AGENCY, CHALLENGE, CHOICE, AND CONTROL
In his ambitious and weighty treatise, Tom Leahy describes
how to give all your guests and participants the gift of self-confidence, accomplishment, and a sense of control.
BY RICK KAHL
W hy do some aerial challenge participants struggle to a misadven - ture while others bask in the times of their lives? What can experiential programs, adventure parks, facilita - tors, guides, and monitors do to turn an emotional experience into a pos - itive outcome? Those are the ques - tions that inspired Tom Leahy to earn a master’s degree after more than 47 years of immersion in experiential education, and to publish his discov - eries in “Agency, Challenge, Choice, & Control.” What he learned can serve everyone from experiential program designers to first-time adventure park monitors, Leahy believes. API talked with him to find out how that might be so.
tial program, challenge by choice allows participants to leave their comfort zone and choose their own level of adven - ture. Sounds simple, yes? But challenge by choice, while widely preached, is far more difficult to achieve than most in - dustry players understand, Leahy says. “In all programs—facilitated, guided, even self-guided—we absolutely need to look a lot deeper into the experiences we offer, the stressors they create, and how we can help bring our guests and participants back into control,” he says.
course, it’s catching the bar on the tra - peze. In an adventure park, it’s wander - ing around and getting up to the black diamond or the green or blue, whatever route you choose, and completing it. People then judge themselves based upon how their performance compares with others they are closest to.” On the opposite end of the scale, some may interpret challenge by choice to mean, “I don’t have to do anything, I can refuse to take on any challenge at all.” Not so, Leahy says. For one, participa - tion on some level is expected when you are attending a program or outing with a social or professional group such as a school or business. But participants can define success using their own parameters, with help from a guide or facilitator. “It can be defined by your goals, and participation can look like you choosing how much you want to do. For example, a person might say, ‘I want to do the green route, you get to do the black route.’ Or, ‘I want to stay on the ground and belay. You can jump off the Leap of Faith.’” This control over goal setting allows for growth, says Leahy. As powerful as challenge by choice can be as a guiding principle, it’s not a pan - acea, he cautions. “It doesn’t solve the problem of people experiencing stress. The value that choice holds, I realize now, is that choice is a tool for us to learn how to be in control.
And, we might add, help make their adventure a positive one.
CHALLENGE BY CHOICE: IT’S COMPLICATED
CONTROL IS THE KEY
The end goal of experiential education, Leahy says, and often the by-product of an adventure in an aerial park, is to de - velop personal “agency”—”the ability to act with intention to achieve a desired outcome,” as he puts it. How do we achieve this for those who struggle with the challenges we present? The solution, he believes, is to teach people how to be in control of their adventures (and their lives) by mak - ing good choices when they confront challenges. That is the foundational idea behind “challenge by choice,” which is a mantra for most experiential education. Whether on a zip tour or in an experien -
Challenge by choice is a core concept of aerial adventures of all types, and it seems simple enough. But it is decep - tively complex, Leahy says: “’Do what you want to do, have the fun you want to have, challenge yourself, and then just know when to stop.’ It’s a brilliant concept, but it’s deeply misunderstood and harder in a social setting than any - one would believe possible.” For one thing, people often feel im - pelled to complete the entire course, and that negates any sense of choice. “Success,” says Leahy, “is seen as doing all seven or twelve zip lines and getting to the end of the game. On a challenge
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