Experiential learning is becoming increasingly popular. Many companies are choosing to move away from traditional classroom-based learning as they find it fails to deliver long lasting results. They are aware that truly powerful learning experiences – ones that stay with people for many years – are those that have been moving, stretching or challenging in some way.

Experiential learning can be defined as the development of personal understanding and skills through the analysis of, and reflection on, activity. It is based on David Kolb’s cycle of learning – Plan, Do, Review, Apply. It is founded on the idea that if people experience something (through doing it) they are more likely to remember it and therefore take action. It gives people the opportunity to practise what they have learnt, often in inspiring environments, whilst pushing them out of their comfort zones – resulting in experiences that will stay with them forever. 

But how can you make sure that you are not just sending your people on a jolly? How can you make sure that they are part of a learning experience that delivers real, measurable and long lasting results?

The following eight tips are some of the ways in which you can ensure that you (or your staff) will get the most out of an experiential learning programme.

Ask yourself – why you are doing the training in the first place? Experiential learning should not be done just because you know that training is needed and it looks like a fun, interesting and memorable way to go about it. If you cannot articulate the business outcomes you need from any training then there is no point in doing it. You need to run a rigorous, in-depth training needs analysis to define what outcomes are needed and then decide if experiential training is the best way of achieving them.

Experiential learning should not be confused with team bonding. Paintballing, quad-biking and white water rafting are excellent high impact, memorable ways of bringing a team together – but do they achieve the business needs? Experiential learning enables people to practise and build on skills; it develops talent and shows where peoples’ strengths and weaknesses lie. It should be a long, carefully thought out process that encourages self-reflection and embeds learning over a long period of time.

Whilst experiential learning should stretch people outside of their comfort zones in order to see how they react in difficult situations, this should not be taken too far. When people experience extreme stress or panic their rational thought processes are overridden by the adrenaline being pumped around their body. This affects decision making meaning that although they might feel exhilarated they are unlikely to learn much.

There is a huge variety of experiential learning techniques that can be applied to a range of situations and needs. It’s important to make sure the type of experiential training you choose is relevant to your needs. For example, an increasingly used experiential learning technique involves horse whispering – which is brilliant for improving self-awareness through the exploration of emotions and behaviours – but would be of little use on a course to improve project management.

Often when people think of experiential programmes they just imagine high-impact activities. However, without the relevant theory to back it up, these activities become meaningless. For example, the communication tool Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI) gives a framework and a language for delegates to be able to talk about and analyse how they communicate when being pushed out of their comfort zones. It is something concrete that they can refer to and remember about themselves. Equally, too much theory and not enough practice results in information overload which won’t be embedded.