A team building revival:

Today it is not uncommon to find modern Team Building programs that have strayed from their original roots. Team Building has associated itself with more of a venue than a philosophy. The fun and excitement of classic challenge course initiatives such as the Zip-Line, Human Knot and the Trust Fall have overshadowed the value of the process of learning together as a team. The danger happens when students are led to put more emphasis on the experience, rather than the results. Team Building also creates ambiguity through the very definition of the term. It tends to represent many different feelings and emotions to many different people and through natural contrived societal interpretations of the term, Team Building has become a watered down notion that lacks the purity it had in conception. It is no surprise then that the outcome of Team Building is not as potent as it ought to be.

Therein lies the challenge for Experiential Learning companies, who have similar desires: to revive and reinstate the effectiveness of Team Building. The philosophy must uphold the values it was created for and it must serve well the students it was created for. Its meaning must insinuate change for the better in students who participate no matter the age or demographic. It must allow the students to discover who they are and what gifts and talents they bring to their community — to experience the freedom that lies with truly knowing how to communicate effectively and the joy of encouraging others on the journey to achieving a goal. These qualities define the revived Team Building.

To achieve these desired outcomes of effectiveness, the focus needs to shift from the team to the students that make up the team. Our current society is thirsty for individuals with great leadership and community skills. Great leaders understand others and most importantly they understand themselves. What is beginning to surface in great leaders is that in order to understand how to lead a group of people or simply coexist with a group of people, they must first understand how to use and maximize their own gifts and talents for the good of themselves and others.

In our field, Experiential Learning is the driving force that helps students begin to understand themselves. It creates a scenario that offers them the chance to discover and practice their leadership and team concept skills through problem solving, listening, communication, encouragement, leadership, self-development ... the list goes on. The key to revived Team Building is the application of Experiential Learning through the Experiential Learning Cycle — a model that believes in setting students up for success by providing them the tools needed to change. Change is a necessary result of an experience and one thing is known for sure: after more than 70 years of usage, the Experiential Learning Cycle has the capacity to be far more impactful than ever hoped.

The Experiential Learning Cycle begins with, well, an experience. This can be a variety of things: solving a challenge, rock-climbing, doing a group activity. Students are then facilitated through a series of questions about that experience: “What?”, “So What?”, and “Now What?”  The “What” asks students to begin to examine the experience they just had — to take an objective look and begin to break down the experience. The “So What?” asks why that experience is important. This challenges the student to identify key components of the experience as well as positives and negatives. The last question is “Now What?” Now that the students see clearly the interactions, emotions, and relationships that occurred, what can be learned to improve and grow in a following scenario. The last piece of the puzzle is application and practice. This is the component that puts a real-life perspective on future choices.

Giving students the opportunity to change is of true value. The results, of course, lie ultimately in their own hands. Even the soundest of programs can remain ineffective if the student is unwilling to grow. Change is a personal choice and it can only be encouraged. It is up to the student to make the choice to change — change in how they view others and how they view themselves and, most excitingly, how they can use their own natural talents and gifts to produce change in their community.