Call of the Wild Appear in ILM’s ‘The Edge’ Magazine

Sept. 22, 2014 - PRLog -- Call of the Wild's  innovative work on Reflective Walking has been noted by The Institute of Leadership and Management’s ‘The Edge’ magazine. Managers are being advised to amble outside of their normal working environment to help solve problems.

‘Reflective walking’ sounds like the kind of New Age fad favoured by Highgate Mums in between their juice cleanse and taking little Petronella to ballet classes. But taking some time out for a meditative stroll could help you solve problems and become a better leader or manager, according to leadership training company Call of the Wild.

The process of walking involves the person doing the walking, moving through the physical world in which “leadership” occurs. This idea may be summarised by the French philosopher Merleau Ponty who stated that “The world is not what I think but what I live though”, reflective leadership walking allows us to consider the phenomenon of leadership from the mind/body perspective. The idea of a walk or journey also has the connotation of a “liminal” space as described by the anthropologist Victor Turner. Liminal spaces are places of limbo and threshold, spaces where we abide as we wait to move from what we were to what we will become; boyhood to manhood, wife to mother, ignorance to knowledge.

It is within the geographical liminal space of a leadership walk that our particular interest lies. This is the effect of the environment on the mental processes of the delegates and the facilitators alike, what Will Self would term as psycho-geography. Psycho-geography relates to the playfulness and naturally occurring impact of outdoor environments on the human ability to think and reflect. The act of walking offers the walker a “place and space” to reflect and consider the experiences that await them as leaders back in the workplace. The concept of a liminal space in this context may be therefore understood as a place where ideas and concepts of the phenomenon we call leadership are in various stages of flux and negotiation.

For more information about reflective walking visit http://www.callofthewild.co.uk and click on news