Q: Do you see more owners considering interpersonal skills and prioritizing them as much as they do yacht-handling qualifications? If so, why? And if not, why not?
A: As yachts get bigger and overall running costs rise, more regulations come into effect, and quality personal time becomes a valuable commodity, I think owners will have to look to the bottom line and see the benefits of prioritizing interpersonal skills.
From a simple financial-risk management point of view, lowering turnover and accident risk makes sense. But more importantly, what figure do you put on time lost by an owner? What price do you put on one week out of a possible 10 or 12 in a year that turns out to be OK, or average at best?
One owner was building a 330-foot yacht so that he could not only escape encounters with the crew, but also avoid his guests. Another reported that every time he went onboard, he felt like he was interrupting his crew’s vacation. If you keep seeing new faces, or feel like you are a guest on your own yacht, then you have an interpersonal skill problem. And changing out a crewmember or two is not going to have any effect. I think that once owners experience a crew with developed interpersonal skills, yachting for them will never be the same.
Q: The N2 team holds onboard workshops with crew. Can you explain what these entail?
A: N2 onboard workshops cover three main areas: Mbti, leadership and team development, and Super Yacht Crew Resource Optimized Management (SYCROM). Briefly, the SYCROM program is based on a training methodology concerned with cognitive and interpersonal (non-technical) skills used for individual, relationship, team, and leadership development.
The SYCROM workshop is challenging and demanding. It starts with interviews and the Mbti assessment (taken online on our website), then the yacht/owner specific program is built around the SYCROM model. Team reports (customized to the individual), Participant Resource Guides, and pre-workshop material are then sent to the yacht, each crewmember getting their own personal report, so participants can start their pre-work learning and familiarization of SYCROM concepts.
The onboard N2 SYCROM program involves several things, including identifying strengths and potential challenges as participants learn about personal and teams preferences, temperament, cognitive processes, working styles, and collaboration. Participants learn and experience (see) what makes each other tick, how they can practically apply and integrate these interpersonal skills into their working and living environments aboard. Participants learn the fundamentals of type watching and how it dovetails with crew resource management (CRM) skills to lower risk, share mental models, and improve all-around communication and understanding.
Throughout the workshop crew are assessed and self-assess through review and competency exams, validating concepts at the end of each day (an important part of the workshop) to help takeaway. Understanding some turnover is unavoidable due to personal reasons (health or family loss, etc.), the N2 SYCROM program costs cover a full season of “new crew” training and development, thereby maintaining continuity aboard.
Q: You recently blogged on your site three tips to make the ownership experience more rewarding. Briefly share those tips with our readers, and why they’re so key.
A: Superyacht ownership contains a lot of steps and personal choices, and there are many professionals available to guide you through or even make those choices for you. But many times what gets left to the end may not get the same attention as design, builder, sail or motor, etc. The three points I wrote about are the best insurance to getting a high return of enjoyment from your investment in superyacht ownership.
Point One – The captain is your CEO; personal vetting is essential.
Most people that have the financial ability to own a yacht have a GO TO person or persons that they depend on ashore. Whoever it is, if they are good at what they do, they have become indispensable, privy to a lot of confidential and personal information, and know you possibly better than you know yourself. If you want a great experience from yacht ownership, your captain will need to become your GO TO person aboard. A captain is not a person you want to be changing out, or have to avoid because of mood swings, or personality. This one person is the heartbeat of your Yacht and you want them to know you, like you know the back of your own hand. Use your GO TO person you have ashore to help you vet the captains put forward by management, brokers, or crew agencies. Rushing or not doing your own due diligence here will come back to bite you like a great white shark.
Point Two – Take a personal interest in crew selection.
There are some brilliant and talented crew out there, and while it would be great to think that the best are just waiting for you to call, obviously this is not the case. Now, if you followed point one, you may be thinking you don’t need to bother with point two. This is a mistake. The problem here is that unless you have a captain that has been with you for years, they are picking on their own preferences, or guessing about yours. I am not suggesting you do the hiring; I am suggesting, however, you or your GO TO person ashore help and spend the time to do your own due diligence after your captain has made the selection. Crew will be everywhere aboard, and sometimes it is just impossible to avoid running into them. If you require 20 or more crew, it may be tempting not bother with this point, but ask yourself, “What price do you put on having a below-par visit?”
Point Three – Training and development of the Human Factor (Your Crew).
If you followed the first two points, then this one is just a matter of putting the fuel in the yacht. Now you have the best captain, one that fits like a glove. Your crew, selected by your captain and vetted by you personally (or your GO TO person), is as personal as a personalized resort staff, and you have the superyacht of your dreams. The key to this last point is, you can put the best technical players in the world together and then hope they will make a world-class team, or, you can guarantee you have a world-class team by providing training and development. You thereby ensure your financial investment, and personal time need not be wasted by unneeded turnover and unnecessary human error.
These three points are places where you can gain great leverage to a stress-free owner/crew/yacht relationship, a successful and magnificent experience aboard your yacht. Because in the end, isn’t that what it’s all about?
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