Customer Reviews

Leadership the Outward Bound Way: Becoming a Better Leader in the Workplace, in the Wilderness, and in Your Community

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As an alum of the Hurricane Island Outward Bound school, I was very interested to discover this book. The book uses case studies which I have always found to be a great learning tool. The content is very detailed (good), but as a result, the book can be a bit of a slow read at times (bad). The content is most relevant to outdoor leadership, but most of the lessons can certainly be applied in everyday situations.
I liked that this book does not contain any impractical graphs, lists, charts, etc typically found in leadership tomes. The content is well-presented and overall is a good read. Former students of Outward Bound should find this book especially interesting.

My interest in leadership has been growing in the last couple of years and when I saw the opportunity to learn more about leadership and Outward Bound at the same time, I jumped at the chance. To be able to summarize this book in a review doesn't seem to do it justice as the amount of depth in this book continues to surprise me. I've been amazed at how much I've been underlining in my copy and pondering over before I move on. I like how the book is broken down into four sections which makes it easy to find things after you've read them and want to reference it again. I found it to be a slower read than I would have liked, only because after I read something, I wanted to figure out how to apply what I learned to my current workplace. This information and knowledge in this book will continue to benefit me for many years down the road.

The book approaches leadership from the point of view of a leader organizing a group of individuals for an expedition and leading them through this expedition, with all its human and natural challenges. It accurately captures the fundamental principles of human interaction applicable to everyday life from the wilderness to the board room. Subsequent chapters take these teachings and apply them to the professional and community life. Much of the actual contents can be found in a number of other "leadership" and/or "communications" books, however the author does an excellent job of tying the application of leadership to group dynamics, whether it be in an outdoor activity or company project or a boardroom discussion The topics are well defined and characterized. This book is based in large part around effective styles of communication. The pace of presentation could be faster; at times it is easy to skip over content, or put the book down.

This book has a tremendous amount of depth with a welcome organizational style. Its style and organization is conducive to underlining and pondering over. From a practical viewpoint, this book is broken down into four sections which makes it easy to find things after you've read them and want to reference it again as you learn to apply the principles. In short, this is an excellent read as well as a reference book whether you are an outdoor leader or you are applying these principles to everyday life.

Karl Brackmann
Seattle Mountaineers

This is arguably one of the best hands-on books about Outward Bound. It captures accurately the fundamental princples of human interaction from the perspective of this 40-year old institution. The book is designed for anyone wanting to understand how to become an outdoor educational leader, or for those who can apply these same leadership expeditionary principles to every day life. The book comes from the point of view of a leader getting a group together and leading them through an outdoor expedition, with all it's human and natural challenges. Subsequent chapters take these teachings and apply them to the professional and community life. The book is based in large part around effective styles of communicating in different environments. An excellent read with insight that comes otherwise only from experience!

I was not familiar with Outward Bound before reading this book. Afterwards, I thought how great it would be to attend an Outward Bound course. That being said, you can still learn a lot from this book even you haven't heard of Outward Bound, it teaches many aspects of leadership, including leadership in the workplace, the outdoors, and in the community, all of which I have an interest in.

I especially liked the case studies and real life examples that were presented throughout the book.

This book along with others in the Outward Bound series are well written and are specifically instructive how-to works promoting the history and forward thinking work of the the OB organization. Self reliance, awareness, service and organizing and employing collective energy to accomplish real world goals are the basic premises of these books. I am an alumnus of 2 programs and the change both classes had on me have enriched my life dramatically. These books expound the basics and attach exercises to measurable goals and the tools to accomplish them both human and actual.
Stephen J Burke