The
Fellside experience
Fellside
Centre - A secluded farmhouse setting, high up amongst the northern fells but
close to the picturesque village of Caldbeck in Cumbria. Up to 38 beds in small
dormitories and some single rooms for group leaders if you want, dining room,
cosy lounge with open fire for group work, with plenty of space outdoors in the
walled garden to the front and rear of the Centre.
Learning aims
- Development of teamwork skills
- Development of leadership skills
- Development of personal self-awareness and personal boundaries
“What did you notice? How did you feel?”
Focussing on
- Clarity of goal
- Operational
- Non-operational
- Cooperation
- What worked (behaviour)
- What didn’t work (behaviour)
- Giving effective feedback (theory and practice of this in a previous half day release session)
- Controversy versus creativity
Triangles of outcome
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COOPERATIVE - COMPETITIVE - INDIVIDUALISTIC
Group work options (from Group Skills – Johnson and Johnson)
- Components in an effective group
- Social interdependence
- Goal-related behaviour
- Clarity of goals
- Outcomes of cooperation
- Cohesion
- Trust
Some of the group discussion areas
-
Interaction - Communication
- Facilitation
- Peer influence
- Utilising the resources of others
- Divergent thinking
- Emotional involvement in the task
- Acceptance and support amongst group members
- Trust
- Conflict management
- Division of labour
- Fear of failure
Experience
Others are doing this too. The course is used annually or 6-monthly by the N Cumbria VTS and the W Cumbria VTS, and considerable experience has been gained about ways of delivering the course – each of us use it in slightly different ways. N Cumbria VTS use the sessions as the first meeting of the group on the scheme, W Cumbria VTS use it as an annual retreat for all GPRs on the scheme. I use the sessions for group development and for the specific learning aims as above.
Typical structure
2 days, residential, meals, equipment and bedding provided
- Session 1 – leadership and teamwork theory and group work
- Session 2 – outside “games” particularly exploring leadership, with the group process discussed as it happens using “process stops”.
- Session 3 – Raft-building, particularly exploring teamwork, with the group process discussed as it happens.
- Session 4 – Ghyll scrambling, particularly exploring boundaries and personal self awareness, with the group process discussed as it happens.
Cost
Usually around £50 per person for the 2 days, including overnight stay, food and 1 or 2 facilitators.
Booking are often limited to school holidays. There is often a narrow booking window between the development of the group and organising the event. The concept is supported in principle by several COs from phases 1 and 3. Any COs are invited to join me on a future planned trip!
Some of the feedback from the courses
What positive elements did you recognise?
- Courage
- Encouragement
- Listening
- Teamwork
- Role recognition
- Delegation
- Praise
- Adaptation
- Improvement in skills
- Improvement in behaviour
- Decision making
- Coordinating
- Commitment
- Persistence
- Support
- Patience
- Participation
- Assertiveness
- Achievement
- Problem solving
- Improvising
- Trust
- Enjoyment
What did the group learn about teamwork and leadership?
- Tasks made easier with teamwork (some probably not possible to solve without)
- Some "quiet" people manage to express themselves
- Getting stuck in sometimes best to do
- We work well as a group
- An individual's role can change depending on the dynamics of the other team members
- To sit back and watch required trust in the other team members
- To get a task completed, teamwork is necessary, and everyone's views and ideas will need to be taken into account
- Work is easier with good teamwork
- Seeing different attributes - people in "another light"
- Different environments break down misconceptions
- Different strengths under different stresses
- Personalities "magnified"
- Needing both leaders and team players
- Everyone sometimes being both
- Everyone in each role at some time
- Everyone has the skills for both
- Leadership
- Ideas
- Listening
- Management of group
What did the group members learn about themselves?
- Determination to achieve
- Experimenting with roles
- Energising
- Relaxing - time to think
- Getting to know people
- Looking at leadership in more detail
- Process of teamwork
- Less clarity - thinking about things
- More clarity
- Assertiveness vs confrontation
- Trust
- Risk taking
- Encouragement
- Conflict and contrast between team
- Effect of leaders on group
- Confirmed some behaviours
- Maybe not always an introvert?!?
- Enjoyed challenge of leading
- Appreciate "the outdoors"
- Confirmed lack of confidence in some areas
- Altered what is important to me
- More happy to sit back and watch than I thought
- I agree with this
- ...(although also more easily frustrated)
- Find it difficult to think about tasks that don't interest me
- Realised that I tried tact bossy
- Learned to listen to others before expressing my views
- Learned to work in a team
- Enjoyed outdoor activities
- Not willing to take risks
