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Our approach

Experiential Learning

Whether your Impact programme is in-person, blended or virtual, our unique approach to experiential learning is the most effective way we know how to help you solve your organisational challenges.

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What is experiential learning?

At Impact, we have a simple way of describing our unique approach: it is memorable, consequential, and transferable.

Our programmes are memorable. They are custom designed to serve your organisational purpose, made up of projects that are fun, challenging and take people out of their comfort zone.

The outcomes are consequential. Learning is facilitated in such a way that participants can explore new ways of approaching a situation, gathering knowledge, developing practical skills and testing their ability.

And most importantly the learning is transferable. Individuals leave with the ability to apply the techniques learnt, an outcome that many describe as life changing for themselves and their organisations.

Using experiential learning to get results

Our approach to experiential learning wakes up the individual in an organisation, liberating their potential to become a better, more compassionate leader, to engage with your purpose and improve your organisation.

All of our programmes are experiential because of our fundamental belief in the value of personal and collective experience – not as an alternative to knowledge, theory or skills, but as the best way to help these inputs be understood, tested and most importantly, put into action.

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Impact’s experiential learning methodology integrates the four domains we believe are required to drive lasting behaviour change. These are:

Knowledge: this conceptual domain is about learning from books, videos and established expertise, which is codified, cumulative and fixed. 

Skills: this practical domain is about competence; this learning might be practised but it is driven by expert tuition and direct guidance rather than being self-led. 

Direct encounter: this is where the learner actively engages with the learning need and begins to integrate knowledge and skill acquisition with trying to deliver a result. This domain is driven by the learner and integrated with the final domain. 

Reflection: this is the domain in which we process material from the other domains. This is vital to internalise and integrate learning into new behaviours, mindsets and actions. 

Traditional educational approaches to learning design typically focus on knowledge and skills, taking a ‘tell/test’ approach to applying what experts have told or taught us. But for complex learning needs that drive behaviour change, the route to building expertise requires an active engagement. This means directly encountering the learning objective and organisational purpose and actively and expertly reflecting on putting knowledge and expert tuition into practice. In this way all domains of our model are activated alongside each other. 

Our approach isn’t cyclical because that isn’t how learning is applied in real life. Instead we teach our methodology in a way that learners understand how to move between the four domains, depending on their needs, your purpose and the immediate context. 

There is no such thing as a 'typical programme' with Impact. You might chose to bring your executive team together for an in-person event that includes a multi-day outdoor journey. Or perhaps your high-potential talent will be challenged with some high energy interventions in a large conference venue. You may plan a large scale roll out that requires your senior leaders to collaborate in small groups over a digital platform.

Whoever, wherever and whatever your learning outcomes. All of our experiential programmes will feature a series of projects that have a ‘problem’ with no clear answer. Success or failure is largely irrelevant – what is important is the opportunity for people to see what happens when they step outside of their comfort zone and test their preconceptions and their relationships with others.

Under the guidance of our expert facilitators and using our learning model as a central reference, these projects allow individuals to challenge themselves in a safe space, to see how their values, beliefs and communication styles influence what they do and what they understand themselves to be capable of. The shared experience of experiential learning quickly builds trust and encourages a place for open dialogue, to explore leadership styles, own a change process and embrace an organisational purpose.

Impact is the world leader in experiential learning. For 40+ years, we have been working in collaboration with leading client organisations, facilitators and academics across the world offering award-winning solutions. 

Today we are the only expert experiential training company to be working at a global scale with many of the world’s most successful and purpose-led companies. 

Our expertise is in both designing and delivering integrated experiential learning using our unique methodology. Our learning journeys are not linear, and they can and will shift in the moment, depending on the learning need. Our solutions are custom-designed and custom delivered - there is not one size fits all.

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