Safarini Leadership

Leadership as a Journey

As an exemplar of the Transformation Economy, Safarini Leadership provides a unique leadership development experience that immerses people in a native culture in the wilderness of northern Kenya. Participants of its 10-day immersive program trek with elders from the semi-nomadic Samburu tribe, learning all the way.

I had the opportunity to visit with Oli Raison and Boris Maguire, the cofounders of Safarini Leadership, to learn more about the transformative experiences they stage. Their program is designed to help global leaders, executives, entrepreneurs, coaches, and consultants develop deeper cross-cultural understanding and adaptability. Oli and Boris both have had careers leading teams in cross-cultural business environments in Africa, and they’ve seen firsthand the challenges and rewards of this type of work. But as Oli put it, the impact goes far beyond cross-cultural issue:

By learning about others, we ultimately learn about ourselves. The cultural immersion provides a mirror to enhance self-awareness. It challenges those who journey with us to see that their approach may not be the only approach, to become aware of a broader spectrum, and thus transform themselves to become more versatile and adaptable in their leadership, which is valuable even in a mono-cultural team.

The program begins with participants completing a cultural assessment and creating a "journey line" to contemplate their own backgrounds and leadership styles. This “discovery process” (being the first of the three phases of transformation, diagnosis) prepares them for the immersive experience to come. It involves a range of assessments, depending on the nature of the participant cohort, including Aperian Globesmart and Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI).

Safarini Leadership deploys the three phases of transformation: diagnosis, encapsulated experiences, and follow-through

After acclimating to the trip to Kenya, the group spends seven days trekking with the Samburu elders while engaging in a series of workshops and unstructured discussions about leadership challenges. (Safarini means “on a journey” in Swahili.) The tribe has a very different cultural orientation – one focused on community, interdependence, and serving the collective rather than on individual achievement. Participants get to deeply experience this worldview and compare it to their own, leading them to reevaluate where on the leadership spectrum they would like to land. Safarini further facilitates exploration of what Samburu practices reflect about values and purpose within the Samburu community so participants can compare and contrast them to western or modern business and leadership practices. Workshops are heavily discussion-based but also include games, roleplaying, and case challenges.

The Kenyan wilderness setting, far away from the distractions of daily life, enables profound personal reflection. The peer-to-peer interactions further foster new perspectives and creative problem-solving. Participants consistently report breakthrough insights about their own leadership and how to navigate cross-cultural dynamics.

The Kenyan wilderness setting enables profound personal reflection.

Oli and Boris emphasized the neuroscientific basis for both wilderness and cultural immersion as a source of creativity, innovation, and focus. Boris said these “are essential for true transformation and thus justification for seeking a truly remote, awe-inspiring, and challenging environment [ie, a transporting experience] as opposed to having these workshops on familiar ground.”

Daily reflections culminate in one final reflection for the entire transformative experience. As Oli related,

On our last night at the lodge, we facilitate opportunities for participants to synthesize their learnings. We have them complete and share a “Commitment to Action” form in which they consider exactly where and how they plan to apply their transformation and what it will look like, practically speaking, in their work, life, and leadership.

The experience doesn’t end when the trek concludes. Safarini provides ongoing remote coaching and support, helping participants integrate their changes and apply them in their work and lives, beginning with revisiting each participant’s Commitment to Action. This follow-through phase is critical, as it helps the participants integrate what they learned and ensures the transformation sticks. Thus does Safarini Leadership perfectly exemplifies encapsulation, the way of turning experiences into transformations.

The company’s offering, after all, is much more than an adventure trip. It’s a holistic leadership development experience that taps into the power of cultural immersion to expand participants’ mindsets and capabilities. By understanding radically different approaches to leadership and community, they gain a new toolkit for navigating an increasingly complex, globalized business world.

Joe

© 2025 B. Joseph Pine II