A designed
experience consisting of a series of outdoor activities provides an intense
and unique platform for functioning in a novel, real and challenging
environment. When the outdoor experiences are reflected upon in review
sessions, the gains and/or losses from these experiences get crystallized as
learnings.
Training
interventions are applied to bring about a change, or an increment, in
knowledge, skills and/or attitudes of participants. OMD can act as a
powerful complementary tool to conventional training programs by addressing
the areas of skill and attitude in people development. Its effectiveness
lies in:
personal
development (personal audit, attitudinal change, leadership, communication skills, dealing with change and uncertainty, etc)
-
Enhancing teamwork /
team building
-
Enhancing
implementation of management principles and processes
Salient features of OMDP
Sheer reality of
experience : sharp and ‘inescapably real’
-
Intensity of the
experience : events in the outdoors leave strong memories
-
Reviews done by
participants about their experiences under the guidance of facilitators. These review sessions help to extract, pinpoint and fix important learnings.
In an OMDP,
the performance of an individual, its result and subsequent review confronts
the individual directly with the consequences and interpretations of his/her
behaviour. The review provides a window for each participant to
Listen to different
opinions about the same event
-
Look at his/her way of
dealing with a situation
-
Look at what others
think of his/her way of dealing with the situation
The combined
effect of outdoor experiences and subsequent reviews leads to surfacing of
basic behavioral attributes, untapped qualities and potential of an
individual.
An OMDP
facilitates -
Self realization,
appraisal, personal development
-
An interaction with
others on a meaningful level leading to mutual understanding
-
Development of ‘soft
skills’ in people
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