The staff took part in a course organised by Wiltshire-based enterprise, Raising the Baa.
Ikea is rolling out a global leadership capabilities programme which, according to learning and development manager of IKEA Bristol, Marisa Williams, "introduces a new attitude and ethos to more effectively enhance leadership skills among all levels of staff".
Each store is allocated budget to introduce the leadership capabilities programme in its own way.
Williams said: "We wanted to ensure that the theory from our Leadership and management days was truly embedded, so when we heard about Raising the Baa's exercise, we felt it would be a highly unusual, fun and therefore memorable means of doing this."
The Raising the Baa training involves staff herding sheep as a management exercise.
HR manager of Ikea Bristol, Matthew Fessey, was intrigued by the variety of strategies that the different teams adopted to achieve the same end result.
He said: "The task seemed easy on paper, but the teams soon discovered that without strong leadership, teamwork, planning, co-operation and 100% commitment from all members of the team, the sheep simply wouldn't go into the pen. Those involved could see the analogy of situations in the store environment and it has been great to see how the learnings from our leadership and development days have been transferred to the workplace."
