Today’s business world demands a particular set of leadership and team competencies that look different from how they used to ‘back in the day.’ Business leaders must find new approaches to interacting with and influencing their teams even as employees ask for more meaning, purpose, skills, and room to advance – all while dealing with significant burnout issues.
So how can that be accomplished in a way that engages people who are already overstimulated while also being innovative and producing demonstrable results?
That brings us to Equine-Assisted Learning. EAL is a highly sought-after and efficient method that offers you and your team a unique and unforgettable experience and a natural opportunity to develop new and crucial leadership abilities. Let’s dive into what makes EAL so unique and life-changing for many.
First of all, EAL is different from other learning methods because of what is involved, and yes, that means the horses themselves. Horses are living, thinking, creative beings all on their own and have many life lessons to teach just by being around them. As the California Institute for Advanced Management describes in its blog, lessons like ‘change is scary but must be pushed through,’ or how integral trust and integrity are to being a good leader, are directly learned from being around and working with horses. This communication and interaction allow those involved in EAL not only to remember, but experience for themselves, the depth and breadth of the changes they have to make if they wish to be more effective in the future.
Next up, simply getting out of the office and changing how people learn is critical. People don’t want to be cooped up and forced to look at spreadsheets or watch videos any more – they want to be actively engaged, and what better way to do that than getting them outside and learning through doing? Everything that EAL teaches is hands-on, meaning the lessons stick much more than they would if they were learned simply by rote memory.
And finally, EAL prioritizes going outside of one’s comfort zone and actively learning from the world around. It encourages individuals to work as a team without having to go through trite team-building exercises, and overall, it makes things way more fun and exciting. After all, why watch a training video when horses already model strong leadership and teamwork skills themselves?
By now, it should be clear how and why Equine Assisted Learning is one of the best (and most fun and engaging) ways to boost personal and professional development. E3A is one of the top facilitators for this kind of engagement, and we welcome any leaders and teams who want to experience that for themselves.
Join us at our Introduction to Equine Assisted Facilitation Methods, our online course providing context and a framework for equine-based action learning, and see if this would benefit you and your team!
