09 May 2023 · 3 min read
Team building refers to effort made to increase the performance, efficiency and productivity of a team. As a result, activities for team building usually have people working together in teams to achieve a particular objective or goal. In essence, Experiential learning is the process where people learn by doing. Thus they can then put the information they learn into practice.
Team building activities that contain an experiential component results in inclusion and strengthening of a team. Ultimately, most team building activities, involve participants learning in an experiential way. However some are more powerful than others.
Professional facilitators can integrate experiential activities and elements of team building into the one activity. However, in experiential team building activities, your team will “learn by doing”. Therefore the retention power of the participants increases, enabling your team to correlate and collaborate better at their workplace.
Team building activities can focus on creative problem solving, critical thinking, decision making etc. However, if you also incorporate experiential team building activities you will make the event relevant, enjoyable and meaningful.
Experiential leaning exercises enable your team to complete activities with confidence which has lasting positive outcomes.
Integrating important lessons and encapsulating experiences is the process of experiential learning. Successful companies have been incorporating this tactic to build powerful, cohesive teams for decades and continue to innovate the process itself.
When selecting a Team Building event, your desired outcome should be reinforced throughout the activity. Furthermore, clients that want more serious learning from their team building often ask us about the relevance of “experiential activities.” That is. they want to know that the activities we provide will satisfy their need for something active but are increasingly concerned about whether they will achieve their learning outcomes
Unfortunately, many companies provide team-building experiences that fall short of delivering the central message. In addition, our leading universities provide corporate training in a traditional “lecture” style, using bland power point that attract low involvement levels. Therefore, it is no surprise that people are wondering where Experiential Learning fits in or whether it is relevant and ‘real.’
So, the key question any activity seeker should ask is whether the key message resonates through the team building activities.
Ultimately, we know from our experience that well designed, empirically tested experiential activities have a greater chance of creating and enhancing the learning. Thus, with many years of experience, we are the industry leaders at sourcing effective, outcome-driven experiential learning activities.
Check out our Activate activity for an example of Experiential Learning
Further reading on Experiential Learning
As brokers of team building activities Team Building Made Easy is often asked about what can be achieved from a team building event and whether more serious learning is an option. However, if you want to blend activities include a more serious learning then you need to consider using an experiential learning approach.
Furthermore, for any Team Building event, your desired outcome should essentially be the main driver by which you select your activity, level of debrief, and whether other learning is blended into your program.
Thus, this issue of clear outcomes is critical to creating effective training programs generally and specifically to what type of approach will be the most effective.
Corporate training programs must deliver concepts and ideas in a manner that participants truly experience for themselves.
How many people do you know that have participated in training programs and nothing has changed as a result? They hear it but don’t get it. Experiential learning is the link that helps them get it. That is, your participants need to experience the concepts you are presenting, rather than just hearing them.
With 20 years experience Team Building Made Easy are experts at finding a team building activity that can create a learning “experience”, for you.
We understand your objectives and can blend your outcomes with the appropriate activity or exercise in order to achieve your outcomes. The secret is in understanding the distinctions that a particular exercise will create and blending them with appropriate learning models. In this formula your participants will have a much greater chance of a true learning ‘experience.’
* Experiential Learning is learning from experience.
