Boulder – Jul 21, 2004 - The idea that adults learn best from experience was popularized and took hold in the last half of the last century thanks to important principles and practices on adult education from leaders like Malcolm Knowles and Stephen Brookfield. 5.12 Solutions (www.5.12solutions.com), the Rocky Mountain region’s most innovative corporate training and consulting firm, embraces this idea to successfully combine the art of adult learning with experiential activities in both outdoor and indoor settings.
Founded in 2002, the company offers customized team building, leadership development, business communications and project management workshops. While some of these programs are offered in traditional settings such as meeting rooms, the real draw is the company’s ability to harness the natural landscape of Colorado to offer outdoor settings that fold in experiences like Global Positioning Systems (GPS) Treasure Hunts, rock climbing, challenge courses and Habitat for Humanity building site locations.
“Like most adults I learn by experience and as I advanced in my corporate career I began to notice a need for moving workplace training out-of-the box to make the experience truly effective and unforgettable,” said Sal Silvester, founder of 5.12 Solutions. “We believe that, whenever possible, training should be experiential because accepted principles and practices of adult learning clearly direct that adults learn most effectively from ‘doing’.”
Sal, a former Army Officer and Accenture manager, dreamed of combining his corporate experience and his love for outdoor activities to bring unique experiences to other professionals. “What we offer is an innovative and collaborative environment that is conducive to inspired learning that can immediately be taken back to the workplace.” 5.12 Solutions’ newest offering, The Hi-tech Treasure Hunt, is a take-off of the latest high-tech adventure, Geocaching, where individuals use a GPS device to search for hidden caches around the globe. This spring, 5.12 Solutions became one of the first Colorado-based training companies to integrate Geocaching into its suite of team building and leadership development programs. Simply put, teams -- rather than individuals -- must work together to find hidden caches using a GPS device, compass, map, and each other. Armed with two-way radios and other resources, teams often are required to coordinate with each other and complete problem solving initiatives. This training method doesn’t necessarily teach a particular skill, but rather brings to life the necessity of teamwork to win the prize.
Burl Amsbury, VP of Product Development at Performance Health Technologies, agrees. His company was the first to experience this high-tech treasure hunt with 5.12 Solutions. According to Mr. Amsbury, “Geocaching is a great metaphor for business: The prize you're after may be clear, but the route to get there is not. Planning helps, but in the execution phase, deviations from the plan become necessary, different personalities bring different points of view and information to the decisions, and communications by radio can be garbled. The people from 5.12 Solutions do a fantastic job of following up the experiential lessons by facilitating constructive discussions of pinpoint relevance to the group attending.”
Today, 90 percent of 5.12 Solutions’ business is in Colorado but the company plans to adapt its programs for any number of geographic settings. Its clients include well-known organizations such as Caterpillar, Corporate Express, State of Colorado, Village Homes and Cherry Creek Mortgage.
“People in Colorado automatically understand the benefit of using outdoor experiences to learn something new in the workplace. We hope to bring that insight and opportunity to other parts of the country,” said Silvester.
Boulder based 5.12 solutions works with individuals and teams to inspire innovation across people, projects and processes. 5.12 Solutions can be reached at 303-579-5829, info@512solutions.com or at www.512solutions.com.