‘To us, Team Building is not an event. It is a deliberate facilitated development process.’

Our key deliverable is in customized solutions to meet the specific needs of every client we work with. A combination of consultation, needs analysis and, where relevant, team diagnostics ensures the careful and considered design of your team development.

Our intervention is designed to be both diagnostic and prescriptive while stimulating creativity and team work for improved performance. Key benefits of this approach includes emotional buy in through a people driven process, rapid turnaround time, accurate pre-engagement information and innovative intellectual capital sharing.

We execute and implement the assignment in the following 5 (five) phases:

1. Pre-engagement Phase: We begin this process by developing a business case that is both qualitative and quantitative through understanding your high level strategic objectives and by identifying the role of team work and how it is linked to the strategic objectives. We sift through a number of data sources to enable us identify the priorities and focus for the entire training engagement and how it relates to your long and short term plans.
2. Program Design: We create tailor made solutions to meet your needs using a range of experiential & training techniques and tools. Simulations and Team tasks are designed to bring out behaviors relevant to the most important aspects of team dynamics and (or) dysfunctions.
3. Program Delivery: We tackle team dynamics through experiences that challenge, educate and inspire. In a comprehensive format, we seek to facilitate forums in which people will productively engage each other in a non-threatening environment.
4. Reporting: We collate all observations and configure them into a report where further training and personal development initiatives and recommendations emanating from the process are integrated into future Training Programs, a capacity building undertaking.
5. Follow up: We engage with our clients three (3) months after the off-site on a complimentary basis. This involves administration of surveys to make a comparative analysis and help paint a picture of the impact the off-site had on the team.

TEAM BUILDING METHODOLOGY: Experiential Learning

Experiential learning is a highly effective training method. It engages the participant at a more personal level by addressing the needs and wants of the individual.

Experiential learning requires qualities such as self-initiative and self-evaluation. For experiential learning to be truly effective, it should employ the whole learning wheel, from goal setting, to experimenting and observing, to reviewing, and finally action planning. This complete process allows one to learn new skills, new attitudes or even entirely new ways of thinking.

Experiential learning involves conducting tasks and activities that are designed to bring out certain pertinent lessons. The participants, exposed to team tasks, against certain constraints, are encouraged to find solutions to the challenges. They then discuss the relevance of these activities to their work environment. The success of the process is determined by the extent to which the participants and facilitators can draw the lessons.

1. The participants are able to actively participate in learning.
2. Participants learn from the experiences of others.
3. The participants are able to develop power of self-expression.

At Outdoors Africa, our emphasis is on practical skills. The program we design is highly practical in nature, and we only introduce as much theory as is needed to inform the participants. For the practical exercises we use either our own or established case studies.