Sample Outcomes Report

(This report contains actual data. Identifiers have been removed for confidentiality)

Thank you for choosing Prairie View Process Solutions to join you in your staff development efforts. This report is provided to assist your organization in assessing the value of the services you have purchased.

In This Report:

• Overview of our services, how they are delivered, and the value to your organization
• Your data and results
• Recommendations for continued growth
• Bibliography

Why use Adventure and Experiential Solutions for Staff Development?

Experiential Based Training and Development (EBTD) often conducted on adventure courses or through games and initiatives, exposes participants to a potent learning laboratory that facilitates a variety of individual and group development goals. When paired with lectures or seminars, EBTD can bring to life and solidify concepts covered in the seminar. In fact, we have found that using several different approaches greatly enhances program impact.

Self-Efficacy and Work Performance

The services provided by Process Solutions are based on our belief in human potential. This potential can be realized through developing new skills and increasing confidence in one’s capabilities. EBTD experiences are designed to promote change through increasing confidence in one’s capabilities needed to handle the internal world of thoughts, feelings, and needs, and the external world of relationships. This is known as self-efficacy. Self-efficacy impacts a person’s ability to exercise influence over events that affect their life. Persons who experience high levels of self-efficacy about their abilities think, feel, and act differently than persons who have an inward sense of low self-efficacy. They remain calmer under stress, are more likely to perceive threatening situations as opportunity, and remain task oriented in the face of challenge. Research demonstrates that a person’s belief in their capabilities is a stronger predictor of behavior than their actual abilities. To a large extent, self-efficacy dictates whether, and how, potential will be realized in real-world circumstances.

Building Self-Efficacy

EBTD is a potent and efficient method of increasing the self-beliefs that enable resilient and productive functioning. There are four primary ways to raise self-efficacy, each of which is utilized in EBTD experiences.

• Success and Mastery. Experiences that require overcoming obstacles through sustained effort increase a person’s perseverance and their willingness to embrace new challenges.
• Modeling. Seeing others similar to oneself succeed raises one’s beliefs that they too possess the capabilities to succeed.
• Encouragement and Persuasion. When others believe in you, you are driven to succeed even in the face of obstacles.
• Re-Interpret Physical and Emotional States. Adventure-based learning experiences offer many opportunities for persons to overcome anxiety and fear and thereby enhance their belief that “I can do this” when faced with challenges that otherwise take them outside their comfort zone.

Measuring Outcomes

We are committed to outcomes in order to measure our effectiveness and continually improve the quality of our programs and services. While we pay close attention to customer satisfaction, we understand that positive change in underlying attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviors are often the most critical outcomes being sought by our clients. Therefore, we assess self-efficacy before and after persons participate in our programs. Using the Perceived Competence of Functioning Inventory (PCFI), we assess five areas of self-efficacy.

• Cognitive Competencies scale assesses a person’s beliefs in their ability to manage their internal experience through appropriate beliefs in self, controlling anger and engaging in healthy, productive thought processes.
• Relational Competencies scale measures a person’s beliefs in their ability to function in relationships through trusting others, feeling secure, and having satisfying relationships with family.
• Experiential Competencies scale measures a person’s beliefs in their ability to be self-accepting and experience satisfaction with their life.
• Behavioral Competencies scale measures the person’s beliefs in their ability to feel assertive, work toward personal goals and cope without using alcohol or drugs.
• General Level of Functioning scale (GLF) is the aggregate score of all the scales. This is the scale used to assess the overall impact of a program.

Understanding your Data

Your data was analyzed in terms of the magnitude of change in the various self-efficacy subscales from the beginning to the end of the program, expressed in terms of “effect size.” Effect size describes both the direction of change, and the magnitude of that change. Effect size translates data so that specific program outcomes can be compared to other groups and programs, and compared to outcomes reported in the research for adventure-based learning experiences.

Effect size is the difference between pre- and post-test scores expressed in standard deviation units. A zero effect size means no change, a negative effect size means a decrease in outcome, and a positive effect size indicates improvement in outcome. Statistical literature suggests that an effect size of .20 is small, .50 is moderate, and .80 is large. An effect size of .50 is commonly accepted as a clinically significant change, and .25 as an educationally significant change. Outdoor adventure programs typically achieve effect sizes between .30 to .40. Through our continual focus on outcomes and blending approaches to target a variety of learning styles, we continually refine our programs to increase our effectiveness.

View graphs showing outcomes for your group. We have also included a list of the comments provided on the satisfaction surveys.

Additional Comments

Effect sizes for change in self-efficacy were uniformly positive and significant, far exceeding the average effect sizes seen in typical adventure-based learning programs. Several factors responsible for these outcomes include; commitment and positive involvement of your management staff, highly trained and experienced facilitators and trainers, and the positive expectation conveyed by your CEO about this process. Also significant is that your company chose to pair Adventure and Experiential Learning with the PCM Experiencing Excellence Seminar. This pairing achieved outcomes that exceeded what would be expected with groups who invest only on the adventure course. These results support our belief in the positive synergy of paring classroom lecture with experiential learning.

Sample Recommendations

1. Monthly group coaching at your site or via conference call can enhance retention and application of the learning. We have found that integration of the concepts and realization of your goals continues to happen, much like peeling an onion, for months beyond the initial event.
2. Annual team-building and leadership development events can be supplemented by sending new supervisors to our open enrollment seminars so that they can have a shared language with those who have completed this training.
3. We can bring experiential learning to your site with “Adventures, to Go” allowing you to have periodic mini team-building events, or utilize games and initiatives to enhance learning around company initiatives.
4. Several participants indicated their desire to learn how to personally use games and initiatives to enhance their leadership skills. Supervisors may enroll in our “games and initiatives” workshops in order to gain some skills in using these methods to improve their leadership capabilities.
5. Advanced consultation and individual executive coaching is available for individuals who wish to pursue personal change goals or delve deeper into this material.

References