The experiential learning philosophy at the heart of Leadership Trust
By John English, CEO, Leadership Trust
As we dug through our 50-year archive – what amounted to a shipping container filled with ideas, reflections and breakthroughs from the great minds who shaped this organisation – one phrase resurfaced again and again: “Inward bound, not outward bound”.
This phrase sits at the heart of what Leadership Trust was built on but what does it mean? And what of ‘experiential learning’ in today’s context?
From adventure to insight: our take on experiential learning
Full disclosure – I have history in this topic. In 2006, I pivoted from a career in engineering to one in leadership development, beginning with a Masters in Outdoor Education at Edinburgh University, followed by roles within organisations delivering adventurous outdoor programmes, including Outward Bound.
For those unfamiliar, Outward Bound is an outdoor learning organisation originating from the UK, that builds young people’s confidence, resilience and leadership through challenging adventure programmes in wild, remote environments. At its best, it can be profoundly life-shaping.
Back in 1975, when psychologist Janet Richardson joined forces with the founder of Leadership Trust, David Gilbert-Smith, she described what they were building as an “outward bound school for overgrown boy scouts”. It’s a telling analysis of a methodology that emerged at that time – one driven by the escapades of adventurers like John Ridgway, a Para who did a record-breaking row across the Atlantic in a 20-ft open dory, was later awarded an MBE, and went on to found his own School of Adventure in Ardmore, Scotland. The school is set in a wild landscape, only accessible at high tide, and fuelled by a belief that nature stretches the human spirit.
The cliff tests capability. The reflection that follows develops leadership.
Challenge as catalyst: lessons from the Herefordshire landscape
That same challenge is discovered by our delegates on our flagship Leadership in Management programme (LM), taking place in the hills, rivers and caves of Herefordshire. There’s a reason this county is the home and training field for the SAS. When delegates work together out in real weather, on real ground, behaviours appear that are easier to keep hidden in a meeting room. Even in its rawest form, experience in the outdoors can bring immense benefits. The positive influence of the natural environment on the human psyche is well documented, prompting recovery, renewal and openness.
When humans form as teams and take on challenges, they inevitably learn about themselves and each other, forming stronger bonds that are the bedrock for even greater performance. When you place these team challenges outdoors, staring up a cliff face or navigating a river crossing without a bridge, solving problems with limited information, moving through discomfort, relying on each other when plans change – that’s when bubbles of self-awareness can rise to the surface.
However, a tough day on a hillside or riverbank can be powerful, or it can simply become a story people tell later. Many who’ve attended residential programmes elsewhere will recognise this pattern: the informal conversations in the bar at night often feel more insightful than the daytime agenda. The takeaway learnings can be unstructured, dependent on chance, and easy to lose once people go home.
And that’s what we do differently.
Out of the cave is only the first step. The real work happens afterwards.
Activity alone isn’t enough; the real work is what follows
When I took part in the Leadership in Management programme in 2009, what struck me wasn’t only the challenge but the depth of review that followed. The exploration that followed a fiendishly complex task, time underground, or hours on a rockface was every bit as demanding as the activity itself. Moreover, this examination follows a carefully constructed and facilitated process, one that is quickly handed over to the team to own themselves. It revealed things I might otherwise have missed entirely. Leadership Trust doesn’t leave the benefits of the challenge to chance but brings structure and purpose to that reflection.
We say on Leadership in Management, “Happenings become experiences when they are digested, when they are reflected upon and related to general patterns.” This insight, courtesy of Saul Alinsky – the pioneering American organiser and strategist who helped ordinary people realise their power – reminds us that growth comes not simply from what happens to us, but from how we make sense of it.
Making sense of the experience is where the transformation begins
Winning hearts and minds – the emotional dimension of leadership
Having now had the honour of being part of countless LMs, as facilitator and Course Director, the sophistication of the multiple connections within the programme is unmistakable. Here is one example. Our definition of leadership includes “winning hearts and minds”, so in our sense-making process – one we’ve refined over 50 years – there is deliberate openness around emotion. Not because the heart is more important than the head, but because in all the organisations we have worked with it is the part that most often gets neglected. In fact, it is common for delegates to look a little on the ‘blank’ side when we first enquire about their feelings. We create space for what is often hidden to come to the surface; an area of insight that, once accessed, can change everything.
The outdoors is an intrinsic part of a Leadership Trust programme – to a greater or lesser extent –but ultimately, we are asking questions of your leadership, what is in you that is making you a great leader or holding you back, and we help you find it. Hence “inward bound”, not “outward bound”. Because we believe, that while it’s the mountain that tests you, it’s the reflection afterwards that transforms you.
To find out more about our transformational programmes, please reach out to us on info@leadershiptrust.co
