This conservation organisation protects important ecosystems, sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) and species across England, engaging with government, influencing policy and private development, whilst encouraging public awareness and action to improve biodiversity.
They have a group of employees trained as coaches and mental health allies, providing valuable one-to-one development and support. The request to Talik was to bring our experience of coaching with and for nature to this group in a modular programme, connecting their coaching practice with the values and purpose of the organisation.
The group, with day jobs as ecologists, educators, economists, were already highly literate in nature conservation and skilled as coaches, so we grounded the programme in Action Inquiry, encouraging participants to draw on, share and learn from their own experience through multiple cycles of co-coaching in day-long modules that took place over six months in various nature reserves around the country.
Woven into the cycles were sessions on advanced coaching practices plus the other ‘core tenets’ of our Coaching As Nature methodology that deepen empathetic connection with ourselves, others and with nature.
Ongoing supervision and action learning facilitation helped embed learning further over the following year. The group are now a well established and well-regarded development asset in the organisation.
