I offer outdoor team workshops for organisations. These have many advantages over workshops held in a training room:
- Being outdoors helps us to relax and reduces our perceived stress levels. We find it easier to connect with ourselves and our environment.
- We interact with others more as equals. Communication is easier, more positive and constructive.
- We discover new aspects of one another and connect with each other in a new way.
- Gentle movement in the great outdoors helps our thoughts to flow. We gain new perspectives; our view of a topic shifts and new possibilities emerge. This helps us to find solutions.
- Nature serves as a source of inspiration. Stimuli such as the call of a bird or a sunlit boulder can lead to potential solutions.
In a nutshell: My experience has been:
- At first, nature acts as a means of slowing things down for the participants, and then as a co-creator and catalyst of the process.
- Furthermore, the experience of reflecting and working together in nature leaves a lasting impression and plays a key role in facilitating change and implementation.
Opportunities for outdoor team workshops could be:
- Team retreat/team day, e.g. to build resilience
- Team reflection on collaboration/ the financial year/ a project
- Team-building following changes to the team’s personnel
- Transition workshop following the appointment of a new manager
- Strategy and vision development
- Delivering training on specific topics such as resilience, communication, leadership, decision-making and many more
Workshops in the great outdoors are therefore particularly suitable for the following target groups:
- Organisational units such as departments
- Cross-departmental working groups
- An organisation’s management team
- Cross-institutional (project) teams and working groups
Ideally, the number of participants should be between four and twelve. For larger groups, I will be joined by a colleague to facilitate the workshop.
What happens in outdoor team workshops?
I work primarily with methods drawn from systemic coaching, incorporating nature into the process. This means we work not only in, but also with nature. We make use of natural objects such as pine cones, leaves and twigs, as well as forest paths and the arrangement of trees. The content and methodology are tailored in close consultation with you and in line with your concerns and needs.
You can find information on outdoor coaching here.
Please get in touch! I’ll be happy to advise you.
Practical information
- Rain, toilets and so on: If you have any concerns about rain, the lack of a toilet, or if good catering is important to you, I recommend choosing a seminar room or conference venue set in natural surroundings, which serves as both the starting and finishing point for your workshop and offers lunch. Should the weather prevent us from holding a longer workshop session outdoors, part of the workshop will take place in the seminar room. This gives you flexibility, and the workshop can be held both indoors and outdoors. There are many seminar venues that are ideal for this. I’d be happy to advise you.
- As a general rule, workshops can take place outdoors in any weather, except in the event of storms, thunderstorms or hail. Every weather condition can be put to good use in its own special way. I recommend wearing clothing suitable for the weather.
- Fitness: Fitness is not a prerequisite for workshops in the great outdoors. The focus is on slowing down and taking time for reflection. On natural forest paths, participants should be able to walk at a pace of up to two kilometres per hour.
- Accessibility: I’d be happy to advise you so that individual needs can be taken into account.
Customer testimonials on outdoor team workshops
Team day in the great outdoors
“The workshop day with Andrea Bruhn was a valuable and enriching experience for our foundation team. Together, we immersed ourselves in nature and were able to let its soothing powers work their magic on us. Thanks to the insights gained from outdoor coaching and resilience training, we received practical suggestions that have strengthened us both personally and professionally. We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Andrea Bruhn for her professional guidance, her thoughtful organisation and the inspiring way in which she made this day such a special experience.”, Karl Schlecht Foundation (KSG)
Delivering content-based topics in a natural setting
“Ms Andrea Bruhn held two seminars on the topics of resilience and communication for our administrative staff. At both seminars, Ms Bruhn provided valuable input in terms of content and subject matter. We found her focus on the target group particularly helpful. She always kept an eye on the individual participants and deviated from her concept when necessary. Ms Bruhn also succeeded in motivating the participants with elements of outdoor-coaching and, above all, in conveying them insights for strengthening their own resilience and improving communication in their everyday work. We greatly appreciated working with Ms Bruhn.”, Public corporation
You can read more customer testimonials here.