Outdoor Coaching Journal article publication in International Coaching Psychology Review, Autumn 2022

Nov 18, 2022 | Coaching, General

A few years ago I decided to start an MSc in Coaching and Behavioural Change at Henley Business School, as I wanted to further my coaching qualifications and wanted the opportunity to do some research. The last element of the MSc was a dissertation and from the very start of the course I knew I wanted to do my research into the benefits of coaching outdoors.

I didn’t realise at the time how little research there was in this area!

My love for the outdoors started when I was a small child and found myself spending all my spare time outside. Climbing trees, making mud pies and potions, watching nature, from the tiniest bugs amongst the leaves and flowers, to the large birds that often landed in our garden from the woodland opposite our house. On holidays I would always be found with my little fishing net rock pooling, searching for an ever illusive shrimp or crab skuttling amongst the little pools of water left by the tide. Nature has always been my solace and place to go when I’m feeling happy, sad, annoyed or in need of some time to reflect.

It became clear to me that I needed to find a way to meld my love for nature with my business, and I found outdoor coaching. Most people who have experienced outdoor coaching would probably tell you they didn’t know it was “a thing” until they tried it for the first time. I accidentally discovered it myself when I realised I often “walked and talked” with colleagues when they needed some coaching, mentoring or just someone to talk to.

So, doing research on the benefits of outdoor coaching was a no brainer for me.

I was fortunate enough to have Professor Jonathan Passmore as my dissertation supervisor at Henley Business School and he encouraged me to submit, with Jonathan as co-author, a somewhat shorter version of my dissertation research for submission to the BPS International Coaching Psychology Review. I was very excited when they accepted our submission and it has been published in the Autumn Edition 2022.

“Outdoor coaching: The role of Attention Restoration Theory as a framework for explaining the experience and benefits of eco-psychology coaching” (see link below).

Recently, David Clutterbuck shared a LinkedIn post about his shared belief that Attention Restoration Theory can help to explain the benefits of outdoor coaching, you can read it here

What is Attention Restoration Theory?

Attention Restoration Theory (ART) (Kaplan & Talbot, 1983; Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989; Kaplan, 1995; Kaplan & Berman, 2010) proposes that natural environments provide the brain with the opportunity to restore Directed Attention and increase cognitive capacity and capability.

It does so in 4 ways – through fascination, compatibility, extent and being away.

Directed Attention is very important when needing to think strategically, creatively and effectively. It is a very important brain function for coachees to be able to use to work through their challenges and develop solutions. It is, however, easily depleted. Introducing aspects of coaching that can help to restore this functionality during the coaching session itself can be highly beneficial – giving the coachee the opportunity to restore their cognitive capacity, and then use this boosted resource during the conversation.

Coaching outdoors, surrounded by nature and natural environments, is a great way to achieve this.

The research and what it found

I interviewed a number of coachees who had experienced outdoor coaching, asking them questions about what they experienced during their sessions, how it made them feel and what impact being outdoors had on their coaching outcomes.

Using thematic analysis (Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis) I discovered 6 key themes that describe the benefits of taking coaching conversations outdoors. They are summarised below, with more detail in the full journal article.

1) Side-by-side – walking or sitting alongside the coach is a unique aspect of outdoor coaching that differs to indoor coaching, where most conversations happen sat opposite each other. Being alongside one another gives the coachee the sense of being less scrutinised, less judged, more relaxed and builds a connection with the coach. Literally and metaphorically going on the journey together.

2) Movement and pace – being outdoors allows the coachee to play with movement and pace, to let it reflect their mood and express their emotions. Meandering, stomping, walking quickly, standing or sitting still, walking back over the same spot – all these ways of moving or being still give the coachee a mechanism to give their brain time to think.

3) Outdoor vs indoor – coachees drawn to outdoor coaching appear to feel constrained, trapped and confined when indoors. Being outdoors helps them to feel free, open, calm, relaxed or energised. They also experience awe, metaphor and analogy when outdoors in a way they are not able to indoors.

4) Different experiences and ways of thinking – being outdoors brings different experiences, different perspective and different ways of thinking. It is always changing, and with that change brings new analogies and new metaphors to experience and explore.

5) Openness, space and expanse – walking alongside a coach enables the coachee to experience the openness and expanse of the natural space in front of them. This leads to freedom of thought, a limitlessness, timelessness and removal of mental and physical boundaries.

6) Senses, feelings and emotions – outdoor coaching engages all the senses (even taste), which are uniquely experienced due to the outdoor setting. Using all the senses in often new and different ways helps coachees with sense-making and can lead to them feeling more grounded and anchored.

Other areas that came out of the research include: Nature connectedness, the role of the coach; logistics and location; the weather and the aspect of confidentiality. These are also briefly discussed in the summary I created of the findings (available here).

The full journal article also links each of the 6 key themes to facets of Attention Restoration Theory, helping to explain why these themes may benefit outdoor coachees so much.

What does this mean for coaching?

It is somewhat surprising that the experiences of outdoor coaching have not been more widely researched and empirically analysed before now. The anecdotal evidence from both coach practitioners and coachees strongly suggests that people experience huge benefits from taking coaching conversations outside.

The research will hopefully enable outdoor coach practitioners to a) better understand why coachees enjoy outdoor coaching and b) better understand the benefits and outcomes of great outdoor coaching sessions.Trying outdoor coaching

I cannot encourage you enough to try outdoor coaching. Whether it is a walk around a park near your office, alongside a canal, around a loch, or a hike up a hill or mountain. Or simply sitting on a bench in a park, or near a lake, or on a blanket on a woodland or forest floor. There are many ways to experience outdoor coaching.

I also recommend reading the chapter on Eco-Coaching (Burn and Watson) in “The Coaches’ Handbook” (2020).

In addition, Anna-Marie Watson and I co-host The Coaching Outdoors Podcast, with guests who discuss all aspects of outdoor coaching and share their experiences. These interviews provide a great insight into the many and varied types of outdoor coaching and the benefits that can be experienced.

If you are looking for an outdoor coach please do get in touch.

I’d like to thank Jonathan Passmore for encouraging me to submit my research for publication and being willing to put his name to it as well!

The Journal Article

You can purchase and download the journal article from the BPS website here, unless you are a BPS member in which case it is free to access:
Outdoor coaching: The role of Attention Restoration Theory as a framework for explaining the experience and benefits of eco-psychology coaching

Jonathan and I believe in openly sharing science so we have provided a full version of the research for you to download here

A few resources

1) Burn, A. & Watson, A. M. (2021). Eco-Coaching. In J. Passmore (eds), The Coaches’ Handbook: The Complete practitioners guide for professional coaches (pp.291-300). Abingdon: Routledge.

2) Kaplan, R & Kaplan, S (1989) “The experience of nature: a psychological perspective”. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

3) Kaplan, S & Berman, M.g (2010). Directed Attention as a Common Resource for Executive Functioning and Self-Regulation. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5(1), 43-57

4) Kaplan, S & Talbot, J.F (1983) Psychological benefits of a wilderness experience. In Altman, I & Wohlwill, J.F Eds Human Behaviour and Environment. New York:Plenum Press, Vol 6, Behaviour and the Natrual Environment, 163-203

5) Kaplan, S (1995). The restorative benefits of nature: towards an integrative framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 15, 169-182

The benefits of taking coaching conversations outdoors – what the research says

The benefits of taking coaching conversations outdoors – what the research says

Sep 7, 2020 | Coaching

Coaching has been a predominantly indoor activity since it emerged as a method for personal development and growth in the 1970s. More recently, outdoor coaching (sometimes referred to as eco-coaching) has appeared as a branch of coaching that takes these coaching conversations outdoors.

Coaches who offer this as part of their practice, and coachees who have experienced it, report wide ranging benefits such as better coaching outcomes and improvements to both mental and physical wellbeing.

Whilst the benefits of contact with nature and natural environments are widely researched across many fields (such as mental health, workplace psychology, education), there is currently very little research into the benefits specifically of coaching in natural environments.

I conducted research, for a Master’s dissertation, with the aim of discovering more about the experiences of outdoor coaching, described by coachees. To discover more about what impact having a coaching session outdoors has on the coachee’s experience of the coaching conversation, and the resulting coaching outcomes.

There are numerous research studies that have looked at how much time people now spend indoors – The National Human Activity Pattern Survey (NHAPS)¹ found that 86.9% of our total time was spent indoors. A more recent YouGov² report found that people think they spend about 66% of their time indoors, when in actual fact it is about 90%. They believe it can have far ranging effects on mental and physical wellbeing, from vitamin D deficiency, to lower productivity, lack of sleep to increased risk of asthma and obesity and a reduction in physical activity and mobility.

So, it is important for us not only to increase the amount of time we spend outdoors, but also to maximise it. Thinking about and approaching coaching differently and encouraging coaching conversations to happen outdoors can be hugely beneficial – not just for the coaching outcomes, but also for taking another step (pardon the pun) towards improving our predominantly sedentary and indoor lifestyles.

What did the research find?

This research found 7 key themes that describe the benefits of taking coaching conversations outdoors (although many other themes came out of the discussions with the coachees, these 7 were the ones that were mentioned the most). They are summarised below, with more detail in the full report.

  1. Side-by-side – walking or sitting alongside the coach is a unique aspect of outdoor coaching that differs to indoor coaching, where most conversations happen sat opposite each other. It gives the coachee the sense of being less scrutinised, less judged, more relaxed and builds a connection with the coach. Literally and metaphorically going on the journey together.
  2. Movement and pace – being outdoors allows the coachee to play with movement and pace, to let it reflect their mood and express their emotions. Meandering, stomping, walking quickly, standing or sitting still, walking back over the same spot – all these ways of moving or being still give the coachee a mechanism to give their brain time to think.
  3. Outdoor vs indoor – coachees drawn to outdoor coaching appear to feel constrained, trapped and confined when indoors. Being outdoors helps them to feel free, open, calm, relaxed or energised. They also experience awe, metaphor and analogy when outdoors in a way they are not able to indoors.
  4. Different experiences and ways of thinking – being outdoors brings different experiences, different perspective and different ways of thinking. It is always changing, and with that change brings new analogies and new metaphors to experience and explore.
  5. Openness, space and expanse – walking alongside a coach enables the coachee to experience the openness and expanse of the natural space in front of them. This leads to freedom of thought, a limitlessness, timelessness and removal of mental and physical boundaries.
  6. Nature connectedness – the weather, animals and nature all impact outdoor coaching sessions, bringing benefits to mental and physical wellbeing. Some coachees feel a close connection to certain animals, some to certain trees or plants. Some experience the restorative qualities of green spaces, others of blue spaces. Engaging physically with nature during an outdoor coaching session, such as touching a tree bark or leaf, or using a stick to draw in the dirt, enables coachees to creatively engage with nature and use metaphor and analogy.
  7. Senses, feelings and emotions – outdoor coaching engages all the senses (even taste), which are uniquely experienced due to the outdoor setting. Using all the senses in often new and different ways helps coachees with sense-making and can lead to them feeling more grounded and anchored.

Other areas that came out of the research include: the role of the coach; logistics and location; the weather and the aspect of confidentiality. These are also briefly discussed in the report.

What does this mean for coaching?

It is somewhat surprising that the experiences of outdoor coaching have not been more widely researched and empirically analysed before now. The anecdotal evidence from both coach practitioners and coachees strongly suggests that people experience huge benefits from taking coaching conversations outside.  

Both indoor and outdoor based coaches can benefit from aspects of this research. It sought to highlight the benefits of outdoor coaching, but some of these benefits, or variations on them, may be possible to replicate indoors so the research could advance the field of indoor coaching as well as outdoor coaching. The findings of this research will hopefully enable outdoor coach practitioners to a) better understand why coachees enjoy outdoor coaching and b) better understand the benefits and outcomes of great outdoor coaching sessions.

Trying outdoor coaching

I cannot encourage you enough to try outdoor coaching. Whether it is a walk around a park near your office, alongside a canal, around a loch, or a hike up a hill or mountain. Or simply sitting on a bench in a park, or near a lake, or on a blanket on a woodland or forest floor. There are many ways to experience outdoor coaching.

There are some logistical and planning considerations to be made, both by the coach and coachee, and the report provides some suggestions on what these are. For more information I also recommend reading the chapter on Eco-Coaching (Burn and Watson) in “The Coaches’ Handbook”³ due to be published in October 2020.

In addition, Anna-Marie Watson and I will be releasing a podcast series in Autumn 2020, with guest coaches who will discuss all aspects of outdoor coaching and share their experiences. These interviews will provide a great insight into the many and varied types of outdoor coaching and the benefits that can be experienced.

If you are looking for an outdoor coach please do get in touch and I can help you to find one in your area.

I always try to practice what I preach, so I am writing this sat outside before going off for a walk up the hill behind our cottage with the dogs. I now encourage you to take yourself outside……if you are not already!

The Report

For more detail on each of these themes, and how they link with research in other fields please download the full report.

https://alexburnconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/The-benefits-of-outdoor-coaching-what-the-research-says.pdf

Useful references

  1. Klepeis, N.E, Nelson, W.C, Ott, W.R, Robinson, J.P, Tsang, A.M, Switzer, P, Behar, J.V, Hern, S.C & Engelmann, W.H (2001) The National Human Activity Pattern Survey (NHAPS): a resource for assessing exposure to environmental pollutants.  Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology, 11, 231-252
  2. YouGov (2018) The Effects of Modern Indoor Living on Health, Wellbeing and Productivity, YouGov, viewed 31 January 2020, <Http://www.velux.nn/indoorgeneration.com>
  3. Passmore, J (2020). “The Coaches Handbook: The Complete Practitioner Guide for Professional Coaches”. London: Routledge.

Leadership lessons from puppy school

Feb 17, 2020 | Coaching

Articles

Leadership lessons from puppy school

I’ve been thinking about Trust a lot lately, and in particular the current level of mistrust there is in the world and how it might be impacting leaders and organisations.

A few years ago we got a puppy: a very head strong, independent, intelligent breed (an Airedale) who keeps us on our toes on a daily basis.

When anyone gets a puppy the first thing you do is start to communicate with them, what is allowed and isn’t allowed, setting them boundaries but giving them the freedom to develop into the amazing animal they are. I’ve had dogs in my life since the day I was born, but they’ve always been family dogs, primarily managed by my parents. This one is the first that my husband and I are wholly responsible for.

I started to reflect on our journey with our crazy little pup and realised how much insight I was getting into the world of trust. And how much of it was transferable to the world of leadership.

Primarily, the relationship with a puppy is built on a very, very important foundation of trust. If you’ve ever had the sad misfortune to meet a dog that has been given a bad start in life you will see the major reaction they have to anyone and everything is one of mistrust. They often just don’t understand what is being asked of them, and many are even scared and defensive. It takes a long time, and a lot of hard work, to encourage the dog to trust again. In many cases they never truly do.

So, when starting to communicate with a new puppy the key element is to gain their trust, because with trust comes everything else – they are more likely to behave appropriately, they are more likely to be sociable towards others (humans and animals alike), they are more likely to be independent and have a rich experience of their environment and they are more likely to repay with their own trust with loyalty.

And consistency is the key, as anyone who has ever worked with a new puppy will know. They will naturally push boundaries and check to make sure you are absolutely certain that you don’t want them to chew your shoes. But with consistency of message “do not chew my shoes” and reinforcing the good behaviour (i.e. dropping the shoe and chewing on a toy instead), rather than punishing the bad behaviour, the puppy will learn quickly that the message isn’t going to change. The appropriate and inappropriate behaviours are always going to be the same and the reaction of their owner will always be the same too. Consistency really is key. Of course, some puppies push boundaries a lot more and for a lot longer than others, but the more consistent the message the more likely they are to change and adopt the appropriate behaviours.

The same is the case for equality and fairness. We have 2 dogs, the other is now 9 years old and we adopted him from a friend. He’s known us all his life and I believe he trusted us, which helped tremendously with the successful move to live with us. We then introduced a puppy (the older dog was 6 at the time), after long conversations about the plan to do this in a way that wouldn’t upset the older dog. The key here, again, was to create a world of trust for our older dog. When we introduced the new member of our team, he needed to know that he could trust that she would fit and be able to work with him. Whatever boundaries we gave one, we also gave the other. When one was praised for an appropriate behaviour the other was also praised, equally, when they demonstrated the same behaviour. Similarly, inappropriate behaviours, were consistently, fairly and constructively dealt with in both dogs. The puppy was not allowed to demand attention that the older dog didn’t get or side-line him. They both got attention from both of us throughout the day – which is hard when the puppy demanded attention non-stop when she was awake, and the older dog initially found it easier to remove himself and watch the fun rather than get involved. But we made a conscious and consistent effort to include the older dog, facilitating play between the two of them not just between them and us.

The more I observed what we were doing and the more I observed the reaction from the puppy (and older dog), the more I realised the parallels with trust in leadership and teams. The message remained consistent, the appropriate and inappropriate behaviours were dealt with in the same way for everyone, inclusion was critical to ensure that relationships were built, and trust was earned, learning happened easily, quickly and freely, independence and autonomy was encouraged and observed daily, kindness and generosity towards others was frequent and natural, and the team is strong and better for it.

Thinking about situations where this kind of communication with a puppy doesn’t happen also has parallels with the world of leadership. Inconsistency of communication with a puppy can lead to them simply not understanding what is appropriate and what is inappropriate – yesterday you shouted at me for doing this but today you didn’t, does that mean I’m allowed to do it or not? Yesterday you praised me for this, but today you ignore it, what does this mean? The lack of trust caused by inconsistency, inequality and unfairness can lead to feelings of suspicion and even feeling psychological pain or being scared. I’ve sadly met people who have told me they are scared of their manager because they just don’t know how they’ll react to any given situation. There is zero consistency in praise, punishment or message. How can that engender trust? How can someone understand what is expected of them if it changes so often, or is different depending on whether they like you or not?
Seeing how our little team operates based on the principles of consistency, fairness, equality and inclusion gives me conviction that these are critical to trust and that trust is critical to the productivity and success of any team.

In summary, Leaders can learn a lot from puppy school when it comes to building trust:

  1. be consistent with how you communicate what behaviours are appropriate and inappropriate and how you praise the former and discourage the latter
  2. be fair and equal with your treatment of all team members
  3. be inclusive
  4. enable others to be independent, confident and support each other
  5. encourage learning and trying new things
  6. fear only leads to distrust, lack of understanding, suspicion and loneliness
  7. trust leads to confidence, learning, independence and inclusion

What you could do:
Ask yourself how consistent you are in the way you communicate with, interact with and react to your team.
Do you consider yourself a trustworthy leader? If so why? If not, why not?

What can you do to increase the levels of trust in your team?

Where can you observe trustful relationships in your life and what can you learn from these?

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