Images of Outdoor Management Development.

Introduction Contents Abstract What is OMD? Literature Methodology Conclusions

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Who am I?

I've been based in the English Lake District, working in as Outdoor Educator and Management Consultant in Outdoor Management Development since 1990, and in the field of training and development back into the dim and distant 1980's.

At present I specialise in working in the areas of performance coaching, personal development, teamworking and management development using experiential learning methods with adults from corporate environments, the public and voluntary sector. I'm a strong advocate of facilitative methods (people learn more from doing things themselves than they ever do from listening to me or reading what I've written) and I virtually always use workshop-based interactive methodologies as opposed to stand-up presentations and one-to-one approaches to coaching. I've spoken fairly widely on Experiential Learning to various audiences, although it would be more accurate to say that I tend to do much more interactive things around it, such as run workshops and give seminars in the field. I also write for a few publications in the UK on Training and Development issues and am a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Leadership.

Outside of work I enjoy various sports and have recently discovered the joys of triathlons and open water swimming. I have a little time to do other energetic things like fell walking and scrambling but I also do more relaxing things like listen to music, watch films, go to concerts and read books (OK, they're travel books!) I also have to confess to more than a passing interest in Sports Psychology.

What next?

As professionals in this field, we are sanctioned to act on the basis of our expert knowledge. So where does that knowledge come from? What do we know about OMD?

My aim in conducting this research was to further develop the theoretical understanding of OMD. This thesis brings the understanding authors and participants have of OMD to the theories which are relevant to the field of experiential learning. Authors' and participants' understanding brings some new insights to the conceptualisation of OMD that is built on these theories, especially concerning the role feelings and emotions play in the experiential learning process. These insights also support other critiques of these theories of learning which call for them to take account of feelings and emotions. I end this summary with a call for similar research that will develop our understanding of OMD. Such research will benefit the practice of OMD by bringing further clarification to the theoretical understanding of the processes which occur on courses and refine the conceptualisation and the image we have of Outdoor Management Development.

There are threads of a conversation on OMD which remain to be picked up......

• This research looked at what sense authors and participants made of OMD. What about the other stakeholders' perceptions? What do trainers, sponsors, colleagues, spouses, think of it?
• This research highlighted the role of emotions in the experiential learning process. What about other factors that may be having an effect? What about the social political or cultural contexts in which OMD course take place?
• There is a growing body of research on OMD, which is beginning to be published, but what about the development of a coherent academic community concerned with developing knowledge about the field? Where will the disciplinary community which can grant the status of knowledge to the new contributions to the body of knowledge develop?

  Philip Donnison

  March 2002

Introduction Contents Abstract What is OMD? Literature Methodology Conclusions