{"id":98,"date":"2023-07-12T09:31:38","date_gmt":"2023-07-12T08:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/changing-ourselves\/?p=98"},"modified":"2023-07-12T09:33:31","modified_gmt":"2023-07-12T08:33:31","slug":"shall-we-take-this-outside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/changing-ourselves\/2023\/07\/12\/shall-we-take-this-outside\/","title":{"rendered":"Shall we take this outside?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Office work under open skies\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Windermere hadn\u2019t had any snow all winter, so it was a delightful awakening to see the carpet of white down to lake level under clear skies. We heard the shrieks as the other group had a cold water dip around the headland, and then shortly afterwards another shriek and splash as one of the canoe group inadvertently experienced the same thing.\u00a0 It was early March, and I was with a small group of colleagues from around the sector, experiencing some outdoor learning at Brathay Hall, all in the name of helping you, dear reader, get more out of your time at Bath, without disturbing the carp in the lake.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Walk the perimeter of the campus at lunchtime and you\u2019ll pass a steady stream of colleagues, alone or with others, getting away from the screen and taking the air. They may be enjoying the meadow of Bushey Norwood or the view from the Sham Castle, or snatching a glimpse of the goblins that live in the stone mines beyond the golf course.\u00a0 It\u2019s well established that for many people, getting out into nature has significant benefits for wellbeing and mental health, and you can find lots of books about why that is so. Outdoor education for children is hugely beneficial, and grown-ups occasionally get to do team building and leadership development through mud and suffering, and maybe building a bivouac. But the positive impact of being and moving outdoors also applies to things we might usually consider \u201cwork,\u201d and I feel we may be missing a trick by not using it more deliberately.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Walking-and-talking has been around forever, of course, but it\u2019s strange how few people choose to do it for work conversations, even informal catch-ups. Then there\u2019s the more recent expansion of coaching-while-walking, where trained coaches use the environment to set positive conditions for reflection and discussion, often using the environment to prompt different thinking through models and metaphors.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What seems much less developed, but well-supported by the evidence, is using the outdoors as a venue for group processes, the sort of connecting, creating work that we do so much of, in meeting rooms with flipcharts on and off campus. It struck me that with all the outdoor space around campus, we ought to be able to develop a line of practice that brings the benefits to more of our facilitation work. The event at Brathay was commissioned to explore this, and more broadly how prepared we are to bring uncomfortable new approaches \u2013 indoors or out - to our Universities. Comfort zones were challenged all round.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In this fine bit of summer, I\u2019ve had a go, a bit of team coaching while walking, a couple of team building sessions. Everyone was enthusiastic when I suggested working outside, and most remained so when we\u2019d finished. Of course we would do it differently next time; reflective practice is central to the whole thing. We have to be careful about the accessibility of outdoor spaces, but by gradually building the skills, we\u2019re hoping to have a whole new way to release some innovation and connection, under open skies.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be surprised, then, if the next time you ask me to facilitate your team meeting or coach your leaders, I say: \u201cShall we take this outside?\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Simon Inger<\/p>\n

Learning and Organisational Development Manager, Workforce Development Team, Department of Human Resources<\/span><\/p>\n

Resources & references<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Creativity Factor. (2022) Gary Pratt, Bloomsbury.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Experience of Nature: A Psychological Perspective<\/span><\/a>.<\/span> (1989).\u202f<\/span>Kaplan, R.<\/span><\/a>; Kaplan, S<\/span>. Cambridge University Press.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Brathay Trust.<\/span> https:\/\/www.brathay.org.uk\/<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Office work under open skies\u00a0 Windermere hadn\u2019t had any snow all winter, so it was a delightful awakening to see the carpet of white down to lake level under clear skies. We heard the shrieks as the other group had...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":369,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-simon-inger"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/changing-ourselves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/changing-ourselves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/changing-ourselves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/changing-ourselves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/369"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/changing-ourselves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/changing-ourselves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/changing-ourselves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/changing-ourselves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/changing-ourselves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}