This article concerns the
use of the Outdoors as a leadership development tool. While clearly an advocate of this
method, Professor Wood is critical of much Outdoor Development Training, saying:
‘Many of the activities used in outdoor leadership
training are so good that they can even be done badly by inexperienced or marginally
competent facilitators and the programme participants can leave believing they have
learned a great deal. But the results achieved are a fraction of the learning that
could have been attained if the exercises were well designed, well integrated and well
facilitated. Given a motivated participant, excellent facilitation is the critical
criterion for an effective learning experience. Participant learning is not in the boards
and pipes and ropes and oars; the learning is in the facilitation.
Facilitators must profoundly understand themselves and
their own behaviour before they can be competent at helping others understand theirs. This
is not always the case... It is not unusual for there to be an unconscious collusion
between participants and less aware facilitators that goes something like this; ‘I’ll
say nice things about you and your programme if you let me avoid learning about
myself’ This kind of collusion can make serious behavioural learning difficult if
not impossible.
Participant enjoyment may be a by-product of good
facilitation, but it is not the primary goal of this kind of training. It is the primary
job of a facilitator to help participants deepen their understanding of their own and
others’ behaviour and to help them develop and refine more effective behavioural
skills. For most of us this is an uncomfortable process. It is a process that is
immeasurably aided by a competent group facilitator’.
Wood goes on to discuss the difference between dominance
and leadership. Many people, he suggests, confuse the former with the latter and fail to
recognise the more subtle and often more powerful influencing skills brought to bear by
the truly effective leader. The ability to recognise and highlight these qualities is the
mark of an effective facilitator.
Finally, Wood uses the philosophy of the ancient Greeks to
capture what he believes is the essence of Outdoor development:
‘The Greeks believed that man draws upon three
principle faculties - Intellect, Will and Passion. Most of our training and
most of our working lives stress the exercise and development of our intellectual
capabilities. We value the intellect at the expense of other faculties. Will and Passion
are relegated to the playing field and are tolerated in organisational life only if they
serve narrow corporate interests. Moving outdoors and allowing ourselves to engage in
group problem-solving activities brings to light aspects of ourselves that normally
operate only in the shadows’. |