Outdoor Training for Business Groups
Today workplace complexities have increased due to the constantly changing market environment and the resultant challenges. To help the teams and individuals manage these challenges better, organisations take them through a series of training initiatives.
One of the preferred ways to help motivate teams and individuals is by taking them through high engagement trainings in an outdoor setting. These trainings, popularly known as an ‘outbound’ intervention, are experiential in nature and have a series of adventure activities and sports. These activities and games help the participants to step out of their comfort zone, thereby enabling learning while doing so. A state of ‘flow’ is created, where the right degree of challenge is matched to the right level of the participant’s capability, to help enable optimal learning where the participant is motivated,
These trainings, popularly known as an ‘outbound’ intervention, are experiential in nature and have a series of adventure activities
focussed, positive and completely aligned to the activity.
Lets take the example of white water rafting as one such activity. As an activity, rafting needs a high degree of teamwork, coordination and quickness in reacting to the quick changing river. Any form of poor coordination or lack of focus can place the entire team in a challenging situation, like the raft capsizing in a rapid. The challenge is built up slowly, where the team is first taken through the rafting skills of guiding the raft, safety and emergency drills on the river along with river etiquettes. Mostly the participants are noticed in a state of high alert and focus while learning and executing the skills on the river. So while in this state of ‘flow’, the most natural individual behaviours are displayed which later form a part of the Debrief.
The Debriefs are aimed at helping the participants reflect on ‘what happened’, insights on ‘how I behaved’, which they are encouraged then to share with the group for concrete learning. So while the activity is engaging with a high adrenalin rush, it places the participants in a state of high emotional awareness that facilitates learning. Similarly there are activities like trekking, scuba diving, kayaking, rock-climbing, river crossing, mountain biking, etc. that are becoming increasingly popular as a medium to impart training, especially behavioural in nature.
The experience leaves a high impact on the participants as they reach a state of high emotional awareness
These highly engaging activities can be used as a medium for learning. The experience leaves a high impact on the participants as individuals and as a team, as they reach a state of high emotional awareness. The resultant behaviours and patterns find relevance in the workplace scenario and help the participants create better team synergies and higher self-awareness once back in their office environment. Similarly, these experiences can be used for imparting training on communication, persuasion and influencing, negotiations, business acumen, personal effectiveness, etc. Beyond Basics is one such organisation that has its learning campuses spread through the country and believes in creating training interventions, which are fully customised to organisational needs.