Corporate Management Training: The Fast Track to Pain and Humiliation

Anthony Robbins is out. Walking on coals, falling into the arms of coworkers and other exercises that build trust, cooperation and a sense of team are history. No more company picnics where everyone sings Kumbaya and pretends that they like one another for an afternoon.

The standard these days in training seminars is to build distrust, establish pecking orders and make employees feel vulnerable and under constant attack.

“We find this approach is much more representational of daily corporate life than those old “feel good” exercises. Our training really helps an employee find and get to know their place on the corporate food chain,” says Mac Hendries, President of Top Down Management Seminars.

In a typical seminar, Mac starts trainees off with a “Disorientation Drill” (pictured above). Cardboard boxes are placed over the heads of everyone and they are forced to run in an open field until they fall or crash into one another. This drill is built to destabilize trainees.

“For lower levels employees this is a great drill, since it really gets them used to just blindly running forward with little or no direction from those in charge. And for upper management, it immediately illustrates how one needs to treat underlings - keep them in the dark and completely off balance,” says Mac knowingly.

Another drill that Mac runs at most of his seminars is called “Title Sparring”. This essentially pits a senior level manager against a lower level employee in the boxing ring. The purpose of the drill is to instill a good attitude in the lower level employee, by having him/her maintain a smile and never retaliate as the senior person throws repeated punches and delivers a good beating.

“Most lower level employees don’t last a full round, but we’ve found that those who do last the three, full rounds are the ones that make it in the corporate world and move up the food chain,” says Mac with a smile.

Despite the brutal nature of his teachings, Mac Hendries is on track to quadruple his business this year. Corporations are signing up in legion.

So expect to see a lot more of Top Down Management.