Marine Corps Recruiting Command Conducts Team Building Training

Photo By Cpl. Francisco Martinez | Hilary Bendon, Team Building Facilitator, discusses different leadership tactics with Marines from Marine Corps Recruiting Command during team building training here, September 15. The command's leadership hosted the training to help build better connections and understanding between the command's headquarters personnel.  

QUANTICO, VA, UNITED STATES

09.26.2014

Story by Cpl. Francisco Martinez 

Marine Corps Recruiting Command           

Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va. - Marine Corps Recruiting Command (MCRC) headquarters conducted all-hands team building training here, September 8-25th, to build better connection and understanding between the command’s sections.

“We all decided to have civilian Marines and Marines do this team building training as a result of the command climate survey,” said Col. Robert G. Golden III, Chief of Staff, MCRC. “We had a good survey; however, there were a couple of comments in there about communication and misunderstandings. So we decided the best course of action was to get a professional organization to come in and give us some training and help make MCRC a better place to work.”

The hands-on instruction featured a variety of tasks, such as instructor-student discussions, team communication activities, and exercises to increase appreciation for different approaches to accomplishing tasks. Throughout the training, Marines and civilian team members worked in groups with others from throughout the command. The groups conducted drills designed to illustrate aspects of teamwork, communication and personality types.

“What the training entails is somebody’s willingness to listen and be open to new ideas, not only from me, but also from their fellow MCRC team, to look at what different ways that we see things so that we can work better together and more effectively together as a team,” said Hilary Bendon, Team Building Facilitator.

With such a critical mission sustaining the Marine Corps, the Recruiting Command consists of many – sometimes disparate – sections. Supporting thousands of Marine recruiters throughout the nation requires unity of effort.

“I think it will help us better working with sections outside of ours. Because we are so tight and close-knit that when we have to branch out sometimes it’s hard, because the way we do business is not the way another section may do business,” said Sgt. Joe C. Randall, reserve administrative support, MCRC. “So it helped us to build a better MCRC team vise a better reserve support team.”
The training helped develop communication skills, a stronger understanding of each individual’s purpose within their section, while also building a deeper appreciation of how each section fits into the overall mission of recruiting command.

“We really appreciate the training, the fact that it was provided and it was mandatory shows that our leadership had a concern and cared enough to provide that to us,” said Kimberly Peterson, Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff, Comptroller Section, MCRC. “It definitely should be a morale booster.”

The training schedule consisted of a two-day course, each day focusing on key components to team building and team leadership.

• Date Taken: 09.26.2014
• Date Posted: 09.26.2014 10:16
• Story ID: 143352
• Location: QUANTICO, VA, US