This paper presents a case study based on the evaluation of the two VAL (virtual action learning) sets. We report participants learning both leadership and the VAL process based on the basis of telephone interviews. We conclude that what is learned about leadership is connected with how learning takes place and suggest that the content and process…

The interest in aligning college graduates' skills, competencies, and experiences with what employers desire continues across academia. Employers seek higher levels of resilience than they see in most new employees. This article provides a review of the employee resilience literature and describes a team member change scenario focused on enhancing…

This paper is based on a study of learning processes within 35 healthcare therapy teams that took action to improve their services. The published research on team learning is introduced, and the paper suggests it is an activity that has similarities with action research and with those forms of action learning where teams address collective…

Describes nine group activities used to build cooperation and teamwork in adventure-, challenge-, and experiential-education settings. Includes target group, group size, time and space requirements, activity level, props needed, instructions, ideas for post-activity group processing and reflection, and facilitator tips. Target groups include…

An increasing number of corporations are using some form of experience-based outdoor training and development. Most of these programs follow a general process that includes: (1) introduction of the activity by the facilitator; (2) the experiential activity (during which the facilitator is observer or safety monitor); and (3) debriefing or…

Experiential practitioners have the opportunity to help groups move to a higher level of functioning, getting beyond unresolved emotional issues and becoming more truthful, immediate, involved, and collaborative. This critical process takes place along a continuum from "staying safe and shallow" at one end to "going deep and…

The Electric Maze is an interactive learning device that promotes group learning skills among management teams. It provides a "practice field" where participants can explore and apply the principles of effective teamwork under realistic conditions of uncertainty, discomfort, and mistakes. This training aims to enable management teams to…

This annotated bibliography contains 65 entries on outdoor experiential training, including journal articles, conference papers, newspaper and magazine articles, television broadcasts, books, and unpublished manuscripts. Most items are descriptions or evaluations of programs and models of outdoor-based experiential training for personal…

As downsizing of government and business organizations has become widespread, many managers are seeking to increase productivity by empowering the workforce. When effectively and appropriately implemented, empowered workforce structures can cut costs and improve quality and safety. Yet resistance to such changes arises from a patriarchal…

This paper describes a process by which developing or established teams can create a clear and common understanding of issues concerning team purpose, team approach, performance goals, role clarity, and mutual accountability. The major components of this process--Purpose, Approach, Goals, and Everyone mutually accountable--form the acronym…

Discusses the goals of team building, scope of team-building interventions, and specific contributions of both experiential (corporate adventure training) and nonexperiential (traditional) methods for increasing work-group effectiveness. A model for effectively combining the two approaches involves establishing goals, clarifying team members'…

Describes the design and delivery of outdoor-based team-building programs that enable management teams to transfer what they learn back to the workplace. Discusses a model of group development, five phases of the team-building process, combining tasks and review processes to yield outcomes, and an experiential-learning cycle. (TD)

This document contains 20 edited presentations, each in a two-page digest-like format, from the 1998 conference of the Association for Experiential Education (AEE). Presentations are: (1) "Adapting Equipment and Teaching Methods for Persons with Disabilities" (Cindy Dillenschneider); (2) "Adventure Programming and Facilitating When You Don't Know…

An induction program was designed to address the problem of discrimination between secondary students in A-level courses and those in vocational courses. A 2.5-day course of outdoor activities mixed students in small teams requiring a range of different, but equally important, skills. The course enabled them to become more aware of their different…

This book aims to assist facilitators and trainers of human resource development in the use of outdoor games as a vehicle for learning. The games address such work-related areas as communication, decision making, problem solving, teamwork, leadership, and goal setting. The introduction offers a commentary on how and why the use of experiential…