The Transformative Potential of Nature-Based Learning

• During the retreat, students deepen their understanding of and connection with the natural world by participating in a range of experiential and reflective outdoor activities.
• Through interactions with Elders from Treaty Seven Nations, students are exposed to Indigenous perspectives and pedagogies.
• The retreat offers participants opportunities to slow down and build authentic relationships with peers.

 
Our world is facing unprecedented challenges—from climate change and political tensions to economic downturns and increases in the cost of living. To manage those challenges, today’s leaders need to embrace holistic approaches to problem-solving, welcome diverse perspectives, and adopt ethical stewardship. At the same time, they must embody the values of empathy, resilience, agility, and humility.

At the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, one way we are shaping the leaders of tomorrow is through our Haskayne Wilderness Retreat. A marquee offering of the Canadian Centre for Advanced Leadership in Business, it is also part of a portfolio of programs known as Haskayne Adventure Leadership.

Created 20 years ago by the beloved late professor David Lertzman, the Haskayne Wilderness Retreat doesn’t just teach leadership; it also allows students to practice it in real-world, nature-based settings. Its curriculum blends sustainability, Indigenous ways of knowing, ecological awareness, and personal development. As students explore leadership topics within the broader context of sustainability, they clarify their core values and come to understand more of their own unique paths of service.

The vision behind the retreat really revolves around one central question: What kind of leadership is needed for a flourishing future? Students explore what this means in light of the evolving social, economic, and ecological realities that shape their areas of professional concern. They also begin to ponder another key question: What does leadership mean for me? Because the course nudges them outside of their comfort zones, they must reflect on the answers in environments of uncertainty and unfamiliarity.

This time for reflection is critical, because in today’s fast-paced, always-on world, many leaders lack the time to process their experiences and align them with their values. And yet, the most skillful and agile leaders are deeply connected to a sense of purpose—they know their values and their “whys,” and they prioritize their time and energy accordingly. At the Haskayne Wilderness Retreat, students gain clarity on the types of leaders they aspire to be and the values that ground their professional and personal lives.

A Land-Based Perspective

The Haskayne Wilderness Retreat is a one-week block course that is offered at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The undergraduate course typically is held in the first week of July at the University of Calgary BioGeoScience Institute. The MBA-level courses are run later in the same month and have been hosted at various locations and retreat centers across the Canadian Rockies.

To maintain the course’s intimate format, each section is limited to 20 students, and classes often fill up immediately. Students are expected to engage deeply with the course readings prior to the retreat; this allows them to be well-prepared and fully present during their time on the land together.

While the experiential nature of the program means each student’s learning outcome will be highly personal, the course incorporates some common learning goals. We want participants to develop an ecocentric awareness, clarify their core values and sense of purpose, and learn tools for staying centered in challenging circumstances. Another goal is unique to Haskayne’s leadership program: We invite students to critically reflect on their responsibilities and roles as Treaty people at a time when Canadians are grappling with the painful legacies of colonization and the possibilities of reconciliation.

A Mixed Approach

We encourage students to glean insights from diverse fields, including sustainable development, regenerative economics, systems ecology, complexity thinking, organizational management, leadership development, and ecopsychology. Course readings, lectures, facilitated discussions, and written assignments are all intended to meet these learning goals. In addition, the retreat offers three distinct experiential learning opportunities:

Nature-based activities. Sustainability advocate Ray Anderson, who was CEO of the global flooring company Interface, famously observed that “you can learn everything you need to know about running a company from a forest.”

Indigenous Elders and knowledge keepers share cultural teachings about learning from and building relationships with nature and the more-than-human world.

At the retreat, we invite students to deepen not only their understanding of but their sense of relationship with the natural world in ways that may be unfamiliar. Students spend time alone on the land, for example, engaging with specific pedagogical prompts. These outings might include short observation activities, hourlong journaling activities, or all-day reflective “solo” experiences.

We also draw from diverse land-based pedagogical traditions to help students not only learn in nature, but also from nature. These awareness activities, which are designed to open and reawaken the senses, might include learning about the plants, paying attention to ecosystem dynamics, listening to the layers of birdsong, observing patterns of ecological relationships, and engaging in deep play.

Indigenous pedagogies. Some of the most impactful activities of the retreat see students spending intimate time with Elders and knowledge keepers from the Îyârhe Nakoda Nations, Siksikaitsitapi (Blackfoot) Confederacy, and other Treaty Seven Nations. Representatives of these nations have been central members of the faculty team since the course first began.

These Elders and knowledge keepers share cultural teachings about learning from and building relationships with nature and the more-than-human world. They draw from a wide range of learning approaches, including ceremony and story, to share culturally grounded perspectives on leadership, sustainability, and right relations.

The retreat offers both formal and informal opportunities for students to meet and interact—often for the first time—with Elders, teachers, and community members from the Indigenous Nations in whose territories they now live and work. It is hard to describe just how generous the various Indigenous faculty have been with their cultural teachings or just how impactful this exposure has been for students.

Transformative learning practices. Students are introduced to lessons they can use to navigate uncertainty with increased centeredness, compassion, and self-awareness. Our hope is that, once the retreat is over, students will incorporate the following two practices into their everyday lives:

Contemplative practices include a daily rhythm of meditation, reflection, centering, and mind-body integration. Students are invited to bring an attitude of mindful awareness to every aspect of the course, whether that be walking on the trail, tracking the unfolding group dynamics, or simply noticing how they are being impacted by a particular activity in the moment. Above all, students have the opportunity to reflect on their own deeper sense of calling and purpose.

Relational practices involve students participating in daily conversations and circles where they are invited to speak and listen more deeply. Such conversations range widely from the personal to the professional to the planetary. Students are encouraged, in ways that are often modeled by Indigenous faculty, to speak authentically and courageously. As a result, they learn about one another in ways that are seldom possible in the regular classroom.

A Different Kind of Test

In some ways, the Haskayne Wilderness Retreat has a different arc from traditional business school programs. In typical courses, students attend lessons and lectures before taking an exam at the end of the semester to demonstrate what they’ve learned. But in the Wilderness Retreat, the “test” comes first.

Students are placed in an entirely new cultural space and immersed in new ways of relating to the land. Such unfamiliar and sometimes uncomfortable experiences can be challenging. But the most important challenge is making sense of these experiences afterward. Each student will learn different lessons from the same “test.”

Students are placed in an entirely new cultural space and immersed in new ways of relating to the land. Such unfamiliar experiences can be challenging.

We assess student learning in several ways. MBA students are expected to read and critically engage with a number of books and articles; they must submit written assignments before the retreat begins. Undergraduates are expected to keep reflective journals on their learning during the retreat. Additionally, they may be graded on their participation in and the contributions they make to small-group discussions.

Both graduate and undergraduate students are required to produce final papers in which they reflect on the core questions of the course and outline how they are going to transfer their new knowledge to their future endeavors. The requirements for these papers reflect the different levels of professional experience that undergraduates and MBA students possess.

A Transformative Experience

Many students describe their retreat experience as life-changing. But what changes? Above all, students seem to experience an expansion in perspective and the frames of reference by which they make meaning. They come to understand themselves, the world around them, their capacity for leadership influence, and their desire to make meaningful contributions in new ways. We often remind students that integrating such insights, learning, and perspectives into their daily lives is only possible through ongoing practice and action over time.

Through student feedback, we have learned that such integration does indeed take place. Many participants find the Haskayne Wilderness Retreat to be a transformative experience that shapes them for years to come.

As an example, we can point to Christine Gillies, the chief product marketing officer at Blackline Safety and an alumna of the inaugural 2004 cohort. She has told us that, 20 years after attending the retreat, she continues to emphasize the power of listening, the importance of sustainable practices, and the necessity of understanding the nuances of doing business in other countries. She says that she still approaches her professional role with empathy, environmental awareness, and a collaborative spirit.

To ensure that the retreat continues to be a valuable experience, we survey students to discover which aspects of the course are most impactful. Not surprisingly, students consistently highlight two elements: time spent with Indigenous Elders and time spent learning from the land. But two additional aspects, related to the contemplative and relational learning practices, are frequently underlined:

The chance to slow down. In business settings, we’re often looking for the new and novel, and doing so at a fast pace. But the retreat teaches students to explore simpler ways of doing things and carve out time for reflection. It also allows them to mute outside distractions and immerse themselves in the present so they can process even the most uncomfortable feelings, thoughts, and questions.

Students form lasting bonds as they participate in novel experiences, share stories of healing, embrace vulnerability, and set aside differences.

The opportunity to build authentic relationships. During the retreat, students have the time and space to make genuine connections. They form lasting bonds as they participate in novel experiences, share stories of healing, embrace vulnerability, and set aside cultural and personal differences. The strong community built over the course of the retreat often continues for years to come as students remain in each other’s lives, meet up regularly, and support each other personally and professionally.

For our MBA students, these connections are particularly profound. The graduate experience can be quite isolating because it is challenging for students to balance the demands of their academic and professional lives. This is particularly true in the post-pandemic era, which has perpetuated a feeling of loneliness among many people.

A Different Way of Learning

The Wilderness Retreat offers a novel and hybrid approach to leadership and sustainable development. It integrates transformative learning—including Indigenous pedagogies, land-based learning, and a broad range of contemplative and relational practices—with more familiar postsecondary educational approaches to create a deeply impactful experience.

As we described earlier, the course invites students to grapple with a vital and urgent question: What kind of leadership is needed for a flourishing future? There are many answers, but we note one common thread that is shared by Indigenous Elders and sustainability scholars alike. A shared ethos of deep connectedness offers the most viable foundation for human and planetary flourishing.

It is our hope that the retreat can help catalyze the perspective shift required for the emergence of such an ethos. It represents a move from a primarily egocentric mindset to a more ecocentric one, in which students not only understand but directly experience themselves as being part of a larger, interconnected whole.

Like all growth experiences, this can be challenging. It can drum up feelings of paradox and uncertainty as students grapple with their changing values and try to determine what it really means to be an ethical and effective leader in these times. Yet, when students write their final reflective papers, they commonly report an appreciation of this fundamental change.

As graduate education faces increasing scrutiny over its perceived value, perhaps this paradigm shift in leadership education is actually the greatest lesson we can offer.