Vertical Playpen

Phil chats with fellow facilitator and podcaster Leanne Hughes about how she began in facilitation, her advice for emerging professionals and how we describe the work we do; Facilitator vs Trainer vs Educator.  Find Leanne's podcast by searching First Time Facilitator and find more information about her work on her website: www.leannehughes.com    

Todd Brown (Director of Challenge Course Services, High 5) and Ian Doak (Assistant Director of Challenge Course Services, High 5) discuss with Phil the process of an inspection of your challenge course; how to prepare for the inspection, what to expect on the day, and some best practices/pitfalls our inspectors have seen. Learn more about our inspection services here: high5adventure.org/challenge-course-services/inspection-and-repair-services

Phil is joined by his hometown connection Andrew Jillings to talk about his journey in experiential education, the benefits of both experience and certifications, and his winter reading list. Find out more about Hamilton College's Outdoor Leadership Program here: hamilton.edu/offices/adventure

When making your activity agenda it can be helpful to intentionally pick activities that can help you read your group. In this episode we explore what some of these activities are and their benefits. In order to better explore this concept, Phil calls up 8 of his facilitator friends to ask them what activities they use and why. These facilitators are: - Chris Damboise (Director of Training and Team Development, High 5) - Ryan McCormick (Edge of Leadership Director, High 5) - Greg Urban (Project Adventure) - Justin McGlamery (Focus Your Locus) - Rick Keegan (Trainer, High 5) - Lisa Hunt (Manager of Team Development, High 5) - Megan Meinan (UVM) - Chris Ortiz (Penn State)

Bob Ryan (Director of Safety and Risk Management at Project Adventure) chats with Chris Damboise (Director of Training and Team Development at High 5) about his introduction to the adventure industry, his work with writing standards and his program recommendations based on his risk management experience.

Chris, Lisa and Phil talk about High 5's ACCT certification process including how to prepare, why you might want a certification, what the process looks like, and common pitfalls we see as examiners. Chris also introduces the concept of Education - Preparation - Illumination - Certification.  

In this episode, Phil and Jim are joined by Adam Ames (Type A) to discuss his experience being trained by Jim, the impact it had on him and the visual art piece that resulted from their experiences. Check out Type A's Team building (Align) here - typea.us/align    

Lisa and Phil discuss the concept of Risk Homeostasis Theory and how it presents itself in adventure programming and challenge course operations. Books referenced in this episode are: Target Risk by Gerald J. S. Wilde - download a free digital copy here: riskhomeostasis.org/links-to-target-risk The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande  

Sherry Bagley (AEE Executive Director) discusses her journey to leading AEE, all of the great ways to volunteer for the organization and the future of experiential education. The upcoming AEE International Virtual Conference info can be found here: aee.org/2020-international-virtual-conference

Chris, Lisa and Phil discuss a concept that is a large part of High 5 trainings and also features in some of our books; The Thinking Practitioner. It can be applied to both challenge course operation as well as adventure activities and leads to more confident and competent practitioners.