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Management skills through adventure
By Anuradha Samarajiva
It's four o'clock in the afternoon, and I'm sitting on a raft in a weedy lake. Calling it a raft is generous, seeing it's made of a few barrels and bamboo poles roped together. And I did say sitting, but 'floating half in the water' would be more accurate. The rest of the crew consists of fellow journalists with feet trailing in the water, some trying to keep cameras and notepads dry, others rowing happily. And this is an official press conference.

Our hosts are the Outward Bound Trust of Sri Lanka, a non-profit educational organisation, and its support, the Sri Lanka Business Development Centre. Since 1988, their overseas trained instructors have led over 12,000 participants from schools and offices on adventure programmes. The demanding excursions take place throughout Sri Lanka and range from one day to a week. Participants do confidence-building activities like abseiling, rock climbing, raft building and rafting. They also have teambuilding and trust games to bring everyone together as a group and highlight individual talents.

The international programme originated to help inexperienced sailors survive torpedo attacks during World War 11 is now adapted for management training extending to outside world. In Outward Bound, outside is the key word. Mohan Samarasinghe, the PR Manager of the Colombo GTZ office and a past participant, said the programme is unique because "it puts ordinary people in extraordinary situations". People are encouraged to move "outward" from their comfort zones and develop their hidden talents.

The activities promote empathy and teamwork.The organisers follow the highest safety standards, carrying out a health check on participants with varying physical fitness. However, the experience comes with a price tag. Generally, a two-night programme is Rs. 8,500 per head.

Is it effective? The HR Manager of Namunukula Plantations, Mr. K. Vijayakumar, described his experiences; "The workers understood the difficulties faced by the management and vice versa, and empathy was created.”Mr. Samarasinghe admitted he didn't expect the programme instructors lead discussions reflecting on what's been learnt.Added Luke Heslop, a programme instructor, "I don't think I've learnt so much from two years in the classroom as I have from ten months here".

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