The Organisational Gardener

In 2023 I started an online coaching practice.  It was a year-long programme that combined 1-to-1 coaching sessions, with a training programme on leadership and group coaching with participants.  I will explain more about that experience in another post, but the issue was that the online intensity started to take a toll on the participants, but more so on myself.  That is how I started to follow coaches talking and writing about coaching outdoors.  

My first research of UK-based practitioners on coaching outdoors identified the following resources

• BOOK – Coaching Outdoors: The Essential Guide to Partnering With Nature in Your Coaching Conversations; by Lesley Roberts. 
• BOOK: Outdoor Coaching – A Practical Guide for Coaches and Supervisors to Working with Clients, Teams and Groups Using Blue-Green Psychology; by Jonathan Passmore & Ellie Lloyd-Jones
• eBOOK – The Benefits of Taking Coaching Conversations Outdoors: What the research says by Alex Burn. 
• PODCAST – Coaching Outdoors hosted by Alex Burn & Anna-Marie Watson. 
• EVENT – Henley Business School has done an annual event called “Coaching Outdoors Live”. 

*If you know of more resources please share in the comments. 

This search took me to think how I could take this idea into outdoor activities I enjoy doing.  One is walking, which many coaches and mentors are using.  More so in the UK where walking is a bit of a national sport! My other thought and idea was “Coaching in the Garden”, not only as a metaphor as I use in “Organisational Gardening”, but as the place where coaching happens.  I would say gardening is another of the national sports.  

One could also take it a bit further and say that the garden can become your coach.  In other words, you could be alone in the garden and it will show you a way forward on the question or issue that you might have in mind, or you are in a garden and your coach uses the elements within to take you through a coaching process (in a sort of coaching triad).  In essence, the garden can be a space and a participant of the coaching experience.

Coaching in the Garden 

The first possibility is to see a garden as a place to do coaching outdoors.  The change of environment from indoors to outdoors can shift the physical and mental state of an individual.  Being surrounded by greenery and open space, a different soundscape created by birds, insects and the movement of leaves in trees and bushes captures our senses.  Many things to explore in research about biophilia (a term coined by Erich Fromm and popularised by E.O. Wilson), which translates to “love of life” or the urge to affiliate with other life forms.

Changing context is a powerful step in itself. 

Coaching with the Garden

The second alternative is to evoke the garden as a coach to explore questions and answers.  The garden is not “wild” nature, it is a designed natural environment. It is a metaphor of life, work, relationships and way of being.  Gardens are human inventions, but they are made of living things that by definition have “a life of their own”.  The garden can be a coach facilitated by the presence of a person (the human coach) for the benefit of the coachee (client).  The garden can also be a coach we can access on our own, which could fall a bit into self-coaching but prompted from questions or instructions to observe, hear, feel, smell, taste or do with the garden. 

A garden is a metaphor of life, work, relationships and way of being.

Cultivating Growth

The journey from online intensity to the tranquility of the garden is a powerful shift, offering a new dimension to the coaching experience. Whether you see it as “Coaching in the Garden,” a restorative change of place, or “Coaching with the Garden,” where the living world becomes a powerful, silent participant, the potential for profound self-discovery is immense.

This approach invites us to slow down, observe, and engage with the natural metaphors that are constantly unfolding around us.

A Natural Invitation

I invite you to step outside for your next moment of reflection. Find a plant, a sound, or a specific spot in a garden and simply ask yourself: “What is the garden trying to show me about my current question?”

Share your own garden coaching insights in the comments, and join me as we continue to cultivate this idea of a more grounded, natural approach to personal and professional growth.