17th Apr 2023
When I first read this client origin story from the founders of Thinking Outside, I could feel their energy bouncing through their words. Here they are with a refreshing, effective, important and frankly fun sounding way to do things differently...
Hello. We’re Sophie Lovejoy and Sara Corcoran from Thinking Outside Ltd, and we passionately believe that you and your team would do well to get out more.
Do you dread team days? Stuck inside a meeting room all day and often not covering the topics that really need to be discussed, do they really deliver what businesses need? Often the louder voices dominate the conversation, and it can be harder to engage the full breadth of ideas and experience present. Many people feel uncomfortable talking in this setting and dread being asked to contribute, preferring to keep quiet.
There is growing evidence that taking your thinking outside in nature gives better and longer-lasting results than traditional team events. More and more businesses are adopting this approach and seeing an increase in productivity, creativity and wellbeing as a result.
Thinking Outside clients talk about the richer and deeper conversations that are possible walking side by side and how the use of outdoor spaces results in deeper relationship building and more innovative thinking. What we do is especially relevant to the post covid world, building strong relationships across members of teams who spend much of their time interacting through their screens.
As well as providing team days – clients find our approach particularly effective for teams that aren’t running as smoothly as they might like – we can support with formulating strategy, developing a vision or reimagining a process. Our events are designed to be inclusive so all members of your team can be equally heard and involved. What we don’t do is outward bound-style challenges… we walk, talk, build connections and get commitment to action.
Our office can be field, forest, riverside, hill or park. In fact anywhere that works for our clients.
We have known each other for over 20 years and both have a focus on developing teams and individuals, despite having done different things throughout our careers.
Sara has a background in Organisational Development (OD) and HR so making workplaces the best they can be and developing organisations, teams and individuals has long been at the heart of her purpose. After a career culminating as Director of HR and OD helping to establish a new university, Sara qualified in 2020 as a Coach and established a private practice, working with Senior Executives and their teams.
Sophie has had a portfolio career and alongside her OD work in and with universities, she has done a range of things, from running rocket car workshops in schools for Bloodhound Education, to managing a café at a music festival for a few years. She’s also conducted over three hundred funerals in two decades working as an independent Humanist celebrant.
When Sara was introduced to the concept of coaching “in and with nature”, they soon discovered that this way of working played to both their strengths. This led to a conversation in early 2021 about working together and the creation of Thinking Outside.
Since then, we have worked in various locations across the UK with clients from a variety of sectors. In every case, we’ve found that getting teams and groups to take their thinking outside has deep and lasting results. An added bonus is that we reckon that happens around three times as quickly as we could achieve inside a meeting room. Our clients tell us that working in this way is hugely beneficial, and even the most sceptical of attendees have become converts to our approach. In fact, sometimes they become our biggest advocates and want to know when we’ll be working with them again!
Our passion and purpose is about helping teams and organisations develop and meet their goals alongside enjoying, appreciating and nurturing our natural world, having a heap of fun along the way. We still can’t believe how lucky we are to wear hiking boots to work!
Find Thinking Outside online:
Website: thinking-outside.co.uk
Instagram: instagram.com/thinkingout2021
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/thinking-outside-ltd
Facebook: facebook.com/ThinkingOut2021
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