Developing Extraordinary Teams and Leaders Using Equine Experiential Learning

Challenge U works with clients using an experiential format to build innovative teams and enhance the performance of individuals. Utilizing a variety of experiential formats, we equip team members and leaders with the tools, skills and mindset necessary for success.

We offer programs that develop people on all sides; physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. The Equine Experiential Learning programs put the focus on the Emotional and Spiritual sides.

In today’s world, these seem to be the areas that are not typically where the focus goes. And yet, in order to be balanced, we must develop all four sides. For humans to function in a balanced and effective way, all four natures must be equally focused on and grown.

What is Equine Experiential Learning?

EEL uses a team approach, bringing together a horse specialist, a trained facilitator and the horse, to assist individuals and groups. Through a collaborative learning process, people use experience and reflection to facilitate learning.

The equine-assisted model helps individuals learn about themselves and others by participating in activities with the horses and then processing feelings, behaviors, and patterns, recognizing how these may relate to the workplace or at home. While EEL is related to other experiential programs, equine assisted programs have the added element of horses with as many different personalities and attitudes as the humans they are working with.

Why Horses?

Domesticated horses retain the thought and behavior patterns of their nomadic ancestors. Interacting with these animals on their own terms encourages a fluidity of human thought, emotion, and behavior that sedentary twenty-first-century life makes difficult.

Horses also model the strengths of what are often referred to as feminine values: cooperation over competition, relationship over territory, responsiveness over strategy, emotion and intuition over logic, process over goal, and the creative approach to life that these qualities engender.

Typical outcomes through a Challenge U EEL program:

• An experience of consensual leadership and how to create mutually respectful relationships.
• Uncover unconscious limitations and become empowered to change old dysfunctional patterns of behavior.
• Expand nonverbal awareness.
• Develop listening to the two other brains, the heart and the gut, and the information they hold.
• Connect with your authentic self.
• Hear the messages behind your emotions.
• Identify patterns inhibiting movement into the personal satisfaction you seek.
• Create authentic relationships and community.
• Reduce stress and increase mind-body awareness.
• Learn effective and congruent communication skills
• Redefine power and leadership.
• Identify barriers to effective communication.
• Increase teamwork.
• Develop responsibility, team and leadership skills.
• Learn to identify and set healthy boundaries.

 The Extraordinary Team

The Extraordinary Team is a journey to discover the key elements of teams, where they most commonly make mistakes and how to help them rise to extraordinary performance. The material in this training is unique and evolved over twenty years of experience in team development. Participants move through a series of initiatives and challenges designed to have them discover, develop and practice the skills and tools necessary for success. In addition, careful attention is given to development of a common and shared understanding of effective team process.

Extraordinary Team Outcomes:

• Effective communication skills
• Common team language and team process
• Higher levels of trust and confidence
• Knowledge of team strengths
Problem solving skills
• Leadership Skills
Bonding and a sense of unity within the team
• Responsibility and accountability

Sample Team Development Formats:

For groups that want to focus on teamwork, cooperation, collaborative problem solving, and team spirit:

Go Team Go! - This program will introduce your team to critical skills and concepts in teamwork. Then we'll test their ability to use the newly introduced skills in a facilitated learning environment. As the team moves through subsequent activities, they will practice the learning’s from the previous activities.

For groups involved in merging organizational cultures or introducing new leadership:
The Merger - The Merger begins with multiple small teams working toward individual goals. As the experience progresses, small teams must combine forces in order to outdo the competition until finally all teams are working toward the same objective. These programs highlight the importance of dealing with change. They also allow your team members to get to know one another in a unique and interactive environment.

For groups that want to enhance the way sales associates strive for success:
Mountain of Success! - We'll present the team with on challenge after the next in a fast paced environment. Then we'll challenge them to improve their performance. The skills they'll need include problem solving, listening, setting challenging goals, managing time, and risk taking. These programs can use an adventure setting such as a challenge course, a series of team challenges, map and compass orienteering, or other unforgettable venues. Indoor programs are available by request.

Customized Teambuilding
Like what you see, but have an idea that combines a variety of elements or uses another concept? We are experts at creating customized teambuilding experiences. Call us to discuss your needs and to share your ideas. Then we'll get to work designing the perfect experience. From on the ground events to high impact adventure outings, we'll build your teambuilding experience to suit your specifications.

• Location Options: indoors or outdoors, our location or yours.
• Timeframe: half day, full day, or multi-day
• Group Size: 8 to 200+ people

Team and Individual Assessment

We believe that the foundation for personal and professional success is understanding yourself, understanding others and realizing the impact of personal behavior on others.  The DiSC® Personal Profile System is an assessment tool that supports that understanding of behavior of self and others.

The DiSC® Personal Profile System presents a plan to help you understand self and others in a specific environment.  You are the central focus as you heighten understanding of your behavioral profile and identify the environment most conducive to your success.  At the same time, you learn about the differences of others and the environment they require for maximum productivity and teamwork in the organization. Research evidence supports the conclusion that the most effective people are those who know themselves, recognize the demands of the situation, and adapt strategies to meet those needs.

 The DiSC® Personal Profile System enables you to:

• Identify your behavioral profile
• Capitalize on your behavioral strengths
• Increase your appreciation of different profiles
• Anticipate and minimize potential conflicts with others

In our unique format we combine the results of the DiSC Instrument with our experiential team and leadership development programs to produce the following for our clients:

• Build effective teams
• Develop effective managers, supervisors and leaders
• Train a powerful sales force
• Bring customer service to an entirely new level
• Ease frustration and interpersonal conflict
• Enhance communication
• Provide strategies for conflict resolution
• Support unease during organizational changes
• Improve the bottom line: productivity
• Improve the effectiveness of how teams work together to produce extraordinary results

The experiential format of our programs allows individuals and teams to experience the impact their styles have on themselves and their teams.  We use real-time business and organizational simulations to develop the skills leaders need to adapt their own styles to that of the team for enhanced overall performance. 

The DiSC® Personal Profile System is offered in a half-day or full-day program in combination with other experiential formats.  Instrument and handout information is included as part of the fee.  A minimal number of 12 participants is most effective in conducting these workshops and are typically conducted in an indoor setting.
Please ask about our other learning assessments such as Team Dimensions, Time Mastery, Personal Listening and Everything DiSC Sales.

The Samurai Game ®

The Samurai Game® is a highly challenging, intense leadership and team simulation within which individuals and teams are called upon to exercise resourcefulness, decisiveness, honor, dignity, integrity, risk-taking, selfless service and personal commitment in a series of fast-moving, highly uncertain situations that make up the Game's battlefield. And a battlefield it is.

In this amazing experience, the Game's opening invites each participant to cross a psychological boundary and step into the unfamiliar world of being a medieval Samurai warrior. Players form two teams (armies) that will face each other in a series of individual, one-on-one contests. Every match is symbolic, and while involving no significant physical contact, demands much in the way of commitment, focus, centeredness, personal integrity, and team support.

Throughout the contests participants are encouraged to summon forth their warrior spirit, gain personal control and focus, and act with courage and determination to prevail or face defeat (symbolic death). At the same time, everyone is encouraged to engage opponents with the kind of respect, compassion, and honor usually displayed by lifes true champions.

The pace is fast. Tough decisions must be made quickly. The ever-changing environment simulates the intensity of actual combat. The Samurai Game® models very well the forces of radical change. How will the individual and the organization respond: with warrior-like resourcefulness or with low engagement? In this way, the Samurai Game® presents a series of fascinating examples of how we choose to fully engage (or not) with the challenges in our workplaces and our lives, and to what degree are we willing act decisively and with integrity to get the results we need.

The Game® builds to a Final Contest where only a few players are left to continue. At this incredible moment, players must choose what will happen in the face of uncertainty. Will a series of final battles unfold or will a dignified surrender occur and at what costs?

Developed by the prolific human potential author and martial artist George Leonard, the Samurai Game® is a unique, and arguably one of the most intense learning experiences that companies, educational institutions, non-profit organizations and individuals can participate in. You will be talking about it and making connections to it for years to come.

Details:

• Minimum number of participants: 25
• Timeframe: 2 days recommended, however the Game® can be delivered in less time.
• Please contact Challenge U for more information.

Testimonials from participants of The Samurai Game®

"I played the samurai game as a daimyo (leader of an army), and found that my experience paralleled my professional life. The beauty of the simulation is that its events are highly accelerated and their consequences highly exaggerated. The simulation of the game placed me in a high-pressure situation, where I was required to make quick decisions and see the consequences of those decisions. This quickly revealed both the strengths and weaknesses of my decision-making processes. Thanks for a great experience!"

"It was a pleasure for me to participate in the event. Today I am noticing that I feel a lot more powerful and have a lot of confidence in my abilities. I have a feeling that this effect will always be with me. That was a huge breakthrough for me. To have the opportunity to participate in this event is a blessing and a gift. Thank you."

"Thank you for inviting me to play this game with you. What an experience! I never thought that I could learn so much so fast. The game was simple and fun, yet the lessons were very valuable. Who would have thought that I could learn integrity, discipline, honor, loyalty, and respect in such a short time? I also experienced a power within myself that I never have experienced before. As a result I have been more professional and effective at work and in the activities I enjoy on my personal time. Thank you so much. This experience is priceless."

"The Samurai Game brought out the leader in me. I learned through personal experience that day that I am a very capable leader AND team player. In the process of this game, I not only learned to trust myself, but I had a bonding experience with my team as well and trust them more. I learned that they are capable leaders and have a new friendship and respect for them too! I learned how to operate in my life from a grounded center. I don't know if anybody else has times in his or her business or professional lives where that has immense value, but I sure do. I had a blast too! If you want a QUANTUUM LEAP for your team or in your life; BE A SAMURAI NOW!"

"The retreat was incredible. Playing the Samurai Game was one of the most moving experiences of my life and I've had a bunch. Thank you so much for having the forethought to plan such an event. I've already started using some of the new techniques I learned."