Personal Philosophy

I came into the outdoor/adventure industry relatively late in my life.  As a bar manager for ten years, with virtually no experience of outdoor, adventurous activities and no NGBs I packed up my life and moved from Scotland to the south coast of England to take on a foundation degree in outdoor education.  The thought of a career in an outdoor setting, combining it with my passion for working with people, was enough for me to make the move – and boy do I feel like I made the right choice!

Being completely honest, the thought of soft skills facilitation in outdoor education was something I had given very little thought to prior to the course. My only personal experience of outdoor education was on a school trip residential when I was 10 years old and I certainly don’t remember any front loading or reviewing of activities – perhaps this was because it was 20 years ago, or perhaps these were happening at the time without me realising…  The last couple of years have really opened my eyes to what the outdoors can offer people on a personal development level – this has happened via academic research, lectures, practical experience, work placements and meeting others who have worked in the industry for many years.

It has become clear to me, that in order for me to be successful in my chosen career, as well as having the correct NGBs and hard/technical skills, I will also have to have the necessary leadership skills, indeed I will have to have strong soft skills myself in order to be able to facilitate them to others.  It was once considered that if someone had high technical competence and broad knowledge of the area in which they “led” then this made them a suitable candidate to manage groups in the outdoors.  However, although these hard skills are seen as the basic attributes of a leader in the outdoors, the idea that good leadership should incorporate strong soft skills such as communication and also meta-skills including good judgement of a given situation (Winsner, 2004).

I recently started a new job as a development tutor for a charity – we work with young people from inner-city Glasgow who others (schools/parents/guardians) have found difficult to engage.  Our soul aim is to help these young people to realise their potential and help them move onto positive outcomes (education/training/development) by facilitating their personal development.  We use many outdoor activities and work in line with Kolb’s (1984) learning cycle: PLAN >DO>REVIEW>APPLY.  I have personally seen these activities “work” from a personal development point of view, in particular in the short term and relative to that given activity.  My only issue is with the transfer of these soft skills into “real life” situations.  There have been many young people through our system, who are evidence of this transfer taking place, but how much of this positive change is down directly to the outdoors – and how can we measure it?

I personally believe that outdoor, adventurous activities can have a huge impact on personal development but I think its effectiveness comes down to not just the facilitator, but the participant also.  I believe that I am in a fortunate position, in that the young people I am working with can be on our program for as long as they need to be, giving me the luxury of time to help them with their personal development.  I do often wonder how effective a shorter outdoor program (a week, a day, an afternoon??) can be……

Kolb D.A. (1984) Experiential Learning Experience as a Source of Learning and Development New Jersey: Prentice Hall

Winsner, S (2004) The Royal Geographical Society Expedition Handbook Profile Books