Emergent findings in social psychology point to the limitations of cognition and rationality; decision-making, it turns out, is highly over-rated. What this means for us: a focus on non-normal, training to failure, testing and sensemaking are uncommon, unlikely, and proven effective in building competency fast.
This workshop was presented at the Association for Outdoor Recreation and Education Conference in November 2015.

You can see a full video of this presentation that Jeff gave at the NOLS Faculty Summit in 2014.

Jeff Jackson brings a business management perspective that spans safety, adventure tourism, action sports, and education. Specializing in systems planning and safety management, Jeff is an award-winning educator whose strength lies in implementation and the practical application of theory.

Jeff is a professor and coordinator of Algonquin College’s Outdoor Adventure Program, a professional adventure guide training diploma, where he manages 14,000 student field days per year. He teaches courses in Leadership, Risk Management, Industry Analysis and Business Planning. He has worked as a guide, educator and manager since 1988, crossing a variety of disciplines, activities and corporate cultures.

His PhD work is in safety motivation and safety behaviour, with specific interest in work based safety culture and coworker influence. He speaks extensively on risk-related topics, and has contributions in several textbooks and published articles. Jeff is the co-author of Managing Risk, Systems Planning for Outdoor Adventure Programs. His consulting work has taken him around the world for tourism development, staff training and risk management projects. He has contributed expert opinion in legal cases and works with industry insurance providers, and is regularly sought for comment from media outlets.

Work experience includes leadership and management positions with Outward Bound, the National Outdoor Leadership School, and numerous commercial river outfitters. He operated a cross country ski resort and is a summer and winter trail manager. He is heavily involved in industry certification, trail development, and sits on a variety of boards, including the Ontario Tourism Outdoor Products Committee.

In his free time, Jeff is active in local trail tourism initiatives and is an avid whitewater paddler and competitive cyclist and cross country skier.