Part 1 -  Building Trust and Collaboration Outdoors

In today’s fast-paced work environment, it’s easy for teams to lose sight of their core values: collaboration, trust, and communication. These qualities are essential for high-performing teams, but creating an environment where they can thrive isn’t always straightforward. That’s where nature-based team coaching comes in🌿

In this three-part series, I’ll explore how getting your team outdoors can help strengthen trust, enhance collaboration, and ultimately boost performance. In this first part, I’ll focus on how nature-based coaching can help build trust among your team members and create a more collaborative environment.

Taking teams outside the office and into natural settings offers a refreshing change of pace - one that allows for honest interactions and the opportunity to work together in new ways. Nature provides a unique, stress-reducing backdrop that fosters openness and a sense of shared purpose, making it an ideal setting for strengthening trust and improving teamwork. So how exactly does outdoor coaching achieve this?

The Trust-Boosting Power of Nature

Trust is the foundation of any high-functioning team. Without trust, collaboration and communication break down, leading to misunderstandings, low morale, and inefficiency. According to a Harvard Business Review study, teams with high levels of trust are 12 times more likely to report a strong sense of collaboration and success. Yet, trust doesn’t always come easily in large organisations, especially in high-stress environments.

This is where nature can make a real difference. When you take your team out of the office and into nature, you provide them with a space to interact without the usual pressures of work. Nature fosters a non-judgmental environment that encourages openness and collaboration. Another study from Harvard Health shows that spending just 20 to 30 minutes in an outdoor setting can lower stress levels. This helps create a calmer atmosphere, which in turn encourages more honest conversations—essential for building trust within a team.

How Outdoor Coaching Fosters Collaboration

Nature’s wide-open spaces and immersive experiences create the ideal setting for team-building activities that boost collaboration. From navigating a hike to solving outdoor problem-solving challenges, nature helps teams break out of their usual work patterns and approach communication and cooperation with fresh eyes.

How I Can Help: Nature-Based Coaching for Collaboration and Trust

As a certified coach, I specialise in helping teams harness the power of nature to build trust, improve communication, and collaborate more effectively. Through team diagnostics and a tailored nature-based coaching programme, I help you create the right environment for your team to thrive long after they have returned back to their desks.

Stay tuned for part 2 where I will be covering how nature-based coaching promotes resilience and enhanced communication.

In the meantime, if you would like more information about how I can help you and your team, head to the Team Development section of my website or sign up for my weekly email: Elevate Your Week where I share practical ways to embrace nature to elevate your Mindset, your Movement and your Motivation.