Working in the outdoors with groups
Lesson 2: A clear roadmap
- Determining your aim and your audience
- Determining the size of the group
- Creating a programme
- Running a test pilot
- Promoting your workshop
Step 1: Determining your aim and your audience
A common mistake when designing a programme is that too much thought goes towards thinking of interesting work forms, but not enough thought goes into the desired end result, when this should be the first and most important step of the process.
For this reason, first determine what you’d like to achieve with the group. You can imagine how guiding a group of individuals on their personal growth has a very different aim than guiding a group to better work together, for instance.
This step isn’t only important to design a successful workshop and achieve a nice end result by the end of the day, but it’s also valuable in how you communicate to the outside world, or how you pitch your clients.
When you can clearly communicate what value the programme has, what the participants gain, and what difference the day will bring, then chances are higher for you to sell your workshop fully booked.
I often see course members designing beautiful leaflets about a lovely workshop in nature, without it being clear what exactly the workshop is about. It’s not clear what the subject is or what it offers. Consequently it cannot strike a chord for anyone, because no one recognises what need is being addressed. That way, there won’t be any registrations.
This is why it’s not only important to know with what kind of group you’ll be working, but also for you to align with the needs of the group (or the client).
It has regularly happened that a course member landed an assignment to organise a day programme in nature, when they in fact had no idea what the client actually wished to achieve at the end of the day. There was hardly any communication on the matter and they were asked to ‘Do something with nature coaching’. It’s a shame if you don’t keep asking for more details. It’s the difference between a nice day out, or a valuable day, one which will be often spoken about and which will possibly generate further clients.
It’s equally important to be aware of what a difference it makes whether a group joins out of free will or is ‘sent by the boss’. Then it’s crucial to first determine a work form that gets the group on board and allows them to participate. Skip this, and your day could end up in a disaster.
If you work with separate registrations then you can come up with your own aim. That way it goes the other way round; what would you like to pass on and who might find this interesting? You can then finetune towards that audience.
Important questions that are relevant for step 1:
- What group am I giving this workshop to?
- What is the pain or discomfort this group faces?
- What is their desire?
- What would I like to accomplish with this group?
- How can I translate this into a good result?
Example 1:
- A group of entrepreneurs
- A lack of clients
- To increase number of clients
- Extending valuable contacts
- By the end of this day you’ll have gained at least 10 valuable and warm contacts.
Example 2:
- People with a burn-out
- Feeling tired, depressed, small social life, couch potato
- More vitality, sense of joy and being socially active
- Bring them into motion, have them enjoy nature and reconnect with others
- At the end of this day you’ll feel calmer, you’ll be happy to have done some physical activity and you enjoyed meeting new people, without feeling drained.
Example 3:
- People who are looking for inspiration
- A sense of emptiness and a longing for growth
- To learn, grow and evolve
- Meaningful insights
- By the end of this day you’ll have gained tons of inspiration and some meaningful insights about yourself.
Step 2: Determining the size of the group
Now that your aim and your audience is clarified, it’s important to know the number of people your group will be. You’ll have to adjust your programme accordingly ofcourse. Some exercises are more suitable in an intimate setting, where others work best in a larger group. Depending on what your aim is, you could also consider dividing the group into smaller groups. For groups larger than 12 people, having an assistant is much recommended. Take a look at the information provided in the chapter Work forms.
Step 3: Creating a programme
There are a few aspects that are essential when putting together your programme.
Less is more
An often made mistake when coming up with ideas for a programme is that too many work forms are included into one afternoon. This often originates from the need to want to offer good value for people’s money. However, the value is often not found in how much of something, but rather in the depth of what is being offered. Innersteps’ method is characterised by its simplicity and therefore by its depth. Less is more. I cannot emphasize this often enough. Experience and insights require time to be felt and integrated. As well as silence to allow the appreciation of it. This is why silence and moments of ‘nothing’ are the most important aspects of your programme!
Safety
In order for a group to open and truly experience what you have laid out for them, then creating a safe environment is key. How to go about it depends on your audience. Do the participants know each other yet? Is the setting completely new to them or are they familiar with it? Does the programme address sensitive topics? Take this into consideration and think about how you will provide a safe space.
Providing a safe environment can be done for instance by:
- Giving a short introduction where you lay out what the participants can expect of the day and where you emphasise that everything that is being shared amongst the group that day, stays in the group.
- By starting with a short sharing round where the participants share something personal (optionally through the use of a symbol from the surroundings, ---see introductory work forms---).
- Bringing your full attention as the trainer of the group, to ensure each individual feels seen and heard.
- Time management. This applies to both the sharing rounds as during the exercises. When someone takes up too much time in a sharing round, have the courage to kindly ask them to abort.
- Working outside can make it harder to have a good sense of overview. Make sure you keep the group together, this will prevent a lot of annoyance. Participants quickly tend to forget the time when they are in the middle of a beautiful exercise.
- Take into consideration that your participants aren’t coaches. If you plan on working in pairs of two, you can’t assume they will know how to ask the right questions or give the correct feedback. This will require some more tools. For instance:
- You can propose 3 questions per exercise that they have to ask each other
- You can specify there’s no need to elaborate on the answers
- You can hand out questions on paper for each participant to answer for themselves
Either way you want to avoid people therapising each other. This applies to the sharing rounds as well. Please take a look at the guidelines for work forms too ---(lesson 3)---.
The importance of sharing rounds
With one on one coaching there’s one client with a coaching question and there’s a coach who guides the client in their search for answers. The roles are clear and the setting has a purpose. In a group setting it’s impossible to offer the same amount of attention to each individual participant. This is why it’s important to always include 1 or more sharing rounds. The possibility to share insights makes room for depth and offers you, as trainer, a chance to elaborate a but further on their questions.
Programme structure
You can use the following basic structure when drawing up your programme:
- Welcome & introduction
- Introductory round
- Silent walk / meditation
- Experience based exercise
- Sharing of experiences
- (Ritual) closing
In the course of a full day programme, you repeat step 3, 4 and 5 in the afternoon and you keep step 6 until the end of the day.
Make sure you create ample time for each component of your programme. A shortage of time creates tension which will be at the expense of the quality of your offer. Having time left is always more pleasant. After all, slowing down is never a bad thing.
In lesson 3 ("Work forms") you’ll find additional tips on how to draw up your programme.
Step 4: Running a test pilot
Once your programma is ready, it would be wise to first run a pilot. That way you can find out what aspects need some tweaking perhaps. Consider the pilot as a general rehearsal. Everything that should be complete is completed. You take the participants and this day very seriously. (It’s not meant to be a nice get together amongst friends). You go through the programme as intended, including the introduction and introductory round, etc.
Practical preparation
- Prior to running your test pilot make sure you explore the area in which you’d like to give your course or workshop. That way you limit any unexpected surprises.
- Send an invitation with all the important invitation to your participants. Just like you would for a paid workshop. Think of things they need to bring, such as rain gear, water, snacks, waterproof shoes etc.
You can offer the pilot for free or at cost expenses. In return you could ask your participants for their honest and open feedback in order for you to optimize your programme. Make sure to also ask for a little review or testimonial that you may use for future promotions.
Step 5: Promoting your workshop
Once you ran your pilot and you tweaked your programme based on the feedback, it is now time to promote your workshop. During step 1 you identified your audience, which is why it’s important to use communication channels they might be likely to make use of. Have a proper think about this! Younger people usually spend more time on Instagram or Facebook. Professionals are more likely to use Linkedin or network meetings. And what about your own network? Do you have potential clients in your address base? Or does your audience read the local newspaper, the bulletin board at the Eco shop or are they waiting at the schoolyard for their kids?
Below you’ll find a few possibilities to promote your workshop:
- If you have a mailing list: send a recruiting message
- Make a Facebook event
- Post something on Linkedin
- Use Instagram
- Place leaflets at places your audience frequents
- Send a press release to your local newspaper
- Go through your address file and see who amongst them is part of your audience or who would have an entry to your audience
- Visit a networking gathering
- Seek out potential clients for a tentative conversation
- What’s the theme of your workshop and who might find that interesting? For instance magazines, (invite an editor to talk about this topic while walking), associations who organise lectures etc.
- Remember: editors or organisers aren’t so much interested in the workshop you’re offering as much as the theme or the expertise you have on the matter. You should lead with that. At the end of the article or lecture you can mention the workshop.
- Offer a free taster (can also be done for potential clients)
- Look into whether your workshop might be a part of a festival or other event
Communication
What you include in your promotional material is of crucial importance when recruiting participants. Simply announcing that you’ll be giving a nature coaching workshop at a specific time or date, won’t yield much. Nobody will feel addressed, or touched by your message. Nobody will feel: ‘yes, I need to be there’. This also applies to when you enter into a conversation with potential clients. Your message or story has to resonate on some level with the need of the potential client or participant.
Make sure to include at least the following elements in your leaflet:
- The subject that preoccupies your participant
- Your participants’ desire
- What will be gained through your workshop
Other important details:
- Location
- Date
- Time
- Price (optional)
- Website for more info
Ideally you’ll be as concise as possible with your message so that there’s still space remaining for a nice image.
Pitfall
A pitfall could be that you draw too much attention to the process or work forms that will take place. These are really less important . The only thing people truly want to know is: is this about me? Does it bring me something? And it’s nice to know if they’ll be spending the morning or day outside.
Recently I stumbled upon a leaflet entitled: From surviving to living. Rock solid! This says it all and directly speaks to the people who feel that they have been living in a survival mode for some time.
After the title it offered a short description in the line of: Do you know the feeling of... and would you like to... followed by a very short description of the contents of the workshop. The lay-out was done clearly and professionally, ---however the images were clearly made by their own camera. That felt like a shame. My advice is, when possible, to outsource the graphics. When a leaflet has clearly been mocked up by yourself, it may (not necessarily always) come across a little unprofessional, resulting in lesser sign ups.---
A final tip
Please don’t be discouraged, if at first you won’t have a large number of participants. Your group’s growth also has its own natural tempo. Trust the process, and at the same time, keep looking for creative opportunities that will help yourself and your workshop become more visible once it is out there. And when you explain to others what it is you are offering, stay within that feeling of enthusiasm, and remind yourself why this makes you feel so happy!
