| I thoroughly enjoyed my experience with the other folks who took this course, and I keep the name and address list of the Compass II folks on my office wall. It inspires me to work harder, since we worked so well together. I keep the group photograph of the Compass II class on my refrigerator at home to remind me of what a great time I had in that course. The whole experience reminded me for good that the NPS is still a really good place to be.- Course Participant | Intangible Benefits: Mixing It Up | |||
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One of the greatest benefits of any formal training experience is the
opportunity to learn from other participants, often on an informal level
after class is over. When people talk about the "good old days" of Ranger
Skills courses, for example, it isn't so much the coursework that they
remember, but the people from diverse backgrounds. Compass II magnifies
this phenomenon by not only pairing people from Big Cypress with those
from Big Bend, but also by pairing architects with administrators and rangers
with roofers. Such "cross-pollination" of seemingly widely divergent fields
only serves to strengthen commonalties, resulting in more of the camaraderie
that is a hallmark of the National Park Service family.
There was an indication that, when a course consisted primarily or exclusively of participants from one unit, there was less learning and more venting going on. This does a disservice to the participants from that unit, by limiting their vision of the bigger picture, and to participants representing other areas who may be greatly outnumbered, and feel intimidated to fully participate. As one participant wrote: "I was very bothered that there were so many people from the same parks attending….I found the clannish behavior disappointingly reminiscent of high school." A similar result was reported in the September 1998 Facilitators' Report on the NPS Leadership Seminar Program. Recommendation • Limit participation from any one unit to no more than one-third of the total number in the class. |