I recently read an interesting article which showed the increasing trend for high flyers wanting more from their holidays. They are no longer content to get away for a fortnight and do nothing. People are now seeing holidays as an opportunity to learn.

Perhaps a reason for the rise of learning holidays is the fact that people are realising more and more that the best learning happens away from the workplace? Because when you are able to disconnect, switch off from distractions – turn off the phone!! – and focus solely on one thing, learning is so much more effective. The environment has a huge role to play in this. Lots of research has shown how just being in the natural environment helps people to focus. And when people are on holiday they are usually more relaxed, less stressed and generally happier – a state conducive to learning.

It seems that we should be doing all of our learning on beautiful, tropical beaches!

So why doesn’t this happen more regularly in business? Why is so much learning still done in the classroom? Or, even worse, online – where people don’t even need to leave their desk and the distractions of emails, questions from colleagues and the big pile of paperwork that still needs to be dealt with?

Surely this type of learning can never be as effective as taking people away from all of the normal distractions and associations of the workplace and into an environment that helps them to be calm and focused?

I know where I’d rather learn new skills.

That’s why Farscape took six senior leaders away to Morocco for a week – to show how delivering coaching in a beautiful, inspirational environment creates a learning experience like no other. Hear what they thought about it here.