Más sobre Outdoor y Experiencial

Vídeo sin mensaje, pero aprovechando la ola de frío que nos azota estos días, una oda de Charlebois al invierno Canadiense.

An excerpt from "The Paper Bridge"

Practical OTEL (Outdoor Techniques Experiential Learning)

In order for OTEL to be effective it is indispensable we take care up to the last detail before, during and after the exercise.

It is fundamental to know the values of the company, which skills we want to develop and then design a plan for measurement.

During the dynamics, the participants have to learn from the experience, relating their behavior during the exercise to their actual work. When designing an action plan of improvement and realizing a follow up in the company they complete the process.

In the OTEL the participants face challenges which need skills also necessary back at the workplace. This continues being vital; the OTEL has to have continuity in the labor or personal life.

The aim is that they learn from the experience and develop their skills. But in order for the process to be effective, it is indispensable to take care of all the details.

The program must be to tailor made and absolutely linked to the purposes, that is to say, to the strategy, aims, values and style of every company.

It is fundamental to know the company and the workers in their day after day living experience in order that they do not mislead you, claiming corporate values they do not feel in the company.

Some organizations realize an assessment of the professionals that are going to take part in the program.

Every candidate is self-evaluated and asks several collaborators for a feedback. The aim is that they discover which aspects they can improve

The exercises have to be designed depending on the characteristics of the professionals who are going to perform them.

Those vary depending on the age on the participants and on the style of the company. They are not the same for a conservative company and for a more aggressive one.

Anyway, the simpler the activity, the more opportunities to think about the exercise.

"It is more worth moving water cans than doing a rappel descent".

We also think that sometimes it is of great interest to generate some conflict between the members of the group, to observe their reactions.

The playful part of the exercises serves for the participants to feel comfortable and be themselves, to later relate the activities to work.

Besides, the fact that they all are in sports footwear and without tie helps to democratize the training. Everybody is “equal ".

Here, an important advice: Be very careful of not giving the sessions a "Yankee" touch. In Spain, and generally in Western Europe countries, we have a sense of ridicule more developed than in Anglo Saxon cultures.

Equally, it is not necessary to forget that the curve of learning and involvement is not the same for every human being, so we must respect it.

And that is difficult! But this is what allows us to distinguish between a good OTEL facilitator and a mere sports entertainer.

After the activity, it is the moment to analyze the exercises (the step of debriefing), to see the different attitudes and to relate them to their daily work.

But they are the very professionals those who have to analyze what has happened and to comment what aspects could have been better developed.

The facilitator, besides forming them in the exercise in question, acts as a trainer and helps the participants extracting conclusions and developing the specific skill there are experiencing at that moment.

In the OTEL programs, the professionals later face a second similar exercise, though always slightly different from the former; (in order that they always have to move out of their COMFORT ZONE, and therefore always continue experiencing new things, so they put into practice the acquired knowledge.

This serves them as a practice and validation of what they have learned. So they can see how they have improved using the taught methodology. But, never repeating the exact activity, to avoid the exercise becoming a mere playful game.

Frase de hoy
29. Demagogue: One who preaches a doctrine he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.
Henry Louis Mencken