EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
“In reality, few of us are ever quite as good as we think. There’s usually a gap between what we think we know and what we actually do in practice!” – Phil Geldart, Eagle’s Flight Founder and CEO, We all have blind spots when it comes to our abilities, and they represent our opportunities to adjust our behaviors, improve our performance and get better results. But how can we act on our opportunities if we can’t see them? Enter experiential learning…the Eagle’s Flight way.
Eagle’s Flight is the leader in the field of experiential learning, which is truly the most effective way to facilitate learning. It acknowledges that learning is a process-one that we all experience naturally given the right context, conditions, and support. Eagle’s Flight revolutionized the business application for experiential learning in 1988, and we’ve since perfected our approach and parlayed it into a comprehensive offering of team-building, conference, skill-based, and leadership learning programs that set the standard for learner engagement and business impact. Nevertheless, the very thing that has always been one of our greatest strengths and differentiators has also made for a bit of an uphill business climb, given the negative connotation that ‘experiential learning’ has for some-that is, until they experience ‘the experiential difference’ and become converts to the Eagle’s Flight approach! So, let’s put experiential learning into the Eagle’s Flight context; what it is, and what it’s not:
HOW EAGLE’S FLIGHT DOES EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
The content focus, examples, and language must be relevant to your participant’s real world. Our discovery audit process ensures that we embed your world into all we do. Tools will be provided to present a clear line of sight from the learnings to your organization’s specific performance goals and results.
Learn
‘Learn’ is about the ‘Head’, or understanding the material. This is where the learner connects intellectually to the content models, concepts, theories, etc., and builds the knowledge that will enable them to know how to adjust their behavior to achieve an improved outcome.
Experience
‘Experience’ is about engaging the ‘Heart’ and building conviction. Here, we engage the learner’s emotions and help them to understand that the skill or concept being taught is important to achieving better outcomes. These conviction-building activities motivate to change the current behaviors and mindsets that limit effectiveness.
Apply
‘Apply’ is about involving the ‘Hands’ in applying the new material. We create opportunities-both during and after the training-for participants to experiment with the content in a risk-free environment and subsequently create the skills to practice new behaviors and achieve different results.
Practice
‘Practice’ is about seeing the potential ‘Harvest’ or result. We link all of the training back to relevant work situations that will enable the participants to turn the learning into improved business outcomes.
POINT OF CHOICE MODEL
Within this model and fueling, its efficacy is the intentional application of the Experiential Learning Cycle™. It’s this cyclical process that guides and supports the learner on their journey of self-discovery, often taking them by surprise, and systematically delivers them to a ‘Point of Choice’-they’ve had the experience, they see the opportunities, and they know what to do to change their behaviors, enhance their performance and create different results.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Experiential learning is truly the most effective and efficient way to engage your people, improve performance and drive business impact. In mere hours it can deliver insights, motivation, and practical skills that could otherwise take days, weeks, and months to acquire via traditional or ‘on-the-job’ training. Add to this that it’s fun, memorable, immersive, targeted, transformative, predictable, holistic, risk-free, self-perpetuating, proven, powerful…and how we all learn-and the case for experiential learning seems every bit as strong today as it was in ’88!