The MBA Wilderness Retreat: Experiential Leadership Development

At an appointed hour on a specified day in February Haskayne MBA students are granted online access to enroll in spring and summer courses. It is at this time, sometime midmorning on a weekday, that MBA students find themselves staring intently at laptop screens, ignoring whatever may be happening around them. Colleagues may be chatting. A professor may be lecturing. A boss may be introducing the next agenda item in a meeting. A roommate or a spouse may be vacuuming or doing the dishes. For an MBA student who wishes to enroll in the Wilderness Retreat, at this time on this day, there is only the screen.

Within ten minutes registration is nearly complete, only a few spots remain. Within an hour the number of waitlisted students is growing. The course’s popularity is maintained by word of mouth. For MBA student Suraj Mathews, the buzz was persuasive. “The expression that it was a ‘life-changing experience’ was mentioned repeatedly and I wanted to experience it for myself.”

The Wilderness Retreat, officially known as BSEN 749 Rediscovering Leadership: The Haskayne Wilderness Retreat, is a six-day MBA course offered twice a year. Both sections take place in July at the University of Calgary’s Barrier Lake Field Station in Kananaskis. There is also an undergraduate version of the course that also takes place in July.

The course is led by Dr. David Lertzman, who designed it by incorporating knowledge from a variety of fields including sustainable development, organizational management, cross-cultural learning, outdoor leadership and wilderness therapy. Dr. Lertzman and his team of instructors – certified outdoor guides, indigenous knowledge-keepers and cross-cultural facilitators – share teachings from indigenous cultures to support students as they learn about sustainability and leadership and as they reflect on their values and life purpose.

Wilderness retreat students learn experientially through participation in a range of activities. They learn about their peers and themselves through outdoor games. They learn from each other and from the course instructors by sharing and listening every evening in a talking circle, which is a method of communal communication based on indigenous cultural practices. They hike. They learn how to build fires. They learn how to assemble shelters. And they spend time in the forest alone to reflect and gain confidence in the outdoors.

Each experiential activity is designed to prepare them for the overnight solo vigil. During the solo vigil students spend nearly 24 hours alone in the wilderness. They are encouraged to spend this time in a state of reflection. “My greatest enemy is myself,” says Suraj Mathews, who attended the retreat this past summer. “I spend the least time listening to myself and the most time ignoring my inner voices. The solo element helped me make peace with and talk to myself. It helped me understand who I am and what my purpose is.”

The wilderness retreat is popular for good reason: it’s unique. Students explore ideas in a supportive learning environment, under circumstances that can be challenging. Many lessons students learn at the retreat are singular and indelible because they’re personal. “This was the most valuable course I have done to date,” says Mathews. “Future leaders must know who they are and how their actions can impact our world. The wilderness retreat is like an orientation in the right direction, an awakening of the inner senses to make sound judgements. It prepares one to look at the world through the correct lens. It teaches us what true leadership is.”