Workouts

The group workouts are run by an accredited and licensed JOLT Challenge facilitator. The workouts are done on-site in a private training room (minimum of 40sqm required) or offsite if such a room isn’t available. The 10 workouts are booked at a consistent time over a 9 week consecutive block of 90 minutes.

To ensure quality learning, there is a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 16 people on each program.
The non-judgmental environment allows participants to gain insights from themselves and others as they partake on a shared journey.

Experiential Learning

“Learning is experience. Everything else is just information.”

Albert Einstein, physicist

The JOLT Challenge workouts are based on the educational theorist David Kolb’s theory of experiential learning. That is, you need to experience the new learning, reflect on it, form new ideas as a result of that reflection, and then put those new ways into practise in your life.

Stage 1: Concrete experience
You have an experience by doing the exercise and activity whether it’s in the journal or workouts.

Stage 2: Reflective observation on that experience
You observe what’s going on while you’re doing the exercise and reflect upon it after.

Stage 3: Abstract Conceptualism (Forming abstract ideas)
You figure out why you did what you did and how you can improve things or yourself.

Stage 4: Testing through active experimentation
You repeat the task again doing what you think it is that will improve your performance.

This cycle continues again and again until you have achieved mastery of that activity or skill.

“One must learn by doing the thing; though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try.”

Sophocles, playwright

Corporate psychologists John Luckner and Reldan Nadler who wrote the book Processing the Experience: Enhancing and Generalizing Learning highlight why learning by doing is so effective.

1. Equality
The workouts provide a common and yet novel experience where all participants are equal in their knowledge about the exercises and activities that they will have to do.

2. Developing relationships quickly
Participants interact in close proximity while working on challenges. Relationships quickly develop due to the communication, collaboration and effort required.

3. Disequilibrium
The unfamiliarity of the exercises and activities puts people in a state of disequilibrium or disorder. Status is levelled and the normal roles, defenses and prior experience of the participants aren’t so relevant in this learning environment.

4. Projective technique
The exercises act as a mirror as participants do what they typically do, revealing their thoughts, emotions and behaviour to themselves. The learning from this is very profound and has an ongoing impact on their thoughts, emotions and behaviour.

5. Decreased time cycle
The consequences of the decisions can be seen almost immediately in the learning environment due to the space between the exercises and the outcomes being so compressed.

6. Chaos and Crisis in a Safe Environment
In a safe environment participants can experience chaos, crisis and change without the fear of being judged or criticised for failure.

7. Kinaesthetic Imprint
Experiential learning is an anchor for cognitive material. It enters muscle memory because the activities get people involved on a physical, emotional and intellectual level.

8. Common language
The workouts provide a common language, experience and story, which allow participants to see themselves and other people and perspectives in a new light.

9. Encourage Risk Taking
Participants can take risks, make mistakes and try something different and new without fear of reprisal. As people take these risks, it pushes the entire group to seek ways of extending their comfort zone.

10. Fun
Fun and learning aren’t mutually exclusive. As they enjoy the experience, the barriers to learning drop away and the participants become more open to the learning.

“What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand.”

Kung Fu Tsu (Confucius), philosopher