Change your space, change your team

We’ve all been there. Blocked. As surely as if there were a brick wall in front of the project, the goal, the path. We know what we want to do, what we should do, and most of how to do it. We just don’t know how to begin. Sometimes the problem is a loop, old habits, old arguments, old positions. We keep circling back to the same old debates, never coming to a real decision. We’re stuck. As individuals. As teams. As businesses.

How do you get around that block? Sometimes it’s as simple as physically moving. Changing your location. Changing your perspective. Changing your mind.

Trinnie Houghton and Scott Seagren, founders of Ripple Effect Studio in Manchester, New Hampshire, call this “geography.” They make it a key element of their team coaching practice. By helping teams change their geography, they help them break through paralysis, conflict and confusion, and start clearly discussing core issues.

SHIFTING GEOGRAPHY TO SHIFT VIEWPOINTS

Trinnie Houghton

By physically changing the ways in which the team sees themselves, they metaphorically break free of the default positions that they put themselves in.

“Often, we have the way we position ourselves at work – how we see the team, the daily work we do, and our role relative to other roles on the team,” Trinnie explains. “When a team changes their geography, they are open to embodying a different perspective.  This is what happens when they enter our studio, quite literally,” says Trinnie.

After years of coaching in-person and then remotely, Ripple Effect Studio opened its doors in 2023 to a retreat-like space for its clients. Before, when they worked with teams on the road, spaces weren’t always ideal.

“Often, people just get a little tiny conference room with everybody sitting at a table,” Scott says. “We want room to get them out of their seats again. That’s a geography thing; not just sitting and looking at each other the way they always have.”

Scott Seagren

When they designed their new studio space, they gave key considerations to natural light, room to move and natural elements.  The entryway to Ripple Effect’s studio has a fairly low ceiling, especially compared to the main studio space. That’s by design. “When you walk in and there’s a low ceiling, which opens to a high ceiling in the rest of the space.  Architect Frank Lloyd Wright calls this moving from compression to expansion,” Scott says. “And it encourages you to move towards the open space of the studio.  Metaphorically, this represents opening the mind.”

THE GREAT OUTDOORS

Much research has been dedicated to showing how nature positively impacts mood and work morale. Nature helps reduce cortisol levels that are responsible for stress.

“Go out, take a walk – even a walk around the block, or a walk around the building,” says Scott. “If it’s poor weather outside, just look out the window, look at the trees. Changing your view is one way of changing your geography.”

“Having a plant in your office or even a picture of the outdoors on the walls makes a difference,” says Trinnie. “I had a client who had one of those small water fountains in her office, which added a calming sound of water to her space.”

Even during retreats, Scott has had team members pair up and go for a walk around the building to discuss a topic in a different environment. “They remember that conversation so much more than they remember the time inside,” he says.

A MISSION OF CONTINUOUS GROWTH

Ripple Effect Studio continues its growth, too. Trinnie and Scott are certified in mindful outdoor leadership experiences with Kripalu, a renowned center for yoga and wellness center.

Being out in nature builds on the work they are already doing. “It’s a magnification of what’s happening at the studio,” Trinnie says.

“The research says that we learn the most right at the edge of our comfort zone. When we’re solidly inside that comfort zone, we’re not typically in a learning mode. We’re not necessarily curious,” Scott says. “And when we’re outside of our comfort zone, a lot of things can happen.”

The coaches at Ripple Effect are experienced in guiding executive teams to that edge, cultivating different perspectives and moving teams toward their goals.