Shackleton: What's in a Name?

            Before I delve into talking about my experience during our 10 days at sea, and my musings on the many facilitation sessions on deck about notions of leadership and leadership moments, I would like to stop and divert a little, focusing a bit on Shackleton, what he was known for, and my thoughts on the problems with naming an outdoor adventure leadership expedition under his name. 

            If you were to ask me just a week ago what comes to mind when I think of Sir Ernest Shackleton, I would have possibly replied saying; 

                  Shackleoton was a Brittish Antarctic explorer in the early 20th century known most famously for his great courage and leadership in his failed expedition to the South Pole from 1914 to 1916. Even though their expedition failed, and the crew faced disaster after disaster, with harsh winds and cold conditions. 

He was a great leader, because of his great sense of responsibility for the team, making sure that no man was left behind, and his strong sense of commitment

             As you might see in my very first post, I mentioned my thoughts on how the name Shackleton is a very fitting name for our leadership sea expedition, the name being associated with the values above, and most importantly, a great leader. 

             While it's true that the expedition that we embarked on was indeed first and foremost about leadership and for young leaders like ourselves, I have encountered a recurring problem, which I have felt and experienced ever since primary 5 camp; how camps, expeditions and other outdoor (adventure) activities are held in nature (be it in campsites in forests, mountain climbing or kayaking or sailing on the open sea), yet, there is an overemphasis on the human physical activity, like "conquering the highest mountains". The stress on human physical achievement 'over nature' is what most people in my experiences have talked about, when embarking on such a journey. An overemphasis on human physical activity and a lack of sensitivity towards the natural environment that we are are "conquering" - the same environment that has trees to give us oxygen, that is home to billions of other living creatures, that presents to us the beautiful sunrise and sunset everyday, or the vast canvas of stars at night. I have seen this disconnect since I was 10 and I unfortunately continue to see it now at 17. 

            While visiting my sister in London during these holidays, I have had the wonderful pleasure of finding this book that I've always wanted to read at a local book fair titled: 

The Natural Explorer. 

Understanding Your Landscape.

By Tristan Gooley. 

          This is a great book for anyone interested in navigating through the outdoors naturally, using signs from and wisdom about nature. But to get back on point, what caught my attention in this book was in the introduction titled "The Lost Explorer". Here, Gooley starts the book with the line "The explorer has taken the wrong turn", and later on he addresses the problems I've raised above, about adventure activities and nature. What I want to highlight is what he mentioned about Sir Ernest Shackleton, which gave me a new perspective on him and what he stood for. 

"The crux of his new expedition was not that it would make discoveries, but that it would be physically, technically and mentally at the limits of human potential [...]

Shackleton's aim was to restore Britain's prestige by putting it back at the top of the polar exploration - 

prestige, not discovery". (pg 5)

It was here where his thoughts really resonated with mine, regarding my concern that explorations and journeys of discovery were more about human prestige and a sense of human accomplishment, above anything else. I would like to say that I do admire Shackleton, for his courage, determination and adaptability - all important features of any good leader. But I wonder what the impact that his "compelling story of leadership, when disaster strikes again and again" (The New York Times 2011) as well as other expedition stories that share similar thrilling messages to the TV series I Shouldn't be Alive have on current, potential and future leaders and explorers. Gooley elaborates on this point too, and I agree with him completely;

"With each stage there followed another chapter in a tale of hardship, leadership, courage, sacrifice, navigation, bad and good luck that has possibly never been exceeded in the history of exploration. This story has been told often, the point here is that its power has played a significant part in re-shaping the image of the explorer in the minds of the public and consequently in the minds of explorers themselves"  (pg 6)

The purpose of this diversion was really to express my sentiments on the disconnect with nature that many students in my experience have undergone during their expeditions and camps outdoors. The overemphasis of human physical triumph and the repeating ideology of "conquering nature" is a mindset that worries me. As someone who not only loves outdoor adventure activities but who also strongly believes in the symbiotic relationship that the human race shares with Mother Nature, I think it's about time that we treat nature with more respect and sensitivity. I'm sure it's more than possible to embark on a successful expedition that is physically challenging and strenuous and at the same time, embark on such a journey with the mindset that you are not out there to 'conquer nature' or 'battle' with it, but that you are there to learn from it. 

All good expeditions will have 2 elements: the first in terms of physical discovery (of strenuous activity and of discovering lands that you've never seen before), and the second more important aspect, which is the element of self-discovery - 

realising that when you are out on the open sea, 

and when that moment makes you feel so small, 

instead of battling and conquering the winds and the rain and the choppy seas, 

to stop and think that maybe, 

just maybe, 

you are not as big as you thought you were in the grand scheme of things, 

and while that may seem intimidating, 

you realise that it is indeed an incredible honour 

to be able to sit in a kayak or at the bow of a ship in the middle of the sea

and watch the colours of the sunset flood the sky, 

and to be a part of the natural beauty of this world. 

Shackleton: The Bird's Eye View

Symbolism of Sailing the Sea

Just some context-

             The Shackleton Sea Expedition 2014 was an 11 day sea expedition around the Amabas Archipelago of the Riau Islands, Indonesia. 14 Year 5 students from the School of the Arts embarked on this expedition, on the schooner The Four Friends, with its captain, Captain Blake, the crew, John and Aida, KayakAsia instructor Mr Huey, and our two teachers Mrs Wong and Ms Kong. 

             Being primarily a leadership expedition, the name Shackleton becomes very fitting, referring to the British explorer of the South Pole, Sir Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922), who is most famous for leading this crew back to safety, after their failed expedition of the ship Endurance (1914-1916). One of the reasons why Shackleton was considered a great leader was because of his easy adaptability, responsibility and commitment. 

"Real Leaders"

help us overcome the limitations of our own individual laziness 

and selfishness and weakness and dear 

and gets us to do better, harder things than we can get ourselves 

to do on our own" 

(Novelist, David Foster Wallace)

Moving on-

          Aside from our expeditions title, there are other aspects of our journey that I feel are  symbolic to the theme of leadership, the major aspect being the very act of sailing. Helming, which we all got to practice on the schooner, symbolises taking charge, steering yourself and your team in the same direction, towards a goal. As I experienced firsthand, the Captain, was our main, obvious leader on the seas being behind the wheel most of the time and giving out instructions. This is perhaps the most obvious kind of leadership position that we are used to, where the leader is in the foreground, steering the group with a very physical presence. 

            But during the course of this expedition, I also learnt other forms of leadership, some of them possibly more powerful, meaningful and influential than the first major kind. The best thing about the different types of leadership I learnt, was that I learnt them all from my experiences with my own friends, not secondhand, from a leadership model template.

         One of the major takeaways I've had from this expedition regarding leadership, is personal leadership. Again, helming is symbolic here in the sense that, when helming, you hold the agency and ability in your own hands, to make changes, stay on track or change course. During this journey, the most important thing that I've learnt, that kept coming up during the trip was that I am really the Captain of my Soul. I make my own decisions, and the only thing stopping me is myself. Cheesy as it might sound, and despite the numerous times that I've been told that, I have never really understood what it meant until this expedition. 

From http://www.dennisselisseth.com/she-adjusted-her-sails/

Of course, aside from the leadership aspects of this journey, another aspect that I really connected with was the environmental, and the connection I made with my natural surroundings, from the celestial, to the geographical-of both land and sea. One of the amazing things about being out in the open sea, is its enormity and vastness. And when I was standing on a schooner in the middle of the open sea with nothing but the sea around us, I began to realise how big the world is - not in an intimidating way, but in an amazing way, with an enormity that we will never fully be able to understand. 

And as with every journey, there is both the element of the external and internal in every discovery. Discovering new shores and seas and seeing the world from another perspective other than our little bubbles that we contain ourselves in, is very much a physical journey. But with every physical journey comes a journey of self discovery, and this expedition, like my GPS Sumatra trip (http://globalperspectivessumatra.blogspot.co.uk/), offered many moments of reflection and introspection. 

As with any expedition, there is always the element of venturing into the unknown. You can prepare, and take precautions, and bring all the tools you need, but ultimately, you can never be prepared for everything in life - and who says the unpredictability is a bad thing? 

From: http://www.wordsoverpixels.com/man-cannot-discover-new-oceans-unless-he-has-the-c/a767bed67157f67c6e126ffd3c32c6bc.html