A core part of an ISDSI semester is learning about leadership and judgment.  We use hands-on training as well as the NOLS Leadership Skills to help students develop as competent and capable leaders.

Each semesters starts off with a retreat on the second weekend at the Mok Fa Waterfall, part of the Doi Suthep - Doi Pui National Park.  The weekend is a great time for students and instructors to get to know each other, enjoy some time out in nature, and relax.

Mok Fa Waterfall.

We also use the weekend to begin the process of training students in risk management and judgment.  Like any activity, studying on one’s home campus carries with it a set of risks and hazards. Learning and studying abroad has inherent risks associated with it as well, but the risks are different and students don’t have the “street smarts” they would in their home cultures. Because of that we do a number of things during the program, from training sessions to leader-of-the-day, to help students build their ability to make good decisions and lead in a challenging and different environment than their home cultures.

As a part of the weekend, we have modified a leadership tool used by Outward Bound (USA) that they use to train their instructors.  We first learned about how to do this at a workshop “When Judgment Is Crucial: Outward Bound USA’s Instructor Judgment Training” at the Wilderness Risk Management Conference. The basic idea is simple — take a realistic scenario, and then work a group through the options and consequences of decisions.

We start the training session with a discussion of some basic principles of understanding risk, accidents, and how to pull apart a decision to understand its consequences.

Risk, accidents and decision making.

Using these tools allow students to work through the scenario and begin applying a more sophisticated understanding of risk other than a “safe/unsafe” dichotomy.

Notes -- students often end up referring back to these throughout the semester when they are in the position of being leaders-of-the-day.

The students break into groups, and we introduce the scenario — a group of students backpacking through the mountains in Northern Thailand from village to village. This involves understanding objectives hazards of weather and jungle travel, as well as cultural concerns and group dynamics.

Talking over options.

The scenario is very close to the actual Expedition Field Courses they will experience, and is modeled to reflect some of the actual places and people they will meet during the Forests course.

At each point in the scenario where a decision needs to be made, the groups work through what they would do, and then share their decision with the larger group.

Matt sharing his group's thinking on their course of action.

Each group comes up with different solutions to the same set of problems.  Do you stop your group on the trail?  Turn back to the village?

Karen explaining their decision and possible consequences.

The real-life decision modeling is a very powerful way to get students to understand that their decisions have consequences. It is impossible to eliminate all risk and hazards — but it is possible to manage those in a responsible way.

A key thing we learned ourselves on our Wilderness First Responder course.

After the scenario we debrief and reflect on what students have learned — what was surprising, what take away points they want to remember, and how to apply it.

The next day during the retreat we spend the morning putting this into action — first with a “Threats To Life” class on what to do in case of an emergency where someone has gotten hurt, and then with an accident scenario where they work in teams to carry a “patient” out of the jungle with an improvised litter. Aside from being a lot of fun, it brings home how decisions have consequences, and how to be thoughtful and aware in a new culture, environment, and learning context.

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For more on our approach, see “The Objective Hazards of Culture” online (as a PDF), as well as other papers on our Publications page.

Also see our Wilderness First Responder page, with explains a bit about our approach and the training required for ISDSI instructors.

For the end of orientation week, we went climbing at Crazy Horse, a series of limestone cliffs and caves outside of Chiang Mai.  We went with Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventures (CMRCA), a great organization that we work with and runs outstanding climbing and caving programs.

The goal of the day was to get to know each other, learn about leadership and responsibility, get outside, and start building a base of expedition skills for the semester.

Boi teaching belaying to Krissy and Lindsey.

Boom backing up Betsy belaying

Emily climbing.

Carrie "sanuk!"

Explaining safety and risk management for the tyrolean

Uan starting Lyndsey on the tyrolean

Molly crossing the tyrolean 53 meters up.

Pi Pu enjoying a day out of the normal office routine on the tyrolean traverse.

Student Ben rapelling after the tyrolean traverse

Pi Ben and Pi Pu resting in the shade (Ben may have been snoring...)

Sea kayaks and our support boat in Trang.

Good leadership is important, and helping students develop leadership skills is a key part of what we do at ISDSI.We worked with NOLS to tailor their leadership curriculum for our programs in Thailand, and have found their approach to leadership development to be excellent (see NOLS, Expedition Leadership for more).  We worked with NOLS in the development of our Expedition Field Courses, and have found their approach to leadership to work well in a very different context than wilderness expeditions.

NOLS defines leadership as follows: Expedition leadership means timely, appropriate actions that guide and support your group to set and achieve realistic goals. Great leaders create an environment that inspires individuals and groups to achieve their full potential.

Leadership on an ISDSI course is different than what most students are used to in an expedition setting.  Unlike leading in a wilderness setting, with an Expedition Field Course there are often more constraints.  We can’t just camp anywhere, but have to get to a particular village by nightfall.  We work with local guides, rather than just navigating by topographic map and compass/GPS. These constraints can make the leadership seem superficially more limited (not as many choices), but in reality, it makes it much more realistic and challenging.

In the real world, you are rarely in a situation where you have unlimited choices as a leader.  Even in the wilderness, your choices are constrained by the fitness of the group, the terrain, weather, and sometimes the permitting system for wildlands management. On ISDSI courses we add to that constraints based on logistics (we have to get to a particular village on a particular day), as well as cultural and social components (working with local experts and village teachers).We also have the constraint that we have certain academic objectives for the course (studying a particular watershed, local community, or farming technique).

Each day students are “leader of the day” and join the instructor team is setting goals for the group, and creating the environment where the group can achieve its potential. We have found that when students focus only on the limitations imposed by the constraints (what they “can’t do”) they often struggle with leadership — thinking isn’t “real” if they can’t really fundamentally change the course and decide to do something completely different than what the course objectives are. Of course, even on a NOLS course there are constraints, and in the real world, you face those constraints all the time.

When students embrace the constraints, however, it is magic. Rather than seeing working with local guides on a hike through a forest as a limit it becomes an opportunity –  the guides become companions and resource people. Embracing the constraints of leadership in the real world helps students realize that their “timely, appropriate actions” really do matter in how the group they are leading is able to function and thrive. Some days have fewer constraints (when to leave the beach while sea kayaking) some have more (a meeting with villagers after a hike studying ethnobotany with village elders, or a travel day).  The best student leaders bring out the best in their groups, and can take an otherwise boring day of transport out to the expedition start into an exciting day to study the local countryside and team building. That is leadership that “inspires individuals and groups to achieve their full potential!”