The Core of our Professional Program 

Align Teams 

Enhance team dynamics, trust, and collaboration. 

For teams to excel, individual members must know that they can offer fresh  ideas, try new things, come as they are, and question norms without fear of  retribution. When individuals know that they have permission to think and act  differently, innovation accelerates. Better still, when team members know it's  okay to take risks and make mistakes, they push boundaries and strive for  excellence more freely.  

Having served teams of professionals since the early 1980s, Hurricane Island  Outward Bound School’s “Outward Bound Professional” practice helps  participants illuminate critical elements of high-performance teams, including  strategy and planning, communications, conflict resolution, and change  management.  

Customized programs consisting of progressive challenges provide colleagues  with a “practice field” where they can experiment, make mistakes, refine  approaches, speak openly, and build an appreciation for the varied and  complementary strengths within the team.  

Develop Leaders 

Identify, apply, and refine desired leadership characteristics. 

Successful organizations increasingly covet self-aware, adaptable leaders who  can pivot their approach as circumstances require: act decisively when  necessary; empower others and encourage supported risk-taking; model  vulnerability to build trust; and operate with integrity and empathy for others.  

Outward Bound's founder, Kurt Hahn, articulated this belief: "The aim of  education is to impel people into value-forming experiences to ensure the  survival of these qualities: an enterprising curiosity, an undefeatable spirit, 

tenacity in pursuit, and above all, compassion." 

With this goal in mind, we partner with our clients to craft leadership development  programs that create space for participants to recognize their own strengths,  acknowledge their blind spots, see and feel their impact on others, and witness  the merits of others’ varied styles and preferences.  

As John Dewey said, “We do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting  on experience.” In between periods of activity on each program, Outward Bound  Professional facilitators initiate reflective debriefs to help participants process  their individual and collective discoveries. As a result, participants recognize— and articulate—their own responses to adversity, tendencies as leaders and  team members, and their own effects on group dynamics. 

Unify Groups 

Energize participants at meetings, conferences, and offsites. 

Peter Drucker is credited with saying, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” So  how do organizations unify around the values and behaviors that make up their  culture? 

At Outward Bound, we believe that an organization's culture is an accumulation  of individual behaviors and team dynamics: What is expected? What is  accepted? What will we communicate and how? Who will make decisions? How  will we problem-solve, resolve conflicts, and support one another? How do we  honor our clients and our craft, celebrate success, and respond to adversity? 

By separating teams from workplace settings where preconceived notions of  hierarchy can affect participation, Outward Bound Professional creates a setting  where "true selves" can emerge. All participants—new hires and senior  executives alike—are given opportunities to approach unfamiliar challenges on  equal footing, unimpeded by professional personas. Natural individual and  collective tendencies surface for examination and facilitated discussions shed  light on breakthrough discoveries that translate into a healthy workplace  environment.