Is an Outward Bound trip one way to better leadership?
The closest I’ve gotten to a North Carolina Outward Bound School (NCOBS) experience was a trip to Aspen, Colo. last fall. My friends and I camped in the mountains for four days and lived off of wine, cold-brew coffee and whatever we had brought to throw on the fire pit.
I didn’t learn much about myself, other than that, when I wake up in the middle of the night in a rain-soaked tent in 30-degree whether, I lose all faith in Mother Nature and would rather sleep in my friend’s car. And that four days without showering makes me forget to care what I look like.
An NCOBS experience is a different animal. NCOBS is a nonprofit that offers wilderness experiences to groups of people as a way to encounter challenges and recognize that they can achieve more than they thought possible.
I was surprised to hear how these experiences are toughening up and enlightening Charlotte’s youth and adults way beyond any outdoor experience I’ve had.
One NCOBS program, the Charlotte Unity Project, implements an application process to select a diverse group of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools students age 14-18 for a seven-day, donor-funded wilderness course in the NC mountains. The groups of 12 students are led by instructors along backpacking and rock-climbing courses meant to be physically challenging and though-provoking. The goal is to strengthen senses of courage, compassionate leadership, community, diversity awareness and action toward social change. To stop relying on what you’re accustomed to — like technology — and start relying on each other.
“This is an idea that needs to be promoted at South Meck and in our community — the idea that ‘I can’t’ is not an option,” said Mary Catherine Suydam, a South Mecklenburg High School student who participated in the Unity Program and resolved issues with a group that was divided on decisions when it came to proceeding along the course. She spoke during an Oct. 20 NCOBS benefit breakfast.
“The Unity club at South Meck is encouraging students to step outside of their comfort zones,” she said. “To grow. To talk to new and different people. To reach out to fellow peers.”
The Unity Project sent 60 students from six CMS schools on trips last summer.
Adults can register for trips as well.
Nelson Schwab III, managing partner at Carousel Capital, went on an NCOBS excursion as an adult and walked away (after pitching off a rock face and being saved by the friend belaying him) with the perspective that compassion and trust should be key ingredients in our lives.
He emphasized that the point of Outward Bound is to learn something on the course and then take that into your home, or school, or workplace, or community.
“Our community is hurting right now and needs some healing,” he said, a couple of weeks after Charlotte’s streets were swept by protests. “What it really needs is better, more compassionate leadership. Leadership that brings us together rather than appointing blame. Leadership that recognizes we have problems and seeks a plan to solve it. Leadership that listens to what others are saying and feeling no matter how hard it is to listen. And leadership that recognizes that we are all in this together and that the only solution will come if we work together.”
What if more of Charlotte’s leaders, future leaders (read: students), business people and individuals in general went on excursions like this? Would we be talking like these speakers who emerged from the wilderness? Would we treat each other, and ourselves, differently? Better?
Would this city see more positive change?
Upcoming Outward Bound trips
See what’s coming in spring 2017 and plan ahead, with excursions available from backpacking and climbing in the Blue Ridge Mountains to kayaking the Ten Thousand Islands.
Photo: Katie Toussaint
This story was originally published October 25, 2016 at 10:07 PM with the headline "Is an Outward Bound trip one way to better leadership?."