THE CHARACTERISTICS OF SOT OUTDOOR TRAINING

As far as outdoor training is concerned, SOT methodology distinguishes itself for the following elements:

• Strong experiential element: the attention is based on the “hic et nunc” [= here and now] concept , by linking the learning process to real situations. The proposed activities in the outdoor training are real, and the consequences of one’s own behavior are immediate.
• Use of the metaphor: the activity proposed through the outdoor training comes out to be a training one, since it is metaphorically linked to the employment of certain skills, which are useful in one’s own organizational context.
• Blended training: the outdoor activities are not “pure” but integrated with other tools coming from traditional training methods (theoretical sessions, debriefing, use of movies, self-evaluation tests, team laboratories), aiming at systematizing and strengthening the learning, by facilitating the transfer of those behaviors the participants learned into their own business reality.
• Challenge and creativity: the participant, during an outdoor training stage, has to face an unknown field and is obliged to adapt himself, to run some risks, to act even without knowing all the answers, to manage ambiguous situations, or he can find himself to perform familiar activities, but having to manage and to work them out from different points of view.
• Participation: the participant, an active protagonist, learns through the training, test and experimentation of his own behaviors. Nobody supplies models and pre-packed techniques deriving from external sources, which can be valid for everyone, but the utilization of personal resources is encouraged.
• Importance of observation: the participant observes himself while he is in action (self-observation) and observes the behaviors of other people (hetero-observation). Through the outdoor training a learning process is stimulated which is not based so much on carrying out “tests and mistakes”, but rather on structuring moments during which “one stops and thinks over”. This leads to find out not only the negative consequences caused by some of our behaviors, but also to exploit and systematize the unconscious constructive strategies.
• Fun: the didactic and instructive moment of outdoor training is associated to game too, thus demonstrating that it is possible to learn and improve even while having fun at the same time. A playful attitude towards learning is thus recovered, an attitude which is typical of children who, just because of their use of games and emotions, are able to learn more things and much faster in comparison with adults.
• Training objective: although entertaining and involving, SOT methodology distinguishes itself from movement and from a self-sufficient incentive, since it is planned and performed by corporate trainers who are expert at managing the training addressed to adults; in this way it is not limited to offer entertaining, attractive and “alternative” activities which have an end in themselves, but also supports the company, i.e. its customer, within a precise training path agreed in advance.