Outdoor & Adventure Programs for
Team Building, Management Training & Corporate Development

Overview

• What's this hype about adventure-based training?
• What happens on corporate adventure training programs?
• Online videos about programs
• Pros & cons of adventure-based training

Resources

• Team building activities, games, & exercises
• Tools for enhancing corporate adventure training
• Research tool for evaluating corporate adventure training
• Debriefing in outdoor management development (Greenaway)

Research

• Research findings
• Annotated list of studies
• References

What's new?

• Trekking to the top: Adventure-based learning & leadership programs
  (Jeffrey Gangemi, Business Week, 28 February, 2005)

Business schools are increasingly making use of the power of experiential learning in outdoor environments to bring students into direct contact with real, challenging team work and leadership situations.

• The challenges facing providers of Outdoor Management Development in Hong Kong
  (Andrew Brown, 2003, Unpublished Masters thesis, Sheffield Hallam University, UK) [.pdf; 2.56 MB]
  

  Semi-structured interview data was collected from OMD providers and buyers of OMD in Hong Kong.  The findings suggest a shortfall between the best practices described in Western OMD literature and the common practices of Hong Kong’s OMD providers. Delivering OMD using traditional Chinese cultural norms is acceptable to trainers and participants, yet does not comply with Experiential Learning Theory and OMD Theory; neither does it develop the participatory management style that is required to run large, complex organizations, which are commonly OMD clients. Limited formal training is currently available in Hong Kong to educate providers in key areas of OMD, particularly design, transfer and reviewing.

• Corporate India gets set for 'experiential games'
  (The Hindu Business Line, 29 February, 2004)
• Is team-building a waste? Drum circles are the rage but what do they do?
  (Michael Regan, The Courier Journal, 23 February, 2004)
• Images of outdoor management development: A synthesis of the literature and participants' experiences on outdoor courses
  (Phil Donnison, 2002; Summary of doctoral thesis, 2000)

NOTE: These  terms are often used interchangeably

• Corporate Adventure Training (CAT)

• Experience-based Training & Development (EBTD)

• Outdoor Management Development (OMD)

What is all this hype about adventure-based training?

In the mid-late 1980's and early 1990's there was a boom in the use of adventure-based training for purposes of corporate development.  The novelty and excitement of a zip line and thrill of rappelling stimulated many possibilities for learning.  But there were also the perceived risks, the challenge to get employees to participate, the cost, the time involved, and a lack of conclusive evidence.  There was also no standardization or qualification system for outdoor adventure trainers.  And it only takes a couple of programs to get some bad press to make it difficult to sustain growth for a new field. 

Corporate adventure training was a new field with much promise.  The boom has since plateaud and matured in its professionalism.  The evidence supporting the positive outcomes of outdoor education, including applied to corporate settings has been largely supportive (Read a summary of the effects of outdoor education).  Adventure-based training is perhaps the most underutilized training method with some of the greatest potential.  There are a wide variety of possible application of adventure training.  According to research and theory there are at least 11 major factors that seem to influence the effects of an adventure training program.  Read more about the 11 factors that matter...

Videos about corporate development through outdoor adventure

Outdoor adventure team building (8 mins)

Call of the Wild Adventure Consultants

Adventure race training programs for corporate development (8 mins)
- Corporate Adventure Training

Two basic arguments: Pro & Anti adventure-based training

There are two characteristic schools of thought about the value of outdoor adventure training for corporate and managerial development:

Pro: Outdoor management development programs offer powerful learning and change opportunities for enhancing corporate and management effectiveness

Anti: The corporate adventure training fad has come and gone -- it only offered adventurous hype with little relevant to corporate training, and, largely-speaking, not work the costs and risks associated with it.

In order to better inform these two common viewpoints, there have been several studies worth of note.  Go to research findings...

Tools which can enhance Corporate Adventure Training programs

• Appreciative Inquiry
• SWOT Analysis
• Personality & Psychological Profiling
• More tools, instruments & questionnaires