I’m a greeny!

Not in a political sense – in a “naturally drawn to it” sense.

🌳 I spent a full day this week listening to the recording of a recent BCC Coaching with Nature conference in the UK. The key take-out being that nature is calming, opens up creativity, and provides a break from our (mostly) grey working lives. Thanks to those who organised and presented (Judit Ábri von Bartheld MA, MCC, ACTC, Jonathan Passmore and many many more). I loved it.

🎨 I’ve also been thinking about an art class I did over summer on colour – the science and history of colour, pigments, paint types, and the magic of mixing them. I learnt lots.

Connecting these ideas…

🔬 The science part

Our retina has three types of colour receptors (blue, green and red). The green-sensitive ones sit in the middle and are in the best position to process brightness and detail. In simple terms: green is one of the easiest colours for our visual system to process.

🧬 The evolutionary part

For most of human history, green meant life and safety. Vegetation, water, shelter, food. So it’s not surprising that green environments often feel steady, calming, and restorative.

🤝 The coaching part

If you’ve worked with me, you might notice how colourful my slides are — often using greens and blues (another favourite).

You might also notice the high use of analogy in my work – often drawn from nature. Trees, birds, seasons, landscapes, weather systems, growth cycles. It shows up a lot.

And if the weather is nice and the location suitable, we might work outside. In direct contact with green.

I don’t consciously set out to use nature – but now that I think about it, the colours, language, metaphors, and environments I’m naturally drawn to bring nature into conversations – creating calm, unlocking creativity, and stepping away from grey working.

Perhaps I’m more of a greeny than I thought!

If you or your team would like a little more green in your lives, please get in touch. I’d love to have a chat about nature and coaching.

🐐 Let me introduce you to Billie!

I have a confession: I really like goats.

Not because they’re cute – even though they ARE cute! I like them because they are fearless, brave, and experimental. I’ve seen wild goats teetering on the sides of sheer rock faces – seemingly unfazed by their predicament – with me standing below wondering how they got there – and even more importantly, how they are going to get down.

🐐 Billie doesn’t have any cliffs in her pen – she’s very domesticated. But she still manages to find edges everywhere – the roof of her little hut, the kids’ jungle gym, or a log or two… anything that offers a slightly higher perspective and a bit of a challenge.

Coaching teams is similar - it’s about learning edges. Places where:

 • comfort ends

 • certainty drops 

 • real discovery, insight, experimentation takes place

 • and real shift happens

In today’s crazy VUCAH world, teams don’t need more predictable, boring, run-of-the-mill team building sessions. They're pretty much a waste of time. 

Teams need to practice balancing on edges, feeling comfortable with uncertainty, and learning how to stay present and work collaboratively when things feel wobbly. Team coaching isn’t about creating certainty and safety - it’s about building comfort in operating at the edge.

If you'd like to know more about learning edges and Team Coaching, please get in touch. And let's be more like Billie! 🐐

💩 Some teams say their purpose is simple - “get s**t done!”

True – but what s**t exactly?

Is there a shared understanding of what that s**t actually is?

Is that s**t what your stakeholders need from you?

And how is the team supporting each other and holding each other accountable in relation to that s**t?

So, what are the options?

1. Stick with “s**t.”

2. Ignore the conversation completely.

3. Tick a box – craft a beautifully worded statement full of meaningless buzzwords.

4. Build it – use a tactile approach, involving collaboration and active experimentation. Create shared symbols, words, and analogies. Something that actually means something!

I introduce LEGO® Serious Play® to some teams – a way to bring option 4 to life.

Picture of a recent build below. With very few prompts from me, the team created analogies that brought their purpose to life. I won’t share their analogies here - to protect confidentiality and avoid copycats - but I can share the themes that emerged:

💩 Collectively lead the organisation and influence culture

💩 Partner with stakeholders

💩 Collectively build the future

💩 Support each other and learning together

I’m confident this team won’t forget their purpose conversation anytime soon, or bury their team purpose statement in a dusty PowerPoint pack that emerges once a year.

If your team would like to build a purpose that means something, please get in touch. I’d love to have a chat about different approaches and share examples of work I’ve done with other teams.

💩 In the meantime – be specific about your “s**t”!