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Extreme Training
January 20, 2010
By Holly Dolezalek
Can you learn to lead on the flying trapeze? That's the question prompted by the exotic variations on the theme of experiential learning. By taking employees or executives (or both) out of their work element and putting them through an experience together, training professionals try to create learning that is more meaningful than PowerPoint presentations or Web-based modules—and form tighter bonds between those who participate. Scavenger hunts, ropes courses, whitewater rafting, and other kinds of adventures have been the mainstays of this type of training. But does it work?
At Edy Greenblatt's flying trapeze training sessions, leaders and teams assemble at the big top. At the pinnacle of the ladder on one end, one of the participants waits, holding the flying trapeze bar in nervous hands. At a command (sometimes repeated a few times), she jumps off the ladder, hanging onto the bar for dear life and enjoying the combination of exhilaration and sheer terror.
Swinging back and forth, the next step is to let go of the bar on the outswing and allow the catcher (a professional circus performer on the opposite trapeze bar) to swing out and catch her, just like they do at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Again, the command to let go is repeated, sometimes several times before she can follow it. Suddenly, she's flying through the air. Will she be caught, or fall to the giant mat below?
Everyone on the team has to go through this experience, of swinging, letting go, being caught, or possibly falling. And Greenblatt says they learn certain things at a depth they just wouldn't learn them in ordinary circumstances.
"It takes four commands, and sometimes physical persuasion, to get the person to let go," she says. "When the one in charge, who was issuing the command, asks them, 'Why didn't you let go when I told you to?' the person usually says, 'Because I didn't hear you.' The lesson is that people's ability to hear actually is diminished when they're under stress. Now, I can say that in a classroom, and they might or might not believe me. But every participant goes through the same thing in the trapeze training, and they watch it happen for themselves."
Other lessons sink in, not only psychologically, but "psychophysically," Greenblatt says. For example, the training shows teams that what looks like the work of one person actually takes four: Someone on the ground calling out commands, someone on the ladder with the person, the catcher, and someone on the ground who works the safety lines. "That's four people working very hard to get one person to be able to do his or her trick, and that one person who's getting all the attention actually is only doing about 20 percent of the work," she says.
The fear created by a scary (but carefully controlled) situation is part of the learning experience, and Greenblatt emphasizes that it's the whole event—not just the site, not just the activity, not just being away from the office in casual clothes on a workday—that creates the desired learning.
Cherie Kerr draws on her theater background to conduct training in improvisational comedy. Participants learn how to do comedy scenes, and in the process, learn other skills: awareness, concentration, spontaneity, self-examination, timing, and listening. "For example, we teach participants to respond to the last thing the other person said, instead of following their own agenda," Kerr says. "Going with what's happening instead of trying to negate it always works in improvisational comedy, and it works in the business world, as well."
Caveat Emptor
But does it? Even Greenblatt, a proponent and conductor of this kind of training, warns that experiential training can backfire badly if it isn't conducted properly. "One team I was working with told me, 'We did a teambuilding thing once, and our boss got scared and freaked out,'" Greenblatt says. "They said, 'We knew he couldn't lead, and there he was, crying like a baby. He's the loser we thought he was.' You have to work with someone who can protect your event and team from all the potential liabilities: social, cognitive, psychological, and physical."
Ann Latham would go further. Latham is the president and founder of Uncommon Clarity, Inc., an Easthampton, MA, performance consulting firm, and she says that not only does she not encourage it, her clients generally aren't interested in this kind of extreme training. "It's a big commitment of time, money, and energy, and you often can get the same kind of results without going anywhere," she says.
That's not to say she doesn't believe in it at all. But Latham suggests that while it's possible to stage a successful training by way of these creative possibilities, the problem is when participants come back to the office. "If this kind of training is going to be effective, you have to make sure their environment encourages them to use what they learned," she says. "Often, when people go back to the daily grind, they also go back to their normal habits; very few people will come back and start acting differently without encouragement."
For that reason, she says, it's critical to be crystal clear with participants about why they're doing this training and how their behavior is expected to change. It's also critical to provide mechanisms for them to hold each other accountable, practice the behavior they've been taught, and remind them to use that behavior in the situations where it's called for.
Lost in Translation?
Linda Henman, president of the Henman Performance Group in St. Louis, MO, has led and participated in experiential training such as wilderness navigation and ropes courses before. But she doesn't recommend it to her clients now. "They would spend the morning with me learning new skills, and then go out to a park and navigate to different points in the afternoon," she says. "Then they would come back to me and say, 'What a waste of time that was.' They wanted to spend more time on the skill-building."
You also can't expect good results out of experiential training unless you know what your real goal is— and whether the experience is likely to help you reach that goal at all, Henman says. "And, if you want to learn something, you practice it with an expert in the conditions where you'll be doing it—if you want to play soccer, you get a soccer coach and play soccer, but you don't expect to learn how to play tennis."
Latham agrees, suggesting that the way people behave in one situation is not a good indicator for how they'll behave in another. She describes a wilderness trip for students she once guided, where two of the participants couldn't have been more different: one was gung-ho and enjoying everything, where the other hated every moment. But back at the school, the enthusiastic participant was kicked out a week later, while the other became an eager student. "Now, these were students and we're talking about adults, but it's often true that the way people react in a different environment does not necessarily carry over to the daily routine," she says.
In the end, you have to ask yourself whether the appeal of ropes courses or trapeze training is based on a real belief that participants will know more and behave differently—in the desired way. "I think the biggest consideration is this: Companies these days have very few dollars to spend on development, so everyone involved in the decision-making should be careful in how they spend every penny," Henman says. "Look for someone with a certain track record, who can give you referrals, someone who can improve your conditions and give you a measurable 10 to 1 return on every dollar you spend."
Quick Tips
• Remember that you can't expect good results out of experiential training unless you know what your real goal is—and whether the experience is likely to help you reach that goal at all.
• Look for someone with a certain track record, who can give you referrals, someone who can improve your conditions and give you a measurable return on every dollar you spend.
• Be sure to work with someone who can protect your event and team from all the potential liabilities: social, cognitive, psychological, and physical.
• Make sure employees' office environment encourages them to use what they learned during the extreme training.
• Be crystal clear with participants about why they're doing this training and how their behavior is expected to change.
• Provide mechanisms for participants to hold each other accountable and practice and reinforce the behavior they've been taught. Remind them to use that behavior in the situations where it's called for.
• During debriefing, ask: What did we learn, what commitments will we make now? What will we do to change things? Do we need expert coaching?”
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