“The horse is a mediator that acts as a developer. Equicoaching makes it possible to explore unsuspected individual and collective resources to imagine tomorrow in the organization. » You have just checked it, this column did not appear on the 1ster april. You can also check that these sentences are not fictitious: nay, they come from Equicoaching Academya Qualiopi-certified training organisation, which has welcomed 3,200 people in ten years, and of which Sanofi and TotalEnergies are loyal customers.
Equicoaching, invented in the 1990s for American Volkswagen executives and imported twenty years ago in France, is a method of personal development assisted by a horse. In a one or two-day internship in a stud farm, in the nature of a green class, or at the heart of a “quiet seminar”-style ensemble, this practice, offered by many organizations and rural places, consists of organizing meetings between employees – most of the time, managers – and equines.
It is not enough just to ride a horse to clear your head, far from it! According to the service providers who sell this concept, this meeting with an almost mystical potential can solve all the problems of a manager in deep malaise and short of solutions: improve his belonging to the team, develop his “soft skills” (his behavior), his leadership, or even help him manage crises and implement agile management.
The equine becomes a collaborator
Of course, all this can therefore be transposed to the office: hunt the professional, he comes back at a gallop. The analogy, somewhat awkward, must be made naturally with the “N − 1” of the manager.
Indeed, the time of the training, which includes theoretical moments on the fundamentals of management, the equine literally becomes a collaborator: the pair will be more or less productive, and results will be expected by your manager, here embodied by the boss. of the stud (or “equicoach”). For example, lure the horse to the center of a blue tarp, with all four legs on it. However, the horse does not want, and generally does not like the sound of his shoes on this uncomfortable surface. It will therefore be necessary to go there with tact and small incentives, “nudge” style.
Since 2021, equicoaching has been a certification listed in the specific directory of France skills. Outside the company, we find occurrences of this practice in the context of ” learning vacation »offered by national education at the Fontainebleau military riding school, or in prisons for detainees.
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