Wilderness thinking: a Novel Approach to leadership development

Purpose – Describes the development of a leadership approach in which the outdoors became an environment for personal reflection. Design/methodology/approach – Reports on the pilot findings from research conducted with 50 managers from Airbus UK and TOTAL and contribute to knowledge about reflective approaches to leadership development Findings – A process of retreat became a catalyst for reflective learning about leadership among 50 managers from Airbus UK and TOTAL. The findings challenge OMD and SMD and their specific use of the outdoors as a medium for individual learning. Originality/value – Evidence was found that wilderness thinking represents an innovation in reflective learning which challenges the main trends in the use of the outdoors to develop leader