About us
Team building and leadership development with a difference
photo: Jonny Wilson www.subsculptures.com
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School of the Wild was founded in 2014 by Nigel Berman.
Nigel says, “At the time I was running an online eco-retail business helping people be more sustainable. I’d spent the best part of the previous decade running that business, but retail was changing and I was struggling with the pressures. I became very stressed, slipped a disc, and in truth, lost my purpose... And then I started to spend more time outside. |
It felt like coming home.
I discovered a deep love of nature and wild spaces. I sat round fires that had been made without matches. I learned to make rope from plants, and pots from river clay. I ate wild food and listened more closely to the birds. I met some really interesting people and had meaningful conversations with them, and I noticed how much it changed my mindset and gave me energy for new possibilities.
I started to feel that too much time indoors at my desk was affecting my wellbeing, putting pressure on my relationships at home and at work, and limiting my ability to innovate and make a difference.
I see this happening in organisations all of the time - as around 80% of us in the UK live in cities and work in offices, we’re all in the same boat: we've never spent so little time in contact with trees, plants, and animals.
I've realised that by not having much of an actual relationship with nature we've forgotten how important this is, and as the world wakes up to the need to restore nature and the climate, we need to change that story.
School of the Wild is my way of helping organisations to fix this."
Nigel Berman
Founder / Chief Wildness Officer
I discovered a deep love of nature and wild spaces. I sat round fires that had been made without matches. I learned to make rope from plants, and pots from river clay. I ate wild food and listened more closely to the birds. I met some really interesting people and had meaningful conversations with them, and I noticed how much it changed my mindset and gave me energy for new possibilities.
I started to feel that too much time indoors at my desk was affecting my wellbeing, putting pressure on my relationships at home and at work, and limiting my ability to innovate and make a difference.
I see this happening in organisations all of the time - as around 80% of us in the UK live in cities and work in offices, we’re all in the same boat: we've never spent so little time in contact with trees, plants, and animals.
I've realised that by not having much of an actual relationship with nature we've forgotten how important this is, and as the world wakes up to the need to restore nature and the climate, we need to change that story.
School of the Wild is my way of helping organisations to fix this."
Nigel Berman
Founder / Chief Wildness Officer
How your organisation can benefit
In a fast changing world, and with remote working on the rise, it’s becoming harder for business owners and managers to lead teams in the same direction while keeping their company culture strong and intact.
A positive and healthy work culture requires meaningful employee interaction and connection, for without it, trust is unlikely to develop. And when your team lacks trust, communication, engagement, and productivity are the next to suffer.
Establishing the connection needed to build trust is key to ensuring everyone is headed in the same direction with a shared set of values.
This is why taking a break away from screens and the routine of work, without distractions and the pressure of deadlines, to invest in your team’s success is one of the smartest business decisions you can make.
A positive and healthy work culture requires meaningful employee interaction and connection, for without it, trust is unlikely to develop. And when your team lacks trust, communication, engagement, and productivity are the next to suffer.
Establishing the connection needed to build trust is key to ensuring everyone is headed in the same direction with a shared set of values.
This is why taking a break away from screens and the routine of work, without distractions and the pressure of deadlines, to invest in your team’s success is one of the smartest business decisions you can make.
Yes, this is team building but not as you know it
This is not the kind of team building that feels like a forced activity, or involves happy hour.
This is about team building programmes that open the space for meaningful conversations, that can truly transform what you do and the way people work together.
By bringing your team into nature, you can engage people to create real change in your organisation.
Especially since a healthy dose of nature is proven to calm people down, reduce burnout, improve work performance and build environmental awareness.
As our clients have discovered, meeting together in nature allows people to become more open to discuss challenges, brainstorm creative ideas, and get to know each other better in a way that’s just not possible in the work environment.
This is about team building programmes that open the space for meaningful conversations, that can truly transform what you do and the way people work together.
By bringing your team into nature, you can engage people to create real change in your organisation.
Especially since a healthy dose of nature is proven to calm people down, reduce burnout, improve work performance and build environmental awareness.
As our clients have discovered, meeting together in nature allows people to become more open to discuss challenges, brainstorm creative ideas, and get to know each other better in a way that’s just not possible in the work environment.
Why nature brings out the best in your team
Around the fire, the mix of nature and facilitated sessions creates a safe space that allows your team to be more present with each other, and to transcend the usual barriers that come up in the workplace.
Spending time in nature helps team conversations go from boring meetings to dynamic discussions:
Spending time in nature helps team conversations go from boring meetings to dynamic discussions:
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Collaborate better
Talking around a fire is primal, it's how we advanced human culture for thousands of years.
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Best meeting room
Nature is the great leveller and breaks down personal barriers, making it easier to relax and connect with each other.
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+50%
Bursting with creativity
Time in nature dramatically increases creative thinking, by as much as 50%.
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Unite on goals
Nature makes you less impulsive and instead inspires you to think long-term, together.
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Brings out the best in the group
Nature is energising and relaxing, lowers your stress levels, and really does clear your head.
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On a mission to inspire change
We're on a mission to help organisations work with nature to both help their teams perform at their best, and to inspire a more regenerative relationship with the earth, as part of an ongoing strategy to develop.
Everything we do at School of the Wild is designed to get you out of the office to reconnect with each other, and be inspired to make positive change.
Our programmes fuse creative and practical skills with facilitated campfire conversations to help you strengthen your connection to the land and to each other, leaving a lasting impact on the way your team thinks, feels and works together.
Everything we do at School of the Wild is designed to get you out of the office to reconnect with each other, and be inspired to make positive change.
Our programmes fuse creative and practical skills with facilitated campfire conversations to help you strengthen your connection to the land and to each other, leaving a lasting impact on the way your team thinks, feels and works together.
Combining team building and team listening
We believe that everything in your ecosystem is connected, just as it is in nature, and by bringing your team into nature, we can help you engage everyone to create real change in your organisation.
So we created programmes for leaders and teams that are hybrids: they combine learning and development (L+D), personal development, team building, team strategy, and fun, all in one programme.
All of our programmes offer an incredible sense of wellbeing, real connection, and a boost to creativity and focus as standard.
So we created programmes for leaders and teams that are hybrids: they combine learning and development (L+D), personal development, team building, team strategy, and fun, all in one programme.
All of our programmes offer an incredible sense of wellbeing, real connection, and a boost to creativity and focus as standard.
How it works
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1. Clarity on your needs We work with you to get as clear as possible on your team's issues and needs. |
2. Experience days The heart of each programme is experience days based around a campfire. The focus is on your organisation’s need. |
3. Takeaways At the end of each programme, you leave with an action plan for continuing the process in your workplace. |
4. Follow up We stay in touch to support you to embed key learning and provide further advice or tools as needed. |
…the old Lakota was wise. He knew that a man’s heart, away from nature, becomes hard; he knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans, too. So he kept his children close to nature’s softening influence.
