Scraping by: Kellogg students and their guide prepare cactus during their desert survival leadership experience this spring.  Photo © Amy Wang

Extreme makeover

Leadership club's spring break survival trip debuts in Mexican wilderness

By Romi Herron

It is now, at least for those willing to answer the call of the wild courtesy of a new Kellogg experiential leadership program.

The initiative, led by the school's Business Leadership Club (BLC), stripped 16 participants of the comforts of traditional spring break for a weeklong extreme education in March. Unaware of their exact destination, packing only a tarp, hammock, knife, cup and the clothes on their backs, the group traveled to the Mexican wilderness, near Puerto Vallarta.

"Normally for an MBA student, a challenge is a tough class or a difficult problem set. But the challenges [facing us on the trip] were primitive," says Todd Auwarter '07, BLC president. "We had no food, we slept in the cold, we had to hike for hours to find water.  When you are focusing on surviving, you realize who you really are."

The excursion, he says, was a transformative experience in partnership with Boulder Outdoor Survival School. The event began with a two-day "impact period" to acclimatize participants to heat, hunger and thirst.  Adapting to those conditions, say students, is where the learning presents itself, culminating in evening reflections among mosquito swarms and the night's chill.

A long way from the Jacobs Center

The grueling context can inspire exceptional leadership insights — precisely the point of the excursion, says Mike McClurg '07, BLC's vice president of integration strategy.

"The off-site expedition builds self-awareness and leadership through responsible risk-taking," says McClurg, who worked with faculty to plan the program to provide students with an offering that melds leadership theory and experience.

Tyler Baldwin '07 also helped with the planning and garnered critical insights during the trip once he saw how his zealousness could leave others alienated. For instance, when the expedition leader instructed the groups to boil salt water to desalinate it, Baldwin set out to accomplish the task quickly, only later realizing that speed was irrelevant. Other group members had more concerns with the process itself.

"Later, in the debrief, I realized my actions sidelined the group's focus," Baldwin notes, adding that two female participants said their suggestions often went unheard. "A key takeaway for me is that I need to foster a variety of communication styles."

Jeff Smith '07 also emphasized teamwork as imperative not only in outdoor survival, but management.

"The importance of bringing a group to a common goal really played out on the trip," he says. "Achieving consensus is challenging, and to reach it you have to communicate effectively. When we go through life under 'normal' conditions, you see yourself in an isolated situation; in extreme conditions, you learn how you react differently."

Enduring the stress of hunger and fatigue gave participants a greater sense of capability, empowerment and self-awareness, Smith says.

For Auwarter, the trip provided insights into how to set expectations, focus and resolve.

"In an era of 'bigger is better,' we rarely take the perspective that things could be worse. But when you go for days without water, it's far more useful to realize that temperatures could be even hotter, instead of fixating on cold water that is unavailable," Auwarter says.

The leadership experience also taught participants to focus on the present. With no watch to tell time or a map to chart their course, the group had to deal with circumstances right before them. Auwarter recognized simple pleasures he might otherwise have overlooked, such as a tree's shade. Figuratively, he compares this experience to the tendency of some business executives to look too far ahead, overlooking current circumstances.

He also discovered the value of perseverance and that achieving his objective was "much sweeter" than it would have been without a challenge.

Now, BLC is looking to develop the course further.  

McClurg is working with the Kellogg administration to create a framework so that alumni might participate in abbreviated experiential offerings. Next year's adventure may be supplemented with a classroom component focusing on leadership theory and group dynamics.

Undoubtedly, participants will also learn how to stay alive in the middle of nowhere. Not a bad skill to have in the concrete jungle.