What is McCarthy BootCamp?

A 5-day, 5-night, experiential course that will lead any group to a state of shared vision, while also teaching them how to lead other groups to a state of shared vision.

Is there a shorter version?

Nope. We have heard many times from those who were considering attending BootCamp that they wished it were shorter. So do we. It’s a pain in the neck to have to sell a five-day course. But one thing we don’t hear from BootCamp graduates is that their BootCamp was too long.

We do understand how it seems before you go: five days and nights is a lot of days and nights. But it’s worth it. Just as many expectant parents no doubt wish pregnancy took fewer than nine months, and we all sometimes wish that Saturdays lasted more than one day; all the wishing in the world won’t alter the fact that some things just take a fixed amount of calendar time. And BootCamp seems to be one of them. We’ve tried to do it quicker, in a variety of configurations, and we’ve been disappointed by the results.

What do you mean by an "experiential course?"

BootCamp is a simulated work environment where a team must reach a shared vision to complete a project on time. You learn by doing.

BootCamp serves as a complete run-through of the team formation/project development cycle. At BootCamp, the instructors do not “teach” you with slides and lectures. You are given a special edition handbook, which contains everything you need to know to succeed at BootCamp. The BootCampers themselves comprise a mostly self-directed team; the instructors intermittently play the role of managers, and they also serve as consultants to the team when asked to do so. On the last day of BootCamp, the team ships its project. The project is invariably on time, and it is typically judged by the students to be the greatest project they’ve ever been involved with. And the BootCampers now know how to replicate this experience more or less at will with their future projects.

How is this achieved in only five days and nights?

BootCamp teaches you how to use The Core Protocols TM.

There have been over 100 BootCamps. We take the most effective practices that have been used by previous campers, apply them to our own team, refine them, and give them to the next set of BootCampers. The complete set of these practices is called The Core. Because of this iterative, incremental-improvement process, many original, and genuinely effective practices have evolved for getting a team into a state of Shared Vision so it can create great things whether it be products, services or organizations.

We've captured the first releasable version of these best practices and codified them into a set of patterns and interpersonal protocols called The Core V3.0.

Before you arrive at BootCamp, your team will receive the latest version of The Core, including whatever has been learned from the BootCamps that came immediately before yours. After you leave, whatever was learned from your BootCamp team will be passed on to all teams that come after yours.

Version 1.0 of The Core is detailed in Software for your Head, Jim and Michele McCarthy, 2002, Addison-Wesley. Version 3.0 of The Core is detailed in Dynamics of Software Development by Jim and Michele McCarthy, 2006, Microsoft Press.

Who should go?

If you are an executive, we recommend inviting 20 of the top executives who want to make the most difference in your corporation now. In any case, we recommend inviting the 20 people who want to make the most difference where you work. The only prerequisite is that each student want to attend. Mandated, or even mildly coerced attendance is forbidden. Also, it is our policy that students’ spouses and children are always welcome at BootCamp, at any time, at no extra cost. Some spouses have attended and graduated with the team as full participants. The material has no “technical” content or prerequisites, so there is no knowledge that a student must have prior to attending the course.

Will BootCamp inspire and arm a new team to coalesce?

Yes. BootCamp is very often used successfully in merger and other new-team formation situations. BootCampers consistently report that the BootCamp experience not only teaches them about forming teams, shipping great projects on time, and applying results-oriented leadership, but that it is a life-changing and life-affirming experience. By committing to results instead of process, we have developed interpersonal protocols that always work for any team, in both BootCamp and in the workplace.

Is BootCamp about Leadership?

BootCamp creates an environment wherein leadership must emerge before results do. While it is really not unlike most everyday environments in this respect, in BootCamp there is no daily routine or interrupt-driven/fire drill activity that often obscures a lack of leadership and replaces true results with commotion. Also, there is no hierarchy on a BootCamp team but the hierarchy of good ideas. The boss = leader mythology gives way to vivid examples of bold leadership from any and every member of the team.

What do we do after BootCamp?

Stay connected, with each other and with us. Create an historically great corporation with less effort than you are currently expending, on happier and wiser teams. To spread adoption of the Core Protocols, employees of your company can be certified to conduct your own BootCamps with just a few more weeks BootCamp training experience. Or the Core Protocols can simply be used by the original team to help lead the organization.

What do they say?

With 1500+ students over ten years, our average student course evaluation is greater than 9 (where 10 = a perfect experience.)

In a 2001 survey of 100 BootCamp graduates, 61% said that they were between 2 and 10 times more effective in their life as a result of attending BootCamp.