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Whose Standard Is the Industry Standard in the Outdoors?
by Christopher Bartram, Associate Consultant Dr. Erik Rabinowitz (Appalachian State University) and I began our first spirited discussions on the topic of industry standards as I stepped into my first position as an Assistant Program Director at a university. I had high hopes and high expectations for the program and wanted to do my best to ensure our students had access to the resources and training they needed for us to provide safe and successful programs. I immediately f
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants - Learning from the Safety II / HOP Community
Presenting at outdoor & experiential education conferences is an enjoyable part of our work at Experiential Consulting. We always learn...
Navigating Risk and Innovation in Program Leadership — Lessons from Backcountry Skiing in Alaska
by Chris Bartram, Associate Consultant What can decision-making during three weeks of backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering in Alaska...
How Can We Manage Safety If We Don't Agree What It Is?
A recent study published in Safety Science provides an overview and summary of the schools of thought regarding how we define Safety.
UPDATED: Federal Government Layoffs and Executive Orders: Risk Management Implications
Last Update : April 6, 2025 - adding information about most recent Executive Order Anyone running an outdoor or experiential education...
How Cognitive Biases Short-Circuit Learning From Incidents
“Rather than perceiving time as a continuum, we tend to think about our lives as episodes, creating story arcs from the notable incidents...
Experiential Consulting and Outdoor Promise: Working Together to Connect Underserved Communities to Nature
Experiential Consulting and Outdoor Promise recently started exploring how we might be able to collaborate to help Outdoor Promise...
The Mountain Center: Blending Traditional and Contemporary Thinking for Trauma-Informed, Risk-Aware Therapeutic Programming
The Mountain Center and Experiential Consulting - Blending traditional and contemporary thinking for trauma-informed, risk-aware programs
Learning, Not Blaming, When Incidents Occur
The Blame Cycle Occupational Safety researcher James Reason describes a destructive cycle that organizations and people can find...
What happens if we fail to learn from our near-misses?
The Boeing 737 MAX crashes reveal an opportunity for outdoor program leadership to learn crucial lessons about systems thinking, near-miss r
