The next Coaching SIG Session: Coaching Outdoors will take place on Monday 22nd June 2026 – 12:30 to 13:30.
What we’ll cover
“Coaching outdoors” is a topic of rapidly expanding interest, but the term covers a wide range of activities and practices with diverse intentions and motivations. We will explore the landscape of outdoor coaching (it’s hard to avoid the puns in this field), and how it relates to our practice in Higher Education. We’ll cover the foundational science that offers a menu of possible benefits from outdoor work, and examine how they might sit with us as practitioners. Finally we’ll touch on the additional complexities in contracting and practical arrangements that outdoor working brings.
This session is for anyone who is curious about how coaching, in its broadest definition, can be practiced outdoors. It will include plenty of space for reflection and discussion.
Our Guest Speaker is: Dr Simon Inger
Dr Simon Inger was an academic in geology, including many weeks of teaching in the field, before converting to people and organisational development. After twenty years of group processes in conference rooms with flipcharts, he has recently rediscovered the power of the outdoors to liberate creativity and learning, and wonders what took him so long.
Simon is a Senior Learning and OD Consultant at the University of Bath. He is an accredited Associate in Human Systems Dynamics among other qualifications. His memberships include OD Network Europe, the European Organisation Design Forum, Mountain Training Association and the Alpine Club.
Booking Details:
The details for the next SDF Coaching SIG workshop are as follows:
- Event Date/Time: Monday 22nd June 2026 – 12:30 to 13:30.
- Location: SDF Zoom
- Booking details will be made available via SDF Jiscmail
Coaching SIG enquiries: Please contact Juliet Flynn – juliet.flynn@canterbury.ac.uk and Kirstie Buckridge – kirstie.buckridge@admin.cam.ac.uk (Coaching SIG Leads), for any Coaching SIG enquiries, or if you would like to deliver or co-facilitate a session. Any other queries should be sent to office@sdf.ac.uk