Using the Outdoors as a Learning Environment
Q. How long has training in the outdoors been in use?
A. Outdoor Development, by whatever name it has been known, has been used for many years to meet the training needs of organizations. In 1907 Baden-Powell founded the Scout Movement with the aim of getting young people out of the towns and into the fresh air in order to “Stiffen the slouching slum-dweller and sharpen the lazy schoolboy”. In 1940 Kurt Hahn founded Outward Bound after noting that older sailors more likely to survive sinking during WWII. He produced a programme that gave young sailors new experiences which helped them to realise and understand their own potential and limitations and improve survivability. At about the same time the War Office Selection Board used simple exercises in the outdoors to test, develop and appoint leaders in the Army which focused on leadership, team work and problem solving. From about the 1960’s onwards it gathered momentum and began to take shape and training using the outdoors is now commonplace throughout many organisations.
Q. Who are MyPeakPotential?
A. We are highly experienced and knowledgeable leaders who have operated in some of the harshest and most challenging environments imaginable as well as doing the routine business of leading and directing organisations. Our experiences range from life threatening situations at the sharp end of military life, where there is no room for error, to high pressure strategic decision making. Our team is at its very best in the outdoors and have some renowned mountaineering exploits to our names including leadership of the second British ascent of Gasherbrum 1 in 1996, the first ascent, in 2000, of Kangchenjunga by a British team since 1955 and of the Everest West Ridge Expedition in 2006, which saw a highly acclaimed documentary screened on national TV. We will pass the lessons learned from these experiences to you via our innovative and exciting programmes.
Q. What do MyPeakPotential courses involve?
A. Nearly all of our programmes are residential and are designed to change participants’ attitudes in order to unlock their true potential and achieve peak performance. Our courses are founded on sound theoretical bases borrowing concepts, theories, and methods from psychology, philosophy, education and management. We aim to create an atmosphere of challenge and apparent risk that facilitates the development of leadership and team working, with a particular focus on emotional intelligence, using outdoor activities as vehicles to learn and practice leadership and team working skills in a novel but challenging environment. In summer activities include Mountain / Nordic walking, abseiling, mountain biking, rock climbing (indoor and outdoor), klettersteig, open boating, kayaking, high ropes course, white water rafting and overnight visits to alpine huts. In winter additional activities include skiing (alpine & Nordic), ski-touring, snow-holing, snow-shoe walking, and snow & ice climbing. We can be very flexible in our delivery and tailor a programme to meet client specific requirements.
Q. Is there any risk involved in MyPeakPotential courses and if so to what extent?
A. The safety of our delegates is our highest priority and we understand how learning is enhanced by being enjoyable. Most outdoor activities have some degree of apparent danger but in reality are not actually dangerous. Provided this is understood by the participants, the outcome of our outdoor programmes is invariably one of the individual experiencing strong emotions in a totally safe environment. In taking what they perceive as risk, whilst being challenged and supported, participants can explore and understand their own limitations, how they react to others and how that affects their behaviour. Thus limitations can be placed in context and practical steps planned to overcome them.
Q. Do MyPeakPotential courses place significant physical demands on participants?
A. There are wide variations in the demands that courses place on participants and can progress from short, relatively simple exercises to longer, more demanding ones, however, our courses do not require physical endurance or strength. The aim is to maximally challenge the participants’ team working and leadership abilities whilst matching the level of physical challenge to the abilities of the participants. In the final analysis the goal is to achieve the learning outcomes not to improve levels of fitness.
Q. How can activities that appear unrelated to work activities improve my performance at work?
A. Effective learning takes place when an individual puts an idea into practice. This practical experience tests the original idea; the person can reflect upon the results achieved, modify the idea as necessary and try again – so repeating the cycle. The outdoors is a great environment in which to do this as it offers a closer approximation to reality than most forms of training because participants behave normally and do not role-play. Paradoxically, because the tasks are unrelated to work activities and have a relative simplicity they expose the processes by which individuals perform and achieve. The physical nature of the activities helps by breaking down psychological barriers that can inhibit participation and learning. The immediacy and nature of the physical tasks requires full participation and the taking of decisive action. It also heightens the experience so gaining greater commitment from the participants and encouraging longer retention of the learning outcomes. The fact that outdoor activities also offer an emotional dimension also contributes to effective learning, by paralleling real life and presenting a full learning experience.
A vitally important aspect of our courses is the crucial nature of the reviews that follow each activity in order to draw out the learning experiences and construct parallels with work life in order to integrate the learning back into the work place. All of our courses have three stages – Stage 1 allows participants to gain knowledge and understanding from the theoretical sessions; Stage 2 gives them the opportunity to apply and evaluate that new knowledge in the outdoors and, finally, through facilitated review sessions Stage 3 allows them to integrate the learning and transfer it into the work place (and other aspects of life outside of work).
In summary, outdoor activities, by combining the cerebral, physical and emotional dimensions, offers the possibility of participants discovering the underpinning processes (the behaviour patterns and interpersonal skills of participants) of how people behave, interact, and achieve, regardless of whether they are abseiling or undertaking a work role. This is the key to the effective use of the outdoors, first designing a course that is strong in isomorphs - the similarity between behaviours at work and in the outdoors – and then enabling participants to discover this relevance and transfer their learning back to the workplace. This has been described as isomorphic transfer – the gaining of knowledge and skills in one environment that can be transferred to another.
Q. What people performance problems do MyPeakPotential courses tackle?
A. Our courses aim to have outcomes that change participants’ attitudes and improve underlying behaviours; improving their self insight, improving how they manage themselves and others, improving communications skills, etc. The three broad areas we focus on are, first, to foster personal qualities such as self-awareness, self confidence, self regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. Second, to improve the more generic work related skills such as planning, organising and delegating. And third, to improve the more specific skills of working in and with teams and of leading teams.