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Outward Bound Professional
Take your team to new heights with OB Pro – Philadelphia’s premiere team-building resource.
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Build A High-Performance Team with OB Pro
High-performance teams outperform because they are built on trust, shared commitment, and accountability. These qualities fuel collaboration, innovation, and adaptability, giving organizations a clear advantage in an increasingly complex business landscape.
Philadelphia Outward Bound School’s Professional Programs (OB Pro) are designed to help organizations build these exact capacities through purpose-driven, experiential leadership development for adults.
Leadership Through Challenge
Grounded in high-performance team principles, OB Pro emphasizes perseverance, incremental challenge, and confidence in the ability to overcome obstacles. Participants are asked to step outside their comfort zones and work together through unfamiliar situations, strengthening both individual leadership capacity and collective effectiveness.
Experiential Learning for Adults
OB Pro programs use experiential learning and the internationally recognized Outward Bound curriculum to create purpose-driven team challenges. Through guided reflection and facilitated discussion, participants connect their experiences to real workplace dynamics, translating challenge into practical leadership insights that carry back to their teams and organizations.
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“I did OB Pro with my management team at Aetna after becoming CEO. A resistant group became a cohesive team in just three days, and that shift lasted for years. OB Pro played a meaningful role in helping us transform the company’s culture and focus on the future. I highly recommend OB Pro. And, it’s fun.”
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What OB Pro Builds
OB Pro experiences align teams, develop leaders, and unify groups around shared goals. Through challenge and guided reflection, participants strengthen communication, trust, problem solving, and goal planning while practicing the behaviors required for high-performing teams. The skills developed on course translate directly to how teams collaborate, make decisions, and perform in the workplace.
How Organizations Use OB Pro
Organizations partner with OB Pro in a variety of ways, including as an enhancement to professional development or corporate training, a tone-setting or culminating experience within leadership retreats, or an immersive onboarding experience for new employees at any level.
OB Pro is also effective during periods of transition or challenge, such as organizational growth, restructuring, siloed teams, culture shifts, or mergers and acquisitions. Programs are designed to respond to real workplace dynamics and organizational needs.
Challenge by Choice
All OB Pro programs are guided by the principle of Challenge by Choice, which allows participants to decide how and when to engage with a challenge without pressure from peers or instructors. This approach supports psychological safety while encouraging growth, ownership, and honest self-assessment.
Programs do not require a high level of physical fitness and are fully customizable. We work with organizations to design inclusive experiences and can accommodate most accessibility needs, including ADA considerations, so every participant can engage meaningfully.
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We're Ready For Your Team: Anytime, Anywhere
Our Location
Join us at The Discovery Center, our HQ in Fairmount Park, for team building on the James McLane Family Challenge Course. Or for a more woodsy feel, try our challenge elements in Wissahickon Valley Park.
Your Location
We can come to you! We do it all the time. Programs can be delivered in one of your conference rooms or corporate spaces, outside your facility, at a community space in your area, or even virtually.
A Third Location
We can design a program around your scheduled offsite meeting at a conference center or resort, or recommend an ideal venue for an impactful experience. Or suggest an expedition or other wilderness experience!
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Some of Our Clients
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OB Pro in Action
See how OB Pro challenges teams to step outside their comfort zones and build the trust, leadership, and collaboration required for high performance. Designed for professionals, these experiences translate challenge into real-world team effectiveness.
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Start a Conversation
Complete our consultation form to begin the conversation. We’ll follow up to learn more about your team, your goals, and the context you’re working within, then design a custom OB Pro experience tailored to your needs.
Programs are shaped around factors such as team objectives, group size, timing, location, and the level of planning and follow-up desired. Whether your organization is navigating change or looking to strengthen collaboration and leadership, our experienced facilitators will work with you to design a program that moves your team forward.
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