Taking Leadership and Organisational Development Outside is a research report exploring why organisations are turning to immersive outdoor experiences to develop adaptive performance and sustainable change.
As organisations face unprecedented complexity, rapid change and increasing demands for agility and resilience, learning and organisational development has never mattered more. Yet despite significant investment, many L&OD initiatives still struggle to deliver lasting behavioural change – and traditional classroom-based learning is often part of the problem.
This report draws on original MSc research conducted at Roffey Park Institute to explore what happens for people during outdoor L&OD experiences, and why that has such a positive impact on learning and development outcomes. It examines not only the benefits of taking learning outside, but the psychological, social and emotional mechanisms that make those benefits possible.
The research identifies five key themes in how people experience and interpret outdoor learning and organisational development:
- Psychological and social environment
- Ways of interacting
- Authentic experiences
- Self-development
- Memorable significance
Alongside these themes, the report explores how outdoor experiences shift group dynamics and power structures, create the conditions for generative dialogue, and build the kind of tacit knowledge that is difficult to develop through codified, classroom-based learning alone. It finds that the right physical and social environment – one built on authentic challenge, psychological safety and skilled facilitation – is central to unlocking transformational learning.
The report concludes with practical recommendations for designing effective outdoor L&OD interventions.
Why download this report?
- Understand why outdoor experiences enhance the effectiveness of L&OD work
- Explore the psychological and social conditions that enable open, honest dialogue and trust-building
- Gain insight into how authentic challenge creates memorable, usable learning
- Learn how outdoor environments help convert theoretical knowledge into practical, in-the-moment capability
- Access practical recommendations for designing and facilitating outdoor L&OD interventions
Download the report to discover how place and space can transform the impact of your learning and development work.
The findings in this report sit at the heart of Roffey Park’s own Leading at the Edge Walkshop, a senior leadership programme set in the Scottish Highlands. Designed around the same principles this research uncovers – authentic challenge, shifting group dynamics, and the power of place to unlock different thinking – the Walkshop puts leaders into precisely the kind of immersive outdoor environment shown to build trust, confidence and lasting behavioural change. If you’re curious what this research looks like in practice, explore the programme here.
