Outdoor Management Development
Impact was the first commercial company to deliver outdoor-based development programmes.
The term ‘Outdoor Management Development’ (OMD) was itself originated by Impact to help differentiate the use of the outdoors in support of mainstream management and organisational development from uncritical outdoor training awkwardly adapted to corporate and OD purposes.
The essential argument for OMD is that the education and development of pragmatic, open, persuasive and collaborative managers cannot be achieved by intellectual means alone. Management also has relational and emotional aspects and is often a matter of producing optimal solutions quickly and without moral compromise. Outdoor projects provide a low-consequence arena for experimenting with and practicing behaviour options and decision processes. Community Action Learning takes the principle further by restoring consequences, clients and reality to the process while creating the same possibilities for feedback, dialogue and reflection.
Impact still provides programmes with outdoor and adventure elements, but the method has been extended and refined over nearly three decades of practice. We have learnt that we can find the same extraordinary power to promote individual and group transformation in business projects, journeys, community action learning and other methods that integrate experiential learning and business education.
For the last eight years Impact have made a contribution to the development of experiential education in general through the Masters in Development Training which it offers in partnership with St Martin's College (The University of Cumbria) and Brathay.
Our portfolio of outdoor projects has been accumulated over almost 30 years. They range from short icebreakers and energisers to full-scale journey programmes and community action projects in scores of countries.
The safety and security of participants is clearly an important aspect of outdoor, journey or community-based programme. Impact offers the highest standard of technical expertise, equipment and safety management systems uniformly across all operations and countries. Please click here to see a copy of our safety policy.
