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Performance wellbeing is at the heart of our support for a major global organisation, as we work with senior teams on a journey to enable high performance during a period of significant transformation.
Through this three-year programme, senior leaders and their first-line teams are being opened up to shared experiences with the space to connect, experience wellbeing together and shift their thinking by being in inspiring environments in nature. The team journeys, aligned with our client’s high-performance collaboration approach, embrace environmental design principles to provide strong stimuli for great conversations that support them in their leadership roles, not just in the context of high performance but also with a focus on their wellbeing.
Team journeys are aligned with the overall programme principles while being tailored to specific needs, with activities and experiences relevant to each team’s situation and delivered at the right pace for them.
Wellness as an enabler of high performance
At each event, we begin every day with a wellness primer – perhaps yoga, mindfulness or a nature walk. There’s so much science and research into the power of nature for wellbeing and how committing to wellness goals has strong links with the ability to view it through a lens of increased high performance.
Leading Edge Performance are supporting this client on a global scale, meaning locations such as Banff, Barcelona, Cancun and the Cotswolds are just some of the amazing places chosen – providing plenty of choice for stimulating environments.
One way we bring to life how we thrive in nature is through the Nature Pyramid*, which visualises the benefits of having little ‘doses’ of nature daily, weekly, monthly and annually. We share reading ideas and give books to team members as part of this focus.
To deliver on the all-important design principles, we’ve been seeking out venues with stimulating surroundings, plenty of outdoor space for walking and talking, and a variety of room types and layouts – all spacious and with plenty of natural light.
These types of environments are creating the optimal space for teams to have shared experiences and the opportunity to connect on a deeper level.
Conversations that shift the dial
The Cotswold event provided the nature-rich environment and farmhouse-feel venue to enable space for deeper connections and great conversations. Our goldfish bowl activity stands out from our time together in the Cotswolds, allowing the team to explore tensions from three different perspectives, driven by their roles within the organisation.
In this activity, the first group sat round and discussed how the organisational transformation was feeling for them. The other two groups sat on the outside and listened to the goldfish bowl, not contributing in any way. The next group switched in and shared how things were feeling for them while summarising what they’d heard from the first group. The third group then became the goldfish bowl and did the same, with everyone’s knowledge of other people’s perspectives building all the time.
Mixed across the groups, they went on walks to have key conversations about what came up and what actions needed to happen. Talking outside, in nature, walking side by side, makes it easier to tap into a more creative and solutions brain mindset and provide an opportunity to decompress and get richness into the conversation to drive a higher sense of performance. The environment really played its part here.
The outcome was a realisation that they were playing on different pitches, and a commitment to playing on the same pitch, understanding their roles and defining the rules for the game. Reaching the next level with these tensions was a significant ‘unlocker’.
Time together as a team
As we work with global teams, the team travel from around the world for these events and we want them to go away feeling they’ve made progress, not only as a team but also on the key business topics. As Team Coaches, we weave in themes from their agreed high performance collaboration principles and take every opportunity to team coach in the moment, encouraging them to put learnings into practice – building the muscle – and commit to high performance.
Being in each other’s company while experiencing something different – being out of the everyday – creates a natural space and opportunity to build a deeper connection and grow trust. The locations we’re choosing are providing amazing opportunities for this, whether feedback walks around Lake Louise followed by silent moments while forest bathing in Banff, or being in the company of high performance sportspeople, hearing their inspirational stories and chatting over dinner at a relaxed Cotswolds pub.
My sporting background means I’m very aware of the environment needed for people to flourish. At training camps, for example, the overall experience is planned in detail to make sure people can be high performing. People need priming in the right way, too, with wellness as the driver. It’s an enabler, not an add-on.
Through these new experiences and environmental design principles, we’re bringing in the richness of stimulus and going deeper with insight through human intelligence to make it easier for people to be open and connect deeply on their high-performance journey.
We set time aside pre-dinner for reflection, choosing a lovely spot outdoors (wrapped up in blankets around a firepit in Banff was a memorable moment for us all). This allows time and space to build their reflections about the journey. We’re seeing how they’re committing to their wellbeing goals and, as a leadership team, committing to a culture of wellbeing and how it links to high performance.
*Nature Pyramid: concept, Tanya Denckla Cobb at the University of Virginia, developed by Tim Beatley
