"Challenge... By Choice"

GOAL: To improve interpersonal and intrapersonal skills through carefully structured adventure experiences.

The essence of these experiences involves a small group (i.e.-executive board or management unit) being presented with a task to achieve. The given task is individually challenging (involves personal risks and requires personal competence), but cannot be accomplished alone...the group must work together as a team in order to be successful.

The benefits of adventure training include:

• Cultural development of the organization (ethics, change, and motivation)
• Group development of the work unit (team building, collaboration, communication, and trust)
• Personal development of the individual (confidence, leadership, and astute risk taking)
• Getting to know one another better in a comfortable, yet challenging atmosphere, and sharing a sense of overcoming the impossible.
• Gaining self-confidence through setting and achieving personal goals.

PDC & Associates has developed a strategic alliance with the Corporate Adventure Training Institute (or CATI for short); a non-profit research center located near Niagara Falls in Canada. CATI is the only one of its kind in North America, although they have established affiliate research programs in Australia, Europe, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Adventure training is a form of organizational development that corporations have been using in varying degrees for over fifty years. The British have a solid twenty-five year history of success and over a decade head start with this kind of learning. CATI is well networked with the U.K.

Following up Situational Leadership^® with ATC™ allows the participants to actually see all four leadership styles being used (both effectively and ineffectively) by others and themselves and they will personally experience all four readiness levels. In the debriefings following each exercise we review with the participants how this ties back into their job, how they felt when the incorrect leadership style was used with them and what they need to do to become a more effective leader and a better follower (NOTE: ATC™ may be run as a stand alone without previously running Situational Leadership^®).

ATC™ programs may be indoor and/or outdoor, residential or office-based. Adventurous activities within each program may seem risky, but are actually quite safe. Perceived risk provides immediate and realistic consequences that make learning more effective than derived from traditional classroom simulations.

Activities range from simple warm-up games, through more complex problem solving tasks with multiple solutions, to individual challenges in an atmosphere of group support.

WHAT MAKES ADVENTURE TRAINING SPECIAL?

Experiential:	While working under conditions of safety and perceived risk, people learn best by doing. Activities are real and hands-on...not simulated.
Dramatic:	The exciting and emotional nature of these activities tends to focus attention and sharpen minds, so participants remember what they learn.
Novel:	Because of the unique context and uncertainty of outcome for these activities, no one in the group is an expert. Adventures tend to equalize people and breakdown the hierarchical barriers which often exist in large companies.
Consequential:	Errors have potential ramifications in adventures (getting wet in a canoe or falling on a rope), unlike in a classroom situation (where play money may be lost). Furthermore, success and failure is owned and validated by those who really matter; the co-workers and oneself...not the training facilitator.
Metaphoric:	Adventures are a microcosm of the requirements and changes taking place in the business world. The behaviors demonstrated by individuals and groups during these activities are parallel representations of what happens in the office. As such, new learning can be analogous for future actions.
Transferable:	Testimonials support (and research studies substantiate) that new learning does indeed show up in the workplace, as employees refer back to their experiences and approa ch their jobs from a fresher perspective.

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"Sample" Schedule of Activities
WHEN	ACTIVITY
DAY ONE	Tone Setting Goal Setting Cooperation and Communication Group Problem Solving Setting the Stage Dinner Group Decision Making "Down-time"
DAY TWO	Breakfast Search & Rescue Workshops Search & Rescue Simulation Debrief Search & Rescue Lunch High Ropes Course Preparation (or Option B*) Team Trust to Overcome the Impossible Closure Learning Summary & Action Plans Appreciation Gift Ceremony Departure
* - Option B: Group Problem Solving Challenges
NOTE: Some of the activities may change, depending on the needs of the participants, venue, weather, and availability of equipment and/or space.