doaldchun: Outdoor Training ? Just Fun or does Learning actually occur ...

বৃহস্পতিবার, ২ আগস্ট, ২০১২

Outdoor Training ? Just Fun or does Learning actually occur ...

In the past couple of months, I have been involved in a couple of threads on different LinkedIn groups that concerned learning and team building and organizational change and defining effective approaches to intervention. One guy actually questioned whether anything NOT done outdoors could represent an effective team building environment. (Really)

He also seemed to say that neuroscience supported his personal opinion and experiences. I countered with a little disagreement plus the added reality that I earned a doctorate in behavioral neurophysiology and understood just a little bit about how the brain works and people learn. Kinda funny, actually. Yeah, I can talk the talk when it comes to the brain, physiology, psychology and learning. And I have a few experiences, too?

But his contention did stimulate me to start thinking about the indoor / outdoor paradox. There exists a blog post on some of my thoughts (Moron Outdoor Training) here and another about some of the problems with outdoor training.

In a discussion with a new friend / associate in Turkey (Murvet Gulseven), I started thinking about this issue more. She does both indoor training as well as outdoor activities and suggested these as her overall key client framing questions for training:

Why they want to invest such time and money to this particular program?
What do they want afterwards as a desired outcome(s)?
What should change and how will we know when that is successful?
Why did they think of having such a team-building training? Who wanted the program and why? What is the support for it?
3 things they want to see that has changed in their team after the program
Who will attend and are there anticipated problems?
Which trainings they have had before? What worked and what did not?
How are they working together now? Who are their customers? What are their issues and goals?
Where will they do the training? Does this place have an indoor training room, too? Etc..

I think that is a great framework and similar to how I approach things. And I wonder, on a point-to-point comparison basis, whether ?outdoor activities? can measure up when it comes to consistently supplying desired outcomes, consistently focusing the attention of all of the participants clearly on the desired outcomes and on the effectiveness of the environment on minimizing distractions. It just seems like there are too many extraneous variables that can get in the way of a client spending $20,000 of its monies and taking people off work in the hopes that the environment will work. (And it is why Murvet packs ?A, B, C and sometimes D? materials just in case and includes raincoats!)

Why, ?Outdoors?? I am an outdoorsy guy, liking to camp and hike and kayaking and similar. I?ve boated the Chattooga (Deliverance) maybe 100 times and also the Ocoee (Atlanta Olympic Whitewater) and also the Merced, Tuolumne, Kern, and even the Colorado river 3 different times through the Grand Canyon. In the late 70s, I did a 9-month road trip around the US with my car and my tent. There are few sports I have not tried and most I play(ed) reasonably well.

But my experiences with ?outdoor training? have never been positive ones, with issues ranging from really poor instructors who knew the exercise but who had no business experience (think ?raft guide? or ?college student?) to wild temperatures (95 to 100 degree F) to thunderstorms and actual danger of lightning, to ?too sunny? to ?rainy and windy.? And some of the exercises (most?) did not really do a great job of gaining everyone?s involvement nor did they effectively include people with physical handicaps.

I will admit that my experiences in such events are not really all that broad. And that we did do a ?high ropes? program with a skilled instructor at a great facility that was really well-done (but that was about ME and not about building teamwork).

But I also still laugh at the Firewalking done by Burger King back in 2001, with 100 marketing employees participating in this ?team building and personal growth? session and 12 getting burned and Burger King generating a great deal of publicity ? yes, even Dave Barry poked fun at them in an article of his. (you can read more here. ?(Dave Barry?s really funny article is here!)

Firewalking?can be a legitimate (but pretty costly) experience (http://www.skepdic.com/firewalk.html). But does it really impact teams and company results?

One who suffered injury was Burger King?s vice president of product marketing. But, hey, she had no regrets, for she was filled with the corporate rapture. Walking across searing coals, she exclaimed, ?Made you feel a sense of empowerment and that you can accomplish anything? (with only a few?casualties?and hospital and ambulance bills). (And I wonder how she is doing these days?)

So, my basic position simply asks, ?Why?? Why do something the might work when there are known alternatives that DO work and that can link to specific desired and measurable corporate desired outcomes?

Care to discuss?

And you are certainly welcome to come kayaking with us ? but we will not charge you for it and we will not define it as a team building activity. It is just a fun way to get outdoors and away from most people and to float without any real goals and agendas in mind?

Dr. Scott Simmerman is a designer of team building games and organization improvement tools. Managing Partner of Performance Management Company since 1984, he is an experienced presenter and consultant.
Connect with?Scott on Google+?- you can reach Scott at scott@squarewheels.com