finished!
The oldest crew member on SAIC La Jolla was 55 years
old, the youngest 23.
How it all began
For me the fact that I took part in the race was greatly
coincidental and the final decision was also hard to
make. Actually I wasn’t that enthusiastic about the
whole thing, but “in the absence of anything better” a
family man had to seize the opportunity. Here there is
reason to emphasize, that as the project proceeded my
hunger and enthusiasm grew and now I wouldn’t give
away the experience for any price.
Goals and expectations
In late April, as we launched the yachts, it was time to
start getting acquainted with the crew and to plan the
making of a team spirit and common goals. At an early
point I decided that the most important goal would
be a “happy crew”, sulking would not get us through
the game with our honor intact. With me in this plan I
got Interpersona and Mats Kockberg, who promised to
defray my own communication expenses and operate
as my personal coach and to survey the atmosphere
in the crew before the race and after each leg. After
weekends and discussions together with the crew we
set up as our goal to sail the entire race with the same
basic crew, safely and having fun; as result target we
had a final placement among the top three and at least
one leg win.
The strategy and how it was carried out
In my own mind I came to a strategy, which in the
beginning aimed to stake on emphasizing safety, building
self-confidence and team spirit and as the race
proceeded to race at full stea m. I told my crew that
we had to get to Wellington safe and sound and as a
united crew first, from there on the race for the points
would begin and the victory would be decided during
the last three legs. I believed that the two tough legs
on the Southern Ocean would take their share of the
crews and the yachts and I stressed the difficulty coefficient
of the points on these legs. As each leg gave the
same points I found it most sensible to spare the yacht
and the crew in the storms of the Southern Ocean and
The outside circumstances where demanding at the circumnavigation
race.
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