The Shadow Within Us All

Sometimes you just have to stand up and be counted.

Last Saturday, November 10, 2018, I showed up for Shabbat.  Launched by the American Jewish Committee, a global Jewish advocacy organization, the #ShowUpForShabbat campaign was a response to the October 27 massacre in Pittsburgh, when eleven worshipers were gunned down at a synagogue in one of that city's most vibrant Jewish communities.

I had a prior commitment the weekend before and so was not able to attend with the thousands of observers around the world for  #ShowUpForShabbat.  At the time, the mayor of Vancouver attended services at Or Shalom, or Light of Peace synagogue, along with two Members of British Columbia's Legislative Assembly.

The event still gnawed at me.  Having attended high school with Jewish students, many of whom are now Facebook friends, I recruited a friend and off we went.  I wanted to stand against hate with Jewish people everywhere.

It is no small irony that last Friday and Saturday happened also to be the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, sometimes referred to as the beginning of the Holocaust, when thousands upon thousands of German Jews were subjected to terror and violence by the Nazis. Over 1,000 Jewish synagogues and over 7,500 Jewish businesses were destroyed, and approximately 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and taken to concentration camps.

I arrived at Or Shalom half an hour early.  The police had just pulled up.  The Vancouver Police Department was doing a safety check on the building: heightened security.  I didn't mind a bit, and when I mentioned it over lunch to a member afterwards, they were grateful for the extra attention by VPD.

I come from a Christian background, where services last an hour-plus.  This one lasted two and a half hours!  But it was an easy stay.  It was okay to ask questions. People got up and moved around, came in late, etc.

I was struck by the allowance for our humanity in this Jewish community.  The speakers' natural acceptance of our being flawed, and yet of doing our best.

This "liberal" synagogue, to use a term a member used, still felt pretty Jewish!  Greetings of, "Shabbat Shalom."  No cell phones permitted, even at lunch afterwards.  The Rabbi is a woman, and a New Yorker if I recall correctly.  They accepted as a member a Messianic Jew, who sat with us and helped us with questions.

I did my best to follow along in the prayer book(?), with its parallel passages.  When they read slowly, I could follow the Hebrew that I had learned in seminary.  When they raced with their chanting I was lost.  But I could still read the familiar Old Testament passages in English on the opposite page.

My friend met a co-worker, Lorne, a department head at a local university.  He joined us for lunch.  We talked about Antisemitism, racism, and he mentioned the "shadow" within us all.  I agreed.  I recalled with him a professor, Manny Ortiz, a Hispanic, who challenged us to consider our own prejudices, our own racism, to celebrate our differences, to love the city.

I remember my high school days, and my own shadows.  I remembered how I felt like the Jewish students in my school sometimes felt clique-ish to me, like a couple of them seemed to act better than others.  I remembered that others were just as wonderful and as friendly as they could be.  I looked at my own shadows, my own lingering resentment of a few of the Jewish kids.  I looked at my own feelings about Jews.

I remember a beloved Jewish friend Chuck.  We used to joke that we probably did not talk to each other even once in high school, even though we both attended Allgates.  Chuck was the first to reach out to me years later through Facebook.  Chuck and I developed a real appreciation and love for each other; him, a conservative Jew, me, a Christian minister.  Shortly before he passed last year, we had lunch together, the Corned Beef Special (of course!), at Hymie's in Merion Station, Pennsylvania.  Chuck opened my heart up.  I will always love him for that.

After lunch, we parted warmly.  Several folks invited us back, wondering hopefully if we would come again.  But they were so warm and not pushy about it the way some folks can be.  It was just very natural.  Vancouver is a long trek though.

I was honest.  I told them no, probably not.  But one thing I will do is I will stand side by side with Jews and all humans against antisemitism, and for freedom and peace.

When the heart can draw: A Remembrance

It was on the Lion's Bay search and rescue (SAR) task, April 9, 2017 for five hikers who died in an avalanche on Mount Harvey when their cornice collapsed.  They were mostly from the Vancouver Korean Hiking Club.  Teams from throughout the region were brought in to support the operation.

Four hikers were quickly found in the morning and one remained. Talon Helicopters transported us to the search area and toed into a spot in the deposition zone to drop us off. A search dog indicated near where I was probing, and I was present for the recovery of the fifth hiker, a woman.

A couple of days later, I was sketching with oil pastels in a sketch book, and did a quick, abstract representation of Mount Harvey as I recalled it from the deposition zone. I didn't think much of it, and shared it with a friend of mine who happens to be Asian.

She replied, "You have the faces of three Asians in this drawing, and their faces are in mourning."

I said, "What are you talking about?" I did not try to draw any faces, let alone Asian ones; just the mountain. I took a second look at my work. Son of a gun if there aren't three faces. My friend suggested that my heart had been drawing in order to get such a result.

I tracked down the Vancouver Korean Hiking Club, offered my condolences, told them about the sketch, offered it, and they gratefully accepted. A few days later, I heard from a woman who was a friend of the woman who died. She thanked me for the drawing, and expressed that one of the faces I had drawn resembled her friend.  

It's rare to have such full circle closure with a SAR task, especially such a large operation.

The Wilderness Bidet System

Makes a great gift! 

A big thank you to educator Dr. Sally Cirincione and outdoor leader Neil Abellanosa for your review and input on this blog post.  


The Wilderness Bidet System provides a top notch method for Leave No Trace (LNT) pooing.  It's hygienic and doesn't require toilet paper.   We'll lay out your supply list and walk you through the easy eight step poo process!   

What you'll need  

• water (about a litre, a Nalgene is nifty) 
• hand sanitizer 
• soap 
• pooper scooper / trowel 
• your hands: one (preferably left) hand dedicated to this process, and one dedicated clean hand.   
• natural scrub (a handy natural item like a smooth stone, hemlock cone, a large leaf, old man's beard, pine needles, etc.) 
• natural stir stick 

What you won't need: toilet paper!  

Step by Step: The Wilderness Bidet System / LNT Poo Sequence 

• select your site 
• set the table 
• poo to your heart's content 
• engage natural scrub 
• soapy rinse (up to a half litre of water) 
• hand sanitizer 
• wash hands 
• stir the pot 

Site selection: think big, think small

The macro, big picture, key here is to poo safely away from water sources and other recreationalists.  A good rule of thumb is to "take a fifty," or "take a hundred."  You want to pee at least fifty paces, and to poo at least 100 paces from water sources and high travel spots.  Have some privacy, away from water, away from people.  Enjoy your moment.  

The other side of site selection, the micro side if you will, is to set your poo up for success. You want it to break down easily, and to minimize environmental impact, as well as risk to others.  You don't want to gross people out, have them stepping into your poo, or worse, to get an intestinal bug because of your icky ways.  Your best options include: 

• digging a cat hole (four to six inches wide and six to eight inches deep), about the size of a one gallon paint can.  
• for multiple users with a larger party, especially if operating from a base camp, consider digging a trench  

Two site selection myths:  

1. leave your poo under a rock -- please don't cover your poo with a rock.  Leaving your poo under a rock means the sun/heat/rain/snow have a harder time getting under and decomposing the poo mix to turn it into great soil.  A good cat hole is all you need. 
2. in the alpine, smearing your poo on a sun-exposed rock -- given the impact of the high use of fragile alpine environments, decomposition times, and presence of bacteria, this is almost always a bad idea.  Current best practices encourage digging and disposing as you would in a forest environment whenever possible. Of course, if you are somewhere that your poo will have a hard time decomposing (snow, shale, etc.) consider (gulp) packing it out.  In a study published in the Journal of Environmental Management, the authors found that surface (smear) disposal would only be applicable in very remote, low use, alpine and arid settings.  Almost none of us goes there.  

Set the table 
Lay out all your supplies neatly, upside up, already open, and within reach.  Having your soap, water bottle, hand sanitizer, etc., open and accessible makes your backcountry potty adventure so much easier.  Plus you're not opening bottles with dirty hands.  In other words, prepare your layout so that you can do everything with one hand, and while squatting.

Poo with panache 

The eye of the tornado!  What it's all about!  For this step, you want to do what most of the planet does: drop your drawers and squat down low.  Your body is anatomically suited to a squat-style poo posture.  Your body poos more easily, more naturally than in the traditional western culture toilet position.

Pro tip: try to keep your squat at least at 90 degrees or lower.  A true squat.  

Otherwise, water and who knows what else that is left on your butt cheeks may run down your leg to your pants and boots.  So do it right and poo with panache.      

Wipe with your natural scrub 

Here, you're using whatever is handy -- whatever nature provides.  Take your smooth stone, hemlock cone, your leaf, old man's beard, pine needles, what have you, and with one fell swoop, you clear the residual BM from your well-rounded backside.  Women know that you always draw the natural scrub away from your genitals to avoid cross contamination.  

Soapy Rinse 

Work with your body on this one.  Do what works for you.  Your objective is a thorough rinse.  You'll find a technique that works for you.

• The traditional route.  You may wish to put a drop or two of liquid soap on your left hand, then take your water bottle, hold it behind your back at the top of your crack, and slowly pour most of the remaining water over your bum, using your (left) hand to clear the area of any remaining waste.  This is why it is offensive in many cultures to extend your left hand to someone. 
• Alternatively, you may find it easier to wet your hands and wipe while keeping the water bottle in front of you.  Simply wet and rinse your hand in front, and use that hand for the wiping and rinsing at the back.

However you do it, your objective is a thorough rinse: a wilderness bidet!  Save a little water to wash your hands at the end.  

Sanitize 

Next, squeeze a dime size dollop of hand sanitizer into your palm, and thoroughly decontaminate both hands.

Okay, now for the final approach.

Wash your hands 

Wash your hands.  This is where you put a drop or two of soap into your hand, add water, and thoroughly wash your hands, up to and including your wrists.  Consider using a little scrubby to clean your fingernails. You know the drill: sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or the birthday song, not once but twice!
The #1 reason people get beaver fever, or diarrhea, in the backcountry is oral-fecal contamination: they didn't wash their hands thoroughly after pooing.  Wash your hands.  Your tummy will thank you.

Stir the pot 
When you're done, take a stick (for example), your stir stick, and give your poo a good stir.  It gets the breakdown started.  Then cap off your cat hole with the soil you set aside.  Voila!  Leave no trace pooing!  The Wilderness Bidet!

TP-free, minimal impact, maximal hygiene, maximal comfort.   And the wilderness bidet poo kit makes a great gift!  Now your friends can poo with panache, too.

NOLS Leadership Skills: Communication

Neil on course with instructor Audra looking on. 

One of NOLS' seven leadership skills is communication.  We'll review the skill as we go, and when I think of effective communication, I think of Neil: first for his memorable presentation on the Wilderness Bidet System, or how to poo in the woods.  And also for Neil's well timed pearls of wisdom that he sprinkled like pixie dust during discussions throughout the course.  If our expedition was Star Wars, Neil was Yoda.  Karate Kid?  Miyagi.  Lord of the Rings?  Neil was Gandalf.  Seriously.  Gandalf.  

Pearls of Wisdom 

Neil had an uncanny ability to provide well timed, helpful, encouraging quips and quotes that were neither trite nor tiresome.  Pearls of wisdom!  When I asked Neil about this, he quoted Shakespeare!  Hamlet to be exact.  

Brevity is the soul of wit. 

 ~ Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2

Yoda he is.

From childhood, Neil's been a student of communication.  Whether from his dad or church to stand-up comedians, Neil knows wisdom is better than knowledge, and timing is everything.  

Here are a few of the NOLS Leadership Communication competencies and how Neil represents them well:

• Speak up when appropriate, be silent when appropriate.  Pearls of wisdom.  Less is more.  
• Help create a positive learning environment 
• Be timely -- timing is everything 

We've seen each of these so far with Neil's supportive sayings alone.

The NOLS Wilderness Bidet System 

The Wilderness Bidet System 

Does a bear poo in the woods?  Well, so, apparently does an outdoor educator.  Enter Neil.  On our first night in the North Cascades in Washington State, USA, outdoor leader Neil stepped up to the plate and right into the deep end with a timely presentation on leave-no-trace pooing.  

NOLS is an outdoor leader on Leave No Trace (LNT) principles, and I interviewed Neil recently because his presentation was practical, engaging, and effective.  If you are looking for details on LNT Pooing or the Wilderness Bidet System, you'll have to wait a little longer.  Maybe a forthcoming blog post.  This is about communication.

Neil puts intention into his communication, and much natural background, having performed in plays, musicals and with public speaking.  He knows you need to be enthusiastic.  Enthusiasm helps you prepare so that you're creative instead of stressed.  It connects you to your audience.  Even the term Wilderness Bidet System links primitive with posh.  He engaged the senses (well, except for the sense of smell).  He noted how the group was reacting, so he continued to engage us meaningfully.

That's what made Neil so effective a communicator.  We were on the trail the first night and Neil volunteered to give an immensely practical talk of immediate awkward interest to everyone -- poo!

Neil noted that the topic of pooing itself provides a bonding experience.  We all do it.  It's a shared experience.  We're all pretty private about it (unless we let one rip unexpectedly).  It gets us laughing.  Neil kept it lighthearted without devolving into junior high immaturity.   He was matter-of-fact in what he said, while not taking himself too seriously in what he did, with his real-world demonstration of how actually to perform the whole process, from site selection to hand sanitation. Great expedition behaviour!

Additional NOLS Leadership Communication competencies include:

• Let your group know what you expect of them and what they can expect from you 
• Keep people informed as the situation changes 
• Listen actively; paraphrase and ask questions to clarify 
• Have the courage to state what you think, feel and want 
• Speak for yourself; use "I" language 
• Be empathetic during conflicts 
• In feedback be timely, be growth oriented, be specific about your observations, acknowledge your share of any problem, be clear about what you will do next, be as open to receiving feedback as to giving it 

By the way, the Wilderness Bidet System makes a great gift.  Thank you Neil for your time!  It was heartwarming to reconnect with you!

Note: This is the sixth in an occasional series on leadership, drawing from the NOLS Leadership Education Notebook. The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) is a non-profit outdoor education school based in the United States dedicated to teaching environmental ethics, technical outdoors skills, wilderness medicine, risk management and judgment, and leadership on extended wilderness expeditions and in traditional classrooms.  

NOLS Leadership Skills: Competence

Rich being joyfully competent in the kitchen. 

Rich can cook up a storm.  He's not even a professional chef.  He doesn't even have to be at his Minnesota home in the kitchen.  Take him outside, throw some wholesome ingredients at him, and, "Voila!"  We're chowing down in style.  We're talking about competence as a leadership skill and competence comes in many bits and pieces.

Just as Sir Earnest Shackleton knew the importance of having the right cook on the Endurance, setting your team up to eat healthy -- and hearty -- is good leadership, great group management, and the greatest camp food you'll ever munch on.  Everything tastes better outside, ya?

Okay, let's get our bearings with a quick review of the NOLS 4/7/1 Leadership Model.  Leadership, you will recall, is "situationally appropriate action that directs or guides your group to set and achieve goals."  To teach leadership to its students, NOLS uses a framework of four leadership roles, seven leadership skills, and one (your own) signature style.  When it comes to cooking in camp, Rich has style.  In the graphic below, where the three spheres of skills, roles and style overlap is where you are meeting your leadership opportunities.  The roles are four functions, or "hats" you can wear to help your team reach its goals.  

The seven skills are an integrated system of competencies -- like cooking! -- you can continually develop and improve.  Your signature style is how these fit together for you.  Rich walks the walk. 

Competence includes action to:

• take care of your personal maintenance needs to remain a highly functioning team member.  Take care of yourself.  Set yourself up for success.  

• display basic proficiency and actively improve your knowledge, organization and management skills, technical skills, and physical abilities, to name a few.  Growth mindset!   You can always improve your competence.  Outdoor ed is a killer classroom because the consequences are real, immediate, and impossible to ignore.  Skill mastery, or craftsmanship -- excuse me, craft (to be gender neutral, and with a nod to Outward Bound) is key to competency.  Attention to detail, healthy pride in your work, and satisfaction in a job well done: all of these inform competence.  

• set goals, make action plans, and follow through.  We'll talk more about goal setting later.  It can be as simple as grabbing the superior NOLS Cookery cook book and creating your own NOLS Gold (ultimately).  

Note: This is the fifth in an occasional series on leadership, drawing from the NOLS Leadership Education Notebook. The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) is a non-profit outdoor education school based in the United States dedicated to teaching environmental ethics, technical outdoors skills, wilderness medicine, risk management and judgment, and leadership on extended wilderness expeditions and in traditional classrooms.  

NOLS Leadership Skills: Expedition Behaviour

Endurance trapped in pack ice during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition

"Scott for scientific method, Amundsen for speed and efficiency 

but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, 

get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton." 

Sir Earnest Shackleton is legendary for the most successful failure in Antarctic exploration.  Away from his expeditions, Shackleton's life was generally restless and unfulfilled. In his search for shortcuts to wealth and security, he launched businesses which failed, and he died damaged by alcohol and heavily in debt. 

When it came to Antarctic expeditions, however, there was no one like Shackleton.  

For his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–17, he chose his crew, largely based on his knowledge of what's needed and on his gut.  He was a master of fund-raising.   His ship, Endurance, is a story in herself.  She left the whaling station of Grytviken on the South Georgia Island on December 5, 1914 heading for the southern regions of Antarctica's Weddell Sea.  On January 19, 1915, Endurance became frozen fast in an ice floe.  On October 24, she began taking on water.  On November 21, 1915, Endurance finally slipped beneath the surface.  And that's when the real heroism began.  

Shackleton led his entire crew back to civilization in what is nothing less than a miraculous, remarkable, journey, and which ultimately included even a joyride of a glissade to the whaling station on South Georgia Island in the South Atlantic Ocean.   You can read all about it in Alfred Lansing's, Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage.  Talk about expedition behavior.

When I took my classic 26-day Outward Bound course, at Hurricane Island Outward Bound School, my instructor was Sam Scott, and our watch name?  Shackleton.  

Last time we introduced the seven NOLS leadership skills.  Today we're looking at the first: expedition behaviour.  You'll remember that the seven skills are part of the 4/7/1 Leadership Education Model that includes four roles and one signature style.  These seven NOLS leadership skills are a holistic skill set to be applied situationally and in combination with each other.  

Then as now, here's what good expedition behavior looks like in the 21st century: 

• Serve the mission and goals of the group. 
• Be as concerned for others as you are for yourself. 
• Treat everyone with dignity and respect.  
• Support leadership and growth in everyone.  
• Respect the cultures you come in contact with.  
• Be kind and open-hearted.  
• Do your share and stay organized.  
• Help others, but don't routinely do their work.  
• Model integrity by being honest and accountable.  
• Say yes and deliver, or say no clearly if you cannot.  
• Resolve conflict in a productive manner.  

Shackleton was forced to land on the wrong side of South Georgia Island.  He then travelled 32 miles (51 km) with two crew members over extremely dangerous mountainous terrain for 36 hours to reach the whaling station at Stromness on May 20, 1916, one year, four months, and one day after Endurance was beset in ice.  Long story short, he went back and got everyone else.  Alive.  Sir Shackleton was a brilliant sea captain, a courageous sailor and a studied master of men.  He knew how to strike the right balance with an intuitive genius that made their "failure" perhaps the most remarkable seafaring success in history. 

Next: Competence 

Note: This is the fourth in an occasional series on leadership, drawing from the NOLS Leadership Education Notebook. The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) is a non-profit outdoor education school based in the United States dedicated to teaching environmental ethics, technical outdoors skills, wilderness medicine, risk management and judgment, and leadership on extended wilderness expeditions and in traditional classrooms.  

The Seven NOLS Leadership Skills

Not Jim's actual school bus. 

When I'm not directing wilderness courses for Outward Bound, or guiding outdoor trips locally or running teambuilding at a local university's ropes course, I drive a school bus.  I've gotta say, I love it. 

Aside from the awesomeness of driving a huge vehicle, the kids are... always an adventure.  And if they're not, I inject adventure into my work.  So if I'm driving a sports team to another school for a competition, I get on the P/A system and make like an airline pilot.  "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Airlines flight [insert bus number], flying non-stop to [this other school].  My name is Jim and I will be your pilot today." 

Later, "Ladies and gentlemen, we are now beginning our descent into [this other school's] airspace.  The weather at [this other school] is 14 degrees (Celsius -- we're in Canada, remember?) and sunny, a perfect day for a [insert this group's school name] victory!"  And everybody cheers. 

Driving a school bus is humbling.  It's not sexy, it's not a six figure job.  But for a dad who's worked with kids his whole life, it's fun as heck.  It's also fertile ground for an essential NOLS leadership skill: tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity.  More on that later.  

In the 4/7/1 NOLS Leadership model, there is one signature style (your own brand of personal awesomeness), four roles (see my last post), and seven essential leadership skills:

They include: 

1. Expedition behaviour -- how you behave on course (or at work, or...) 
2. Competence -- you can always develop more competence 
3. Communications skills -- verbal, non-verbal, written, you name it 
4. Judgment and decision making -- when it's time to pull the trigger 
5. Tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity -- can you shine when the lights go out?  
6. Self-awareness -- know thyself 
7. Vision and Action -- putting feet on your dreams 

By design, the skills are interdependent, they feed off each other, and they build upon one another.  Synergism.  

Next:  Up close and personal: the first of the seven skills.

Note: This is the third in an occasional series on leadership, drawing from the NOLS Leadership Education Notebook. The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) is a non-profit outdoor education school based in the United States dedicated to teaching environmental ethics, technical outdoors skills, wilderness medicine, risk management and judgment, and leadership on extended wilderness expeditions and in traditional classrooms.  

NOLS 4/7/1 Leadership: The Four Leadership Roles

Designated leader Sally studies the map while
active followers Anne and Cristina smile actively.  

In its 4/7/1 leadership framework, NOLS identifies four leadership roles.  They make so much sense, they are almost self evident.  Here they are: designated leadership, active followership, peer leadership and self leadership. 

Designated Leadership
The designated leader is the person identified either by the organization or by the group as the one in charge.  On our course, Audra and Sally were the designated leaders.  It was Sally and Audra's responsibility to provide direction, support and content.  For safety, the buck stopped with them.  They may (and did) delegate responsibility, as well as to collaborate.  They never abdicated their role or relinquished responsibility.  The designated leader is accountable.

Active Followership
Huge!  I never thought of it this way.  Active followership is empowering of subordinates in that active followership means that group members are hands on, intentional and supportive of the leaders.  Leaders need followers or they're just taking a walk (John Maxwell).  Any of us who has led knows what it feels like to have someone we know we can count on, versus someone who is a constant drain on our energy, continually questioning, and overall being negative.  Active followers ask for clarification, and direction, and put feet on group goals.

Peer Leadership
We lead our peers when we help each other move forward.  There's no hierarchy here.  We look out for each other.  We hold each other accountable.  We support each other without enabling laziness.  One hand washes the other.
In our tent, we had Rich, Blake and me.  We shared cooking duties.  Each of us had differing strengths.  Rich is an awesome, willing cook!  But he also shared the cooking. Blake set the tone quite literally with his ukulele. I added my two cents where I could.  Sharing tent space and cooking creates instant opportunity to clarify fairness, roles and relationships.

Self-leadership
This is personal management with a leadership twist.  To borrow from the NOLS blog, "Each team member is responsible for demonstrating self leadership: personal initiative, character and attention to one's well-being in order to be a productive member of the group and of the larger society."  In my case, I had come straight off a five day mountaineering course, during which we were nearly killed, with no rest, and right into the nine day NOLS trip leader's course.  I am a good twenty-five years older than most of the other participants, and halfway into the course I hit a wall.  I needed a rest day.  Thankfully, Audra took the young whipper-snappers on a ridgeline tour as Sally stayed at our base camp while a few of us rested up.  Our designated leadership provided a situationally appropriate opportunity for self-leadership.

Next?   We'll start looking at the Seven NOLS Leadership Skills.


Note: This is the second in an occasional series on leadership, drawing from the NOLS Leadership Education Notebook. The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) is a non-profit outdoor education school based in the United States dedicated to teaching environmental ethics, technical outdoors skills, wilderness medicine, risk management and judgment, and leadership on extended wilderness expeditions and in traditional classrooms.  NOLS has its own blog post on this topic and you can read it here.  

Leadership and the NOLS 4/7/1 Leadership Education Model

NOLS Trip Leaders, 2017 

Note: This is the first in an occasional series on leadership, drawing heavily from the NOLS Leadership Education Notebook. The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) is a non-profit outdoor education school based in the United States dedicated to teaching environmental ethics, technical outdoors skills, wilderness medicine, risk management and judgment, and leadership on extended wilderness expeditions and in traditional classrooms.

If it's good enough for NASA, it's good enough for me.  Actually, I didn't even know that at the time.  As preparation for the space shuttle flight STS-112 in 2002, NASA sent its crew on a NOLS course.  The crew included Commander Jeffrey Ashby, Pilot Pamela Melroy, Mission Specialists David Wolf, Piers Sellers, Sandra Magnus and Russian Cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin.  It was Commander Jeff Ashby's idea.

Their decision to immerse themselves in an 11-day expedition contributed to the successful 11-day space shuttle mission which included three spacewalks, key space station construction, and delivery of the first of two human-powered carts that will ride along the International Space Station (ISS) railway, providing mobile work platforms for future spacewalking astronauts.  The major objective of STS-112 mission (ISS Assembly Flight 9A) was the delivery of the 45-foot-long (13.7 meters), 15- ton S-One (S1) Truss to the ISS.  And for teamwork and leadership, they started with NOLS.  

The 4/7/1 Leadership Model 

Leadership, says NOLS, is "situationally appropriate action that directs or guides your group to set and achieve goals."  To teach leadership to its students, NOLS uses a framework of four leadership roles, seven leadership skills, and one (your own) signature style.  

NOLS Leadership Educator's Notebook (LEN), p. 10

In the graphic above, where the three spheres of skills, roles and style overlap is where you are meeting your leadership opportunities.  Opportunities are anywhere: in your personal life, within yourself, at work, in recreation, even while going about your day-to-day business for that matter.  

We'll see that the roles are four functions, or "hats" you can wear to help your team reach its goals.  The seven skills are an integrated system of competencies which you can continually develop and improve.  Your signature style is how these fit together for you, so that you can still be you, and which itself is awesome.  You express your own unique awesomeness, now, as a leader.  

If I had a bucket list, attending a NOLS course was definitely on it.  I seized the opportunity last year, and it's had a lasting impact on my personal development.  I am grateful to my instructors, Sally and Audra (Audra instructed the NASA course!), as well as to co-students  Rich, Cristina, Anne Marie, Neil, Francisco, Chris, Zach, and Blake.  Thanks for hanging in with me when I hit the wall, and for the lasting friendships we have forged.  

Darrell: True Inspiration

Darrell and me on Mt. Thom, Chilliwack, BC, Canada 

This morning I was starting out on my hike, a frequent trip for me, the local walk-up called Mount Thom.  I noticed immediately someone who started out below me, maybe a couple of hundred metres behind.  I could tell by his pace that this man was no slouch. He was moving!

Now, I'm not young, and I'm not slow either.  I'm at peace with my pace and I have nothing to prove.  I continued on the ~ 3 km ascent, and from time to time, would sneak a peek backwards just to keep tabs on my "competition."  Well, lo and behold if on a down-and-up roll in the trail, this fella didn't pass me!  We exchanged greetings and huffed and puffed our way forward.

I noticed his love handles, that, given his pace, told me there was more to the story.  "How long have you been on your regime?" I asked. 

"About a year."

Not one to be shy about going deep, I explored, "Can I ask you how much weight you've lost?"

"A hundred pounds."

Wow.  I am more inspired by the heavy person who is taking positive action to lose weight than the slick, fit, genetically thin buffcake who can't take his eyes off himself in the fitness centre mirror.

I asked Darrell what was his turning point: what was the moment when he knew something had to change?

It was the data.  The reality check.  Darrell's doctor shared with him lab results of blood work.  That was enough.  That, and being in his forties and having a family.  On his first hike up Thom, which took him an hour and a half, his marathon-running daughter came along for support. And he's never looked back.  Now he says he does it in about an hour.  I think he's even faster.

​“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” 

~ Joseph Campbell

My life is dedicated to helping people discover that there's more within than they think, to believe they can be more, and to go get it.  Sometimes I have the hardest time applying to myself the inspiration I give to others, like Darrell, and to look at my situation objectively, accept reality, and DO something about it.  Physician, heal thyself.

We can change our weight.  We can bounce back. We can grow.  We can re-wire our brains.  Google search neuroplasticity.  Maybe we'll unpack that in this space.

Is there a hard truth you've been avoiding?  Denying?  Is it time for that compassionate reality check, to look at your situation objectively, to accept reality, and DO something about it?  This, in fact, is the key to your next phase of growth.

In the meantime, Darrell's no different than any of us.  We can all change and grow. Thank you Darrell for reminding us.