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Newsletter: October/November/December 2001
What's New!
2001 continues to prove that Experience Based Training continues to be the
most effective vehicle for building team skills to achieve specific organizational
outcomes, even in times of retrenchment and crisis. Among the highlights
this year are, the continuation of a major team training initiative with
all levels of a large government agency in which we designed and built
challenge courses in two different training centers, the further development
of our Professional/Executive Coaching practice, the continuation of our
commitment to be a global provider of team building programs with 5 programs
provided to a client in Sweden, and a return to using, building, and managing
high challenge elements in our programs. The last year also marked continuation
of our membership in the Association for Experiential Education and membership
in the Association for Challenge Course Technology. Our membership in these
and other professional organizations greatly enhances our ability to offer
cutting edge programs to our clients.
Teams in Tough times
I just got off the phone with a perspective client who told me that his superiors
had decided that they cannot afford to pay for team development training
in these tough economic and geo-political times. My response to him was "you
can't afford not to do it." To make my case, I shared with him two
deliverables/results that make team building programs pay for themselves
regardless of the economic situation.
- New Responses to New/Old Problems
Is your team just going through the motions? Are you finding your team lacks
the resources to come up with the creative solutions to the ever changing
problems generated by our current crisis oriented business environment?
Or, is your team in crisis denial, thinking if they ignore what's happening
around them, it will just go away? If you have answered yes to any of
these questions, then your team may be a good candidate for our new Team
Jump Start Program. This newly developed two day team program has
the deliverable/outcome of increasing your teams creativity/ability to
develop new solutions to complex problems and to get your team out of
analysis paralysis and to find the internal resources it needs to actually
develop realistic action plans to take on the important issues. Team
Jump Start is two days of increasingly difficult problem solving
activities culminating in a complex activity that requires teams to dig
deep into their creative resources to be successful. The program ends
with a half day action planning activity that should generate the jump
your team needs to move the next level. This is the ideal program for
a new team, a retrenched team, or a team that just can't seem to get
going. Please visit our Services page for more information.
- Celebrating/Challenging/Motivating Teams to
do More With Less
The layoffs and cost cutting are over and you've retained the best and the
brightest, now, the big question remains: How can you get fewer people to
do more with less? One possible solution to this dilemma may be our half
day Team Spirit Program. Team Spirit
is a large group rejuvenation/motivation program. This program focuses on
creating a high spirited, can do approach to teamwork. Teams compete against
each other to successfully complete physical and cognitive challenges while
identifying team skills/processes and best practices that can lead to increased
productivity in the work environment. The teams compete for a donation to
their favorite charity. The Team Spirit program ends with a high energy,
multi-media, celebration and appreciation of team contributions. This is
an ideal way to create an atmosphere of appreciation in an era where bonuses
and other percs that have been standard in the past have been temporarily
eliminated for economic reasons.
Frequently Asked Question Page
In response to your requests, we have now developed a Frequently Asked Questions
page on this site to answer your questions on Team Building, Coaching,
and the rest of our products and services. This page will increase and
change from month to month. You can reach this page by clicking here, or
by clicking Frequently Asked Questions at the bottom of the page.
Current Trends In Experiential
Training And Development
Adventure Learning Associates was featured in an Article on "Trends in
Experiential Training and Development" in the March 2001 issue of the
Journal of Training and Development. With that in mind this is a good time
to share our view on the top eight trends in corporate experiential learning:
- Competition
A recent search of the term "Team Building" on a majar search engine
turned up no fewer than 450 vendors of Team Building Programs. This development
poses great challenges for both clients and vendors of these programs. The
challenge for clients is to be able to identify the vendor most able to meet
their organizational needs. The challenge for the vendors is to be able to
differentiate themselves from competitors of varying quality and widely differing
products, programs and locations.
- Reality Based Programming
Clients are looking for programs that use everyday activities and equipment.
Almost every week we get calls asking if we do cooking, golfing, wine
tasting, and scavenger hunt team building programs. These programs use
familiarity to teach and build the components of effective team work.
In some groups we work with, as many 75% of the participants have done
some sort of outdoor based team building program. Our clients are now
looking for something practical, new, and effective to teach these important
ideas to groups whose immediate response to the phrase team building
is "been there, done that". Currently we are designing and
have the capacity to offer experiential cooking, golf and scavenger hunt
programs. Call us for more information. Eventually you will be able to
select your program choices from a menu on our web form.
- Client Facilitators
The dominant trend in Experiential Training and Development is toward client
(in-house) facilitation of programs. We design the program, train the
client facilitators in the activities, and provide program management.
This arrangement allows the client not to miss cultural and structural
cues that outside facilitators might miss. It also allows for greater
participant ownership in the outcomes.
- Results Oriented
Although we still get many requests for "Corporate Fun Day" programs,
the overwhelming shift is towards program that have a direct tie in to the
performance goals of the organization.
- Activity Applicability
Along with the focus on results, clients are expecting that all activities
have a direct connection to the goals of the program and ultimately,
the goals of the organization. No longer do we put people on the ropes
course for an "experience". All activities are now custom designed
with the clients input and approval.
- Complexity
The days of the Spider's Web being the solution for every problem are at
an end. Clients are asking for complex problem solving, whole day activity
options that duplicate the complexity and interdependence of the work
environment. Until now, you had to go to Great Britain to find these
kinds of activities. Adventure Learning Associates now is offering day
long complex activities to its clients in the USA.
- Portability
We now have the ability to program anywhere the action really is, from the
Board Room to Mountain Retreat to the Shop Floor. Our collaborative relationships
allow us to bring a wide range of portable equipment to your program
site. One example of this is the portable climbing mountain we use in
collaboration with "Executive Edge".
- Diversity
No longer is diversity just an abstract concept or a government requirement,
it's workplace reality. Our clients are looking for the ability to have
diverse multi-cultural teams perform at their highest possible level.
We offer programs and activities that examine and create an effective
team culture that respects and uses cultural aspects from all team members.
Portable Equipment
We are now offering portable initiatives designed by Executive Edge/Virtual
Adventures. These "high tech" initiatives can bring an additional
level of challenge and fun to your next event. They can be shipped to your
program site and include many options. Please contact us for our ever changing
list of portable equipment and current prices.
Personal/Professional/Executive
Coaching
For over four years we have been offering personal and professional/executive
Coaching services as part of are overall service offerings. We developed our
Coaching services as a response to needs expressed by our clients for increased
interpersonal effectiveness and to be able to develop strategies for goal achievement
that were practical and attainable. Our Coaching services are designed to help
our clients pay attention to the true issues in their professional and personal
lives by changing their structure of interpretation of events, rather than
just focusing on our emotional reactions to perceived problems. Our Coaching
programs consist of clarifying interviews and discussions and then the establishment
of self correcting practices that enable our clients to use their own resources
to generate sustained effective responses to personal and business challenges.
Please use our form or contact us at 800-551-3210 for a free initial coaching
session.
Train Your Staff
One way to save on facilitation fees for large programs is to have Adventure
Learning Associates' staff train your employees to lead and facilitate
a specific program that is tailored to the needs of your organization.
Depending on the length and complexity of your program we can train you
and your co-workers in as little as one day. On the day of the program
our staff can supervise and monitor your employees as they actually lead
the program and can assist as needed.
Please contact us at 800-551-3210 or by using our form for
further information including a sample program and a proposal if
desired.
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