**3. The wilderness leadership transformation program**

Fueled by the widely recognized need for a new wave of leaders whose characteristics include high moral standards, honesty, and genuine care, the Foundation for Natural Leadership (FNL), based in the Netherlands, invites leaders to develop their authentic leadership capacities by bonding with nature in some of the world's most remote wilderness places. To build their program, the FNL has drawn from a body of thought, a framework called "U Process", coined by Joseph Jaworski (1996) [82], and further developed by Scharmer [83], Scharmer and Kaufer [14] and Senge, Scharmer, Jaworski and Flowers [84]. The U process shows how individuals, teams,

organizations, and large systems can build the essential leadership capacities needed to address the root causes of today's social, environmental, and spiritual challenges. In essence, the U process lays down the path to a person's inner source of leadership and creativity. It is a process that invites leaders to take a fresh look at the bigger picture and use all their senses to observe issues and challenges and create creative solutions.

Grounded in this framework the wilderness leadership program is a well-defined trajectory built around the important so-called trail principles: simplicity (disconnected from the mediated world and its built structures), sensing (opening up all senses), sharing (within dyads or councils with the 'talking-stick'), silence (during hikes and night watch), sincerity (being honest to oneself and others), service (caring for nature and each other), and self (who am I and what is my work?). It is the facilitator's role to monitor and apply the principles during the trail.

The program consists of a four to six-day wilderness trail with a group of five to seven participants, supplemented with one or two local guides and a certified FNL facilitator. Prior to the trail, an intake conversation is held, aimed to address the participants' motivation, as well as a meeting aimed to get the participants to know each other and to provide practical information about the program. The design of the trail meets the conditions for participants to be fully immersed in nature. Participants go into wild, remote natural places without human-made facilities, make hikes every day, and take only a backpack with a sleeping bag and food. Trails are organized in remote wilderness places in Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, South Africa, Rwanda, and Botswana. Besides camping, walking in silence, periods of solitude, and sleeping under the stars, there is ample time for self-reflection, telling life stories, one-to-one conversations, and sharing experiences while sitting in a circle with the socalled "Indian talking stick". After the trail the individual participant and the facilitator evaluate the event and the commitments and intentions that have emerged. Finally, after 2 months, trail participants come together to share how those commitments and intentions translate into practice. Participants included both female and male leaders, working in business, banking, and (non-)governmental institutions.

Obviously, the characteristics of such a training program can be found in other settings as well. After all, Kaplan and Kaplan [72] stated that the characteristics of a restorative environment are not necessarily confined to natural settings, and research suggests that high-impact experiences are not limited to natural environments but might also occur during sports while appreciating music and visual art [85] through artistic pursuits [86] and while practicing meditation and mindfulness [87]. Yet, in recent years many consultancy companies have focused on incorporating nature into their leadership programs. Incidentally, with varying degrees of success, after all, the guidance requires professional facilitating and coaching skills and the subtlety to guide the often profound transformation processes in the right direction. In contrast to the often rational-cognitive, consultancy method ("know and tell"), the delicate attitude formation process requires a more affective approach ("ask, listen, and give support") with room for emotion in order to guide leaders in their transformation process. An adequate facilitator and coach training is therefore required, which is sometimes neglected.
