How do you inspire others to engage in experiential learning?

Some ways to get started- Asking the what who how when why question to yourself. Then, understanding the need for it and what impact will it bring to us and other people. You can connect the dots later on in life.

In presentations to students, I carry along my trusty unicorn-ducky. I ask them what animal the uni-duck is and I'm met with a range of answers. We start to talk about whether they think it's allowed to be both. Unsurprisingly - they exclaim "of course!" and we begin to talk about what really makes up a person and how we develop our identities as a result of our experiences. Reframing how students think about experiential learning as linked to who they are as people generates their inspiration to FIND OUT who they are.

Yes, creating a 'Safe Space' in Experiential learning is very important, since we learn from the mistakes that we make. It can be embarrassing at times but it rewards us well in the long run.

From my recent experience, experiential learning promotes positive platform where attendees are encouraged to explore their own reflection through active engagement and analysis of their skills, behaviors and attitudes. The best outcomes from such trainings are generated through a learning environment that facilitates learning. If you are organizing or planning a training session, this type of learning methodology yields results that traditional learning is unable to replicate. Happy learning!

Let's not confine ourselves to constraints here. Freedom to think freely should be promoted to develop a pool of ideas and concepts. Keep on experimenting and exploring, later on, we can segregate our ideas based on the immediate requirements.

Peer to peer learning is super important here. We need to be good observers and good listeners first, then get our hands dirty by trusting the process and actually doing things.

Mindfulness should be promoted. We need to understand and have control over our own thoughts. That is crucial in experiential learning in order for us to reflect on the questions of what who how when why.

From my perspective, inspiring others to engage in experiential learning involves a few key practices. Firstly, we prioritize debriefing every project with clients and suppliers, reflecting with the team to ensure everyone learns from the experience. By examining what worked and what didn’t, we can improve future projects. Additionally, we embrace mistakes as part of the learning process. It’s okay to be wrong and to allow people to fail, as these experiences are crucial for growth and improvement. By fostering an environment where reflection and learning from both successes and failures are encouraged, we can inspire a culture of continuous experiential learning.

So in answer to the original question of how to inspire...I don't seek to inspire. I set up environments in which there are opportunities to play, and engage with some new things. With nothing expected. And then I invite people to play. And some come and some don't. However, once they have been there and played, they often share, and their sharing appears to inspire others who might have been reluctant. And...like everything, some won't ever want to play. And that's fine. The problem is that people are trying to control outcomes instead of notice the outcomes people have as a natural consequence of encountering an environment.

Experiential learning functions best when it's not too rigidly applied, trying to control outcomes. If you have to persuade people to do it, you've already lost. If you have to ensure they get what you think they should get, you've already lost...imagine a child...in the simply act of play, stacking blocks. They don't know what the outcome is supposed to be. They don't know what they're supposed to learn or how it will benefit from it. But they will play at it for hours. I know, I watched my son do it. And he also did learn. He learned about balance, counting, gravity, hand eye coordination, perseverance and other things. ALL while in the simple act of 'playing at blocks'.

My experience is that with almost any experiential training, those leading (instructors) if you want to call them, always want to interject their ideas and comments especially when the group is headed to failure. The hardest thing is to avoid getting involved, let failure or success occur, and let the participants figure out another path. As facilitators, the less you are involved, the more the group learns.