Based on the insightful article, “How to Become an Agile Learner”, from the Harvard Business Review by Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis, it’s clear that mastering the three building blocks of agile learning: navigating newness, understanding others, and self-awareness, is crucial in today’s dynamic work environment​​. Equine assisted learning (EAL) activities intentionally designed to meet professional development objectives are gaining recognition as a unique and impactful method to bring to life these aspects of agile learning for leaders and their teams.

The article defines the three core building blocks of agile learning in summary as follows:

1. Navigating Newness: Agile learners thrive in fresh, complex scenarios even without a blueprint, embracing the ambiguity as an opportunity rather than a barrier.
2. Understanding Others: They excel at empathizing and anticipating varying perspectives, fostering a collaborative and open-minded approach to problem-solving.
3. Self-awareness: With high levels of self-awareness, agile learners are proactive in seeking feedback and continuously curious, embodying a growth mindset​​.

Equine enhanced professional development activities enable participants to put these building blocks into practice and experience their impact first-hand and in real time:

1. Navigating Newness: By interacting with horses in intentionally designed activities, leaders step into uncharted territory, which significantly enhances their comfort level with ambiguity and nurtures their ability to navigate through new situations.
2. Understanding Others: The program enhances empathy and understanding of non-verbal communication through interaction with horses, and enhances verbal communication between the human participants, preparing individuals to better appreciate and engage with diverse perspectives in the workplace.
3. Self-awareness: Equine enhanced activities prompt reflection and self-insight, fostering a heightened sense of self-awareness crucial for personal and professional development.

One of our clients from Bluefin Resources, sums up her experience with us as; “Horses thrive on clear direction, effective communication, and trust to navigate challenges and perform at their best. They also have an extraordinary ability to sense energy and assess their surroundings. As a leader, they’ll immediately pick up on your confidence and ability, or lack of! Trust me, you can’t make a 500kg horse move without taking charge, making them feel safe, and earning their trust. It’s all about authentic leadership in action, and I was amazed at how much this mirrors real world team dynamics.” Rebekah Crichton, Senior Divisional Manager & Executive Consultant – Change Management, HR, People Strategy, L&D & Organisational Design at Bluefin Resources.

Integrating equine assisted learning into your organisational training could be a step towards building a more agile, empathetic, and self-aware workforce, ready to thrive in the face of new challenges.

Nelson Mandela once said: “Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”

Perseverance is a quality that every good leader possesses. Life is not just about having skills or talent but about following them through.

Perseverance is important in tough times when it can be most tempting to give up. Being a business owner and a horse owner (they go together for me) continually teaches me so much about perseverance.

Here’s a few tips that I’ve learned throughout my career to help you persevere:

• Remaining present in the moment and taking it one step at a time helps you focus on what needs to be done now, rather than feeling overwhelmed. (I really have to thank my horses for this one!)
• Making sure you’re aligned to your sense of purpose will lead to greater satisfaction and more motivation to keep going.
• Talk to someone – as the saying goes, “a problem shared is a problem halved”.
• Prioritise what truly matters. You don’t have to persevere with everything, just decide what’s worth it.

What tools do you use to persevere?

“Intention is one of the most powerful forces there is. What you mean when you do a thing will always determine the outcome. The law creates the world.” Brenna Yovanoff, author.

💭 Living with intention is an important concept, especially when so many of us feel stressed or burnt out.

Here’s what living with intention means to me:

• It means I’m aligned with my purpose.
• It keeps me present in the moment
• It helps me be mindful
• It helps me appreciate others in my life.

Horses can teach us much about intention. They pick up on any incongruence between our intentions and actions. It’s not airy-fairy horse whisperer stuff – as a prey animal, they need to be highly sensitive and attuned to even the slightest changes in their environment for mere survival. So you can’t hide behind your corporate persona from a horse to the real you, they see right  through to the real you. 

💭 What does intention mean to you?

Let’s talk about motivation.

People are motivated by a range of things in their work and life, from career goals to money to personal and family goals. However, what lies underneath all this is a simple fact:

What motivates us is what aligns with our purpose.

For example, helping others develop skills to find their true inner leader and become the leader of their own lives is what gives me purpose. Turns out this is a great formula to help people on their leadership journey in the workplace. Therefore, it’s what motivates me to run my business. And working with horses, who look for that congruent leader for their own and their herd members’ safety, is the perfect way for me to accomplish this.  

Aligning with your own purpose will lead to greater satisfaction and motivation to keep going. Your purpose can be simple and doesn’t have to be earth shattering! Helping those more vulnerable, having enough to support yourself and/or your family, supporting a cause or sharing your unique experience and expertise are all examples of things that keep us motivated.

💖 Everyone deserves the chance to align with their purpose, become their best self and feel motivated.

Have you ever tried to negotiate with a horse?

Trust me, it really tests your negotiating skills (yep, even more than negotiating with a toddler!). You see, you cannot force a 500kg + being to do anything he doesn’t want to do. But you can negotiate so you are both happy to work together!. 

You have to give a horse a good reason for doing something, you must give the horse a reason to trust you, and you have to remain calm. This is the same with humans – we are just not always open about it.

🙅‍♀️ Otherwise, negotiating with this large animal is not going to go well.

It’s one of the many reasons horses are such great teachers! Some lessons on being a good negotiator which you can use as a leader:

• Remain calm, and keep your emotions in check
• Use self-awareness to see how you come across to the other person
• Be a good communicator and state your point clearly
• Listen carefully so you can understand the other’s point of view.

🤝 How good are you at negotiating? Is it something you could brush up on?

We’ve all heard the expression ‘you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink’.

🙃 But have you heard this funny take on it: ‘you can lead a human to knowledge but you can’t make him think’ (original source unknown).

Very relevant to the work that we do but also a reminder for anyone wanting to be a better leader: we cannot force those around us to move at our own pace or think the same way as us.

Good leaders need patience.

Horses keenly sense when someone is impatient and respond accordingly – no amount of pulling will make them move faster. When working with horses, we have a bit of a mantra: “act like you have five minutes and it’ll take all day, act like you have all day and it’ll take five minutes.”

Patience, and the calm that it brings, is super important when working with people too. Especially when working with teams. We are all different so team dynamics can be a source of frustration especially with a looming deadline.

For me, my horses remind me to take a break when I’m in a rush. One squishes his big head right into my body so I physically have to stop what I am doing. It always makes me take the moment I need to reset, smile and breathe.

Are you a patient leader? What (or who) can help you relax when you’re feeling impatient?

“Words shrink things that seem timeless in your head to no more than living size when they are brought out.” Stephen King, Author.

When a horse is feeling that something isn’t quite right, you’ll know it. They’ll swish their tails, turn their heads or stomp their feet. This comes back to their wild instincts and particularly survival of their herd – there’s no purpose in hiding anything from other horses.

🤐 Humans, by contrast, have complicated social contracts which mean we tend to push down our true feelings rather than communicating them, particularly in workplace settings. This is for a variety of reasons including being concerned about damaging our relationship with others or fear of looking stupid. However, it can have deep consequences for team wellbeing and harmony.

That’s why developing interpersonal skills is a critical step to improving your leadership.

Having the confidence to read situations, understand the feelings and motivations of others as well as the bravery to communicate honestly will reap benefits and also inspire a team.

How good is your interpersonal savvy? Can you think of where you could improve?

I’ll never forget a lesson my horses once taught me about composure.

🐎 During the last lockdown period, I was helping to bring all our horses in to the barn as a new storm brewed on the horizon. We had plenty of time, we were not in danger, and I was handling the situation in a calm and efficient manner.

Or so I thought.

I was surprised to find my horses, Legs and Opal, were reacting to me in a way that was different to usual. They were jumpier, less co-operative. It was only at that point that I realised: my anxiety was sky-high. And, despite telling myself that I was composed, the horses could sense otherwise.

What a lesson on how your own composure impacts those around you! If a leader doesn’t maintain composure then it filters through to everyone.

And in the face of all the uncertainty of the last couple of years, it’s a more important skill than ever. 

How good are you at maintaining composure? Can you think of a time where you did/didn’t?

Last year, we had a man attend one of our team development programs who was very task-oriented and a high achiever in his role before he moved into leadership.

However, it was clear to us right away that the team he was now leading did not find him approachable. This was because he was so singularly focused on tasks that they were hesitant to raise issues that fell outside the immediate project at hand.

He had no idea this was the case, and had become frustrated because he couldn’t work out why nobody seemed to connect to him as a leader. However, when he started working with our horses, it was like a mirror was held up to his unconscious behaviour.

You see, horses are very in-tune with people’s approach to them, and if you do not respond appropriately they will not feel safe or comfortable. They may refuse to work with you by standing their ground, (and you can’t budge a 600kg teammate) or they may walk or back away from you.

💪 Making him conscious about how he was coming across to those he was managing ultimately lead to stronger leadership and a happier team overall.

Think about what behaviours of your own might impact your approachability. Do you have a short fuse when you’re stressed? Are you welcoming when approached? Do you get so focused at times that people think they can’t disturb you?

A horse is a horse of course of course

And no one can talk to a horse of course.

That is of course unless the horse

Is the famous Mister Ed!

🎵 Who is singing along, nostalgic for the old 60s show Mister Ed?

I feel like Wilbur from the TV show sometimes, listening to my horses. Not literally of course, but through their body language. They teach me so much about communication and listening, because if you don’t listen to what they’re telling you they will make sure you do by, for example, giving you a nudge or simply walking away.

For something that we do day in day out, listening takes a surprising amount of practice, particularly active listening. Done well, it helps your emotional connection with others no end.

Ask yourself, do you pay attention to what someone is saying, or just wait for them to finish speaking so you can add your own comment?

Is listening a skill you can practice? I believe it absolutely is.