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Experiential Learning at Deer Hill Ranch

Designed to Develop:
FACILITATION SKILLS and GROUP COHESION

Facilitation is the skill of empowering members of a group to develop and accomplish goals that benefit the group as a whole in addition to the individual members. This skill has many applications for teachers in the classroom, including management of class discussions and guidance of smaller project groups. Facilitation can also be helpful in conflict resolution and individual coaching. The techniques learned in this program can also be used among staff to improve communication and increase trust.

Facilitating Experiential Education

Our staff development programs teach facilitation skills using group experiential education. This approach has the added benefit of improving interpersonal dynamics with the learning group. Our facilitators lead the group through problem-solving initiatives, low-ropes challenges and ultimately the high-ropes course in a way that teaches participants how they are being facilitated. After learning about facilitation through participation and coaching, each group member is given the opportunity to learn experientially by facilitating the rest of the group.

Building Trust Means Success

The existence of trust is the single most important ingredient for the effective functioning of a group. Our facilitators are skilled at creating an environment of trust for program participants where they can experience the ways they work together and learn from each other. This empowers them to create new approaches for problem solving, communication, and teamwork. By creating a community of trust where risk-taking is rewarded, individual challenges become group challenges in a nurturing and supportive environment. "Going beyond" becomes the norm and the sense of personal accomplishment is enriched with the acknowledgment and growing support of the team. Participants learn trust creation techniques by observing their facilitator, and the facilitator reviews the process of trust creation that the participant has just experienced. This combination of experiencing trust creation while being coached on the underlying dynamics is very powerful.

Debriefings Bring Insights and Understanding

Debriefings after each initiative enable participants to examine
what happened and how the group functioned as a whole. Our experienced staff skillfully leads the debriefings that help participants gain insight into their responses and determine how their behaviors affect the group. After each debriefing the facilitators review their facilitation techniques for the initiative and debriefing just completed to give participants practical examples of facilitation.

Games and Initiatives

The exercises in the program are carefully sequenced with increasing levels of personal challenge and perceived risk. Deer Hill Ranch uses over 100 different outdoor games and initiatives designed to increase communication skills, trust, and the ability to work as a team. We also use our low ropes course
during this segment of our programs.

By participating in a series of initiatives and problem-solving activities, team members break through their own self-limiting boundaries, strangers become friends, and groups become teams. These experiences help build respect and trust among individuals.

“Challenge By Choice”

Our “Challenge By Choice” High Ropes Course is a series of challenges derived from the Outward Bound program. Wearing belay harnesses, one or two participants climb up a pole to each event. Participants work through their fears with the help of their teammates on the ground, and achieve a new understanding of the importance of teamwork while completing the course events.

Our ACCT-approved high ropes course has five separate events,