Imagine this ...

"Good morning, class! Today we are going to learn to ride a bicycle. After the 'How to Ride a Bicycle' video, we will complete pages 21- 46 of your workbook. A short break will be followed by small group discussions on the importance of riding bicycles. We will complete the training with an action planning process to transfer the skills you learn today into your job."

Learning to be a team is like learning to ride a bicycle.

Did you learn to ride a bicycle in a classroom?

That's why we at Namaste Training present experience-based training and development. Experiential learning consists of carefully planned activities which combine fun and challenge, testing a person's organisational, communication and conflict resolution skills and thereby allowing his/her unique personality to contribute to the group process. The basic purpose of the course is threefold: to have fun, to stretch oneself and to learn about teamwork. This will be used to build and reinforce the communication and problem solving skills that are essential to optimal productivity and team functioning.

There are three modes of learning: Cognitive, Emotional and Physical. Most management training sessions utilise primarily the first, occasionally the second, and rarely the third. The impact of the three modes used together can shift a group's perspective in a way that a classroom environment cannot.

The process of working through the course generates thoughts and feeling similar to those in the workplace and concern topics such as task performance and maintenance of team and individual relationships. Here, however, there is time for participants to vent and to analyse their experiences. After each event, these are discussed in a debriefing session and therefore helps the learner to reach an understanding of the lesson through self-discovery.

The purpose of the course is to enable people to shift from defence to trust. The process thus is one of personal transformation.

It is our job to give our clients a challenge, an experience, and then to help them to understand and make sense of their experiences.

Source: "The Power of Team Building" by Harrison Snow, 1992