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Would you like to step outside?

More and more I am struck by the benefits which the outdoor space can provide us.  Here I consider how we might all enhance our lives by incorporating a little more outdoor working…

 

 

I am definitely an outdoor person.  I love the countryside and one of the first things which strikes me after working away and returning home to my beautiful rural village is the vibrant welcome I receive from birdsong.  Particularly the welcome from my beautiful male blackbird!

I feel energised, relaxed, in tune with myself when outdoors.  I feel much more productive, see things in perspective and able to prioritise more effectively.  I feel like a better me.  As the author, Henry David Thoreau declared:

 

“I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.”

 

If this is the case, is there a time and place to bring more of the outside into our work?

Can more of our activities, meetings, conversations, thinking time, preparation, workshops, coaching sessions be conducted outdoors?

One of the most memorable coaching sessions I’ve experienced was outdoors.  It was a peer coaching with Joanne Rule, a highly experienced coach, and took place during a coaching workshop facilitated and organised by Tamsin Hartley of The Listening Space (www.thelisteningspace.co.uk).

This particular outdoor experience was memorable for so many reasons and has prompted me to reflect on why it still remains with me….

 

Perfecting The Timing

One of the points is that the conversation did not begin immediately.  Walking through the streets and out into a vast space of meadow and parkland surrounding the town enabled us to feel at ease with each other, with a silence between us, with the pace we were setting and only after this occurred, did the coaching conversation begin.

And in our places of work, do we always get the timing right?  Do we listen and attune ourselves to our colleagues and clients before interactions?  What changes could you make to enhance your conversations?

 

The Multitude Of Metaphor

Being outdoors, and particularly when walking, can prompt and enhance thoughts and conversations by providing a vast variety of changing symbols and metaphors.  One example of this was with Joanne when she was inviting me to consider future choices.  To my left was a path towards a quarry factory; to my mind, a vast man-made, concrete, ugly building clashing starkly with the beauty of the countryside around it. To me it symbolised an option, an alternative, but one towards which I was feeling a huge amount of negativity, even anger that it was there.  Yet as we walked up the steep hill, the changing landscape provided other pathways, other options. Paths to my right meandering through beautiful meadows became visible and these paths, symbolising other alternatives, felt much more appealing, offering opportunities to explore, to learn, to grow, to be free.

Memorably at the brow of the hill, we looked behind us and, due to the layout of the land, the factory had incredibly disappeared from view. “It’s gone!” To me this option was no longer available and I was so, so relieved. I never wanted to entertain this option and that it could be something I no longer needed to consider was so freeing.  I laughed and laughed for some time… Thank you Joanne.

And what about you? Is there more use you can make of metaphors and symbols in your work, in your reflections and learning?

 

“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak”  Hans Hofmann

 

Promoting Honesty

Another key benefit of working and coaching outdoors is that it can free people up, both physically and mentally.  There are no walls to constrain thinking. It can help you connect on a very basic human level and lead to much franker, healthier, honest conversations. Perhaps, walking side by side, assists with providing this freedom, allowing colleagues and clients to share without the impact of eye contact and body language.

And what about you? How do you promote frank, honest conversations?

 

In addition, there are so many scientific benefits of the outdoors, that I feel there should be some momentum here. The great outdoors:

• Provides us with a natural, caffeine-free energy boost
• Provides us with our daily dose of vitamin D
• Lowers blood pressure
• Reduces stress
• Boosts our immune system
• Provides free aromatherapy
• Helps mitigate pain

So my challenge to you – “To incorporate a little more of the outdoors into your working life and see the benefits….”

Let me know your experiences.  I’d love to hear from you.

 

Janet Leonard

Imaginate Development

www.imaginatedevelopment.co.uk