Mention “outdoor executive education” and you are bound to raise a few eyebrows. But why would it not work? Risk Management Magazine went on the road to answer the more precise question: Can such programs really offer a different kind of education, namely, a more effective one?

The Participants
Twenty-four business people—nineteen men and four women—signed up for three days of hiking, skills tests and classroom introspection. Most participants ranged in age from their mid-thirties to mid-forties. They came from the communications, pharmaceuticals, financial services, public services and a variety of other sectors from around the world. 

Each person had a slightly different purpose for being there. There were some who had never hiked a mountain and thought the stretch would be good. Others had ended up in the outdoor-themed session only after they had been bumped from the more standard, four-walls-and-a-door education. Many had received recommendations from their human resource departments and liked the idea. And others signed up because of the prestige of the host school, as well as their respect for the program’s creator.

Continuing executive education was the common point. Some attended programs twice a year, others once every two years. Some had completed MBAs; others were considering different programs like the intensive executive MBA. While these were not the people who run companies today, it would not be surprising to find some of them at that level at some point in time. Regardless of whether this was their goal, each of them recognized the importance of getting away from the job for a spell in order to focus on the essence of how they do their jobs. They were learning something new, reinforcing old lessons or simply comparing notes with individuals with whom they might have nothing in common but the goal of self-improvement.

The Program
From early morning into the night, the three days of activities were set up to include both the outdoor hikes and classroom exercises. The group was divided into three teams, each of which would have to work together to accomplish certain missions that were set out for each of the daily hikes. Within the team, each person was responsible for being the leader for a certain period of time, and during the hikes had to walk at the front, middle and end of the group, to get a feel for leading from all positions. 

The hiking assignments seemed simple enough—choose and follow a trail; create a team name and logo—yet, along the way, the leadership lessons did develop. Team unity was forged, and sometimes disbanded, throughout the three days.

For the classroom discussions, case studies—some specifically of business disasters and success stories, others drawn from mountaineering attempts in leadership—were read and discussed. Following the outdoor theme, the groups also explored the symbolic metaphor of the mountain—both its physical presence as well as the lessons of ascending and, especially, descending the world’s most perilous heights. 

What They Really Learned
In a room full of leaders, there were those who could not give up their top spot, there were those who gave leeway and others who abandoned the struggle with twenty-three other overachievers. Each individual was different, though, and needed a specific environment in which to work best, whether it was the type of information, the type of project or the type of people he or she would be assigned to work with. 

This vastly different pool of people could be either superiors or subordinates. Either way, the same rule applies—if you want to get the best work out of them, you have to know how people work best. It is about understanding people—part observation and part communication. This was the basis for all lessons to be gained from the experience.

At the end of the three days, the group filled out those forms common to all executive training programs where participants write down the three things that they would like to “take home.” Six months later, all participants were sent reminders from themselves, most of which fell into three broad categories, according to the program organizers—strategy, communication and taking action.

But what was still with each team member at the end of six months? “I can barely remember the details of the material that we read or saw in the sessions,” says one participant. “What I remember is a different experience of learning through the outdoors.”

This sentiment was reiterated by many of the hikers and leaders. Each person can recite an example from the trail. The phenomenon of the outdoors provided a graphic example of a lesson. The foreign environment, task or situation emphasized its remarkability.

“I tend to learn by doing, so the typical classroom leadership programs have less impact on me,” says one participant. “For me, overcoming anxieties stimulated by the outdoor setting (i.e., crawling through small dark spaces in the rocks), feeling the success of “getting through it” and noticing that I got through certain moments because I had a caring, supportive team did make a difference for me in terms of what I took home and back to my work setting.”

“Any learning experience designed to take you out of your comfort zone will have a bigger impact and longer lasting effect than straight classroom learning,” says Joseph Daquino, vice president and group publisher at Affinity Group Inc. in Ventura, California. “The outdoor experience took me sufficiently out of my zone so that I remember vividly most of our time there.”

Whether it was hanging onto a log perch in a boot-camp-like obstacle course, shimmying down a deep rock crevice or writing and performing a mockumentary of the program’s proceedings, the memories of the events were certainly lasting. But what lasting business applications do they inspire?

“Some people believe that those kinds of bonding, ritualistic learning experiences only foster a false sense of learning,” says Daquino, “However, the experience helped me learn to work better in a team environment (something I am often loathe to do).” 

One participant has used the program as a model for his own team-building efforts in the office to “foster relationships outside the normal reporting alliances.” Others have adopted catch phrases that embody what quality leadership means to them: silence does not mean agreement; build trust; challenge yourself and others to move into uncomfortable zones; greater risk taking does yield greater rewards; failure is an experience; prepare for the descent—it can be as dangerous as the ascent.

The observations on humanity and the casual networking were also useful. “I found nearly all the people I spoke with to be dealing with the same leadership issues as I was,” says Steven Henderson, business director at Dow Automotive in Auburn Hills, Michigan. “There is a comfort in knowing you are not the only one with challenges, especially coming from people who appear to have it all together externally.” He also noticed that these same people, with so much in common, also had many different points of view. “I was taken by how teams were unable to overcome dissension.”

One participant was also struck by the lessons he learned from the front, middle and back leadership positions on the trail. “From the back the leader must bring up the spirit of the last person,” he says. “But that same leader must be able to go to the front and tell them to slow down on the trail to keep the team together, because at the end of the day it has to be a collective achievement.”

The outdoors and the pressures it places on the body also translated into business lessons. “In the outdoors, there is a natural pressure that mirrors the real-life physical requirements of the job,” says one participant. “You are tired and hungry and under pressure to make decisions. In an organization you are under the same pressure when you need to make decisions.” He suggests that being physically fit allows leaders to absorb more pressure, keeping them mentally better off for decision making.

Another fellow hiker concurs. “Any physical challenge highlights very quickly the varying degrees of people’s capacity to think, react, adapt, execute,” he says. “It would not take long to figure out that I cannot be a basketball player. My height, not to mention my weight and advancing age make it self-evident. Such is not the case in the business world.

“It takes much longer to establish the baseline performance of people in the office (classroom) environment. In the short time that we had together, physical challenges allowed you to assess those qualities you value in your peers very early on, and get on with the business of learning how to deal with the situation at hand.”

Can Leadership Be Learned?
Leadership is a learned capacity. It is also a calling. Whether you wish to become a better leader or you wish to demonstrate this natural talent, each leader will achieve success that is measured by his or her own ambitions and scale of achievement. Not everyone will lead a multinational organization and not everyone wishes to do so. To successfully lead a department of twenty people is no less an achievement if you are simply very good at doing that. An organization cannot thrive with an internal structure of twenty people who are competing for that one leadership position at the very top. 

Even natural leaders, however, need education. For the veterans, perhaps it is reflection. For those with quick minds but few years, it is experience. But it cannot be done in isolation because an education in leadership is not so much about learning how you learn, but understanding how others learn.

Being a leader is about understanding how individuals work differently from one another, and how they can all work together with the most efficiency. At its highest point, leadership is understanding how you can teach another to see the same. 

Do the hikes and trail blazing and mountain scenery really make a difference in leadership education? Though the group was not navigating the dangers of an Everest ascent with the lives of the team in peril, they were put into the real world—the one outside the cement walls and glass windows of the office. It may have been an inspiration for some, a challenge for others, but it was real either way. Instead of so-called tabletop exercises, they were navigating dirt paths and mountaintops and horizons. The difference is there was no escape. As useful as a simulation is, it is always possible to imagine all the solutions. You never have the chance to manage disappointment. And you never get to feel the relief—perhaps jubilation—in overcoming that significant, and real, obstacle for the real-life leader.

Many thanks to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, including Michael Useem, Ph.D., Edwin Bernbaum, Ph.D., Mark Davidson and Maria Pitone, for allowing RM’s participation, and especially to the participants who shared their thoughts and experiences.

Laura Sullivan is editor in chief of Risk Management Magazine.