Get your Team Working Better – Walking Together
- by Jackie Jarvis The Walking Business Coach & Natural Selling Expert
Effectively working together as a team is important in every business. When there is conflict, broken relationships, stresses and strains between people or a lack of understanding of the pressures within different departments or with different jobs, there will be difficulties and challenges with growth.
The stronger your relationships within your team the better placed they will be to deal with challenges and change.
Well-being matters
Team well-being is also important. Many businesses are looking at ways in which they can provide support for their employees so that they feel good whilst working together.
They may have a recreation area with a pool table and a massage chair, healthy snacks on tap, arrange team days or evenings out, give gym memberships in their benefits package, encourage cycle to work, using the stairs and more.
Mental well-being is an area of concern for many organisations, with 2017/18 15.4 million days off sick due to work related stress http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/causdis/stress.pdf
The magic of walking together
Nature can be our greatest healer, whilst walking together can be our greatest relationship builder and ideas generator.
As a walking business coach, I take busy, very often over loaded business owners away from their normal office environment and out into the countryside for their monthly coaching sessions. I call it walk, talk and plan. Having seen it work like magic for an individual and I wondered if it could work in a similar way for a team.
Our Natural Netwalking netwalks now regularly bring business owners and their employees together for a walk from different businesses for networking and well -being.
Deepen thoughts and take more purposeful action
Research has found walking with someone else helps generate ideas and solve problems leading to deeper thoughts and more purposeful action (Kahneman 2011) I have certainly found this to be true. There are mood boosting benefits too, the exercise generates endorphins which are useful to help over come challenges and conflict more naturally.
Walking together therefore creates the ideal set of conditions for team bonding and breakthrough.
3 in one
Team netwalking is not just a walk but a purposeful team building activity. It needs to be set up, delivered and followed up in exactly the right way to achieve the measurable outcomes you want.
Team netwalking can be a great way to support your team’s well-being, strengthen relationships and creative problem solve all at the same time.
