Journey Programming

Safarini Journeys are customisable to suit individual leaders from around the world, as well as groups or teams from a single organisation. Whether a shared cohort or team journey, each typically consist of three phases:

    1. Discovery & Planning
    2. Multi-Day Expedition (5-10 days)
    3. Post-Expedition Coaching (remote)

Every element of the Safarini experience is designed with input from organizational psychologists, executive coaches, and indigenous community leaders. The goal is to improve your self awareness, intercultural competence, and creativity, which are the lifeblood of elevated leadership.

Pre-Expedition: Discovery & Planning

Depending on the nature of your journey, prior to your expedition you will engage with your cohort and Safarini facilitators to undertake a series of diagnostic and preparatory exercises. These will include:

  1. Remote discussion groups: these will focus on relevant readings, both fiction and non-fiction, exploring the leadership and experiences of Kenya’s pastoralist tribes.
  2. Leadership Assessments: to assess your leadership style and competencies prior to your expedition, you may have the opportunity to take leading assessments such as the Intercultural Development Inventory or the Aperian GlobeSmart Profile, and be individually debriefed by a certified Administrator.

Expedition: Bush Workshops

Indigenous cultures have radically different views of leadership. Traversing their land, engaging their ideas, and contrasting your own enhances your creativity and self-awareness. Expeditions typically use afternoons to workshop areas of shared interest and contrasting approach, such as:

  • Leadership Across Generations: are you harnessing the potential of the next generation to build purposeful successors?
  • Harmony, Speed & Dissent: Are you efficient at the expense of inclusivity, buy-in, and conflict resolution?
  • Resilience & Anti-Fragility: Do you and your team have the culture and clarity of purpose to persevere through hardship?
  • Cross-Cultural Communication: Do you shy away from sensitive topics? Can you withstand challenges and find respectful disagreement?

Expedition: Reflective Walk & Talks

Fundamental to your Journey is movement. Each morning, you walk through wilderness with indigenous elders. At the start, prompts are offered from the prior workshop to facilitate deeper discussion as you trek together and sharing at your first break.

Walking is an ideal platform for learning and reflection. It reduces eye contact, promoting fluidity and relaxation in discussion, while breaking down cultural barriers and power imbalances. As a result, these conversations are free-flowing, with multiple chats breaking out in parallel, then overlapping.

Thereafter, walking time is unstructured. You stop frequently to observe wild game, learn about medicinal plants, practice bush skills, and encounter indigenous mobile villages.

Post-Expedition: Continued Learning

Safarini Leadership Journeys are the experience and adventure of a lifetime, but they are designed to be more than fond memories.

To ensure that the self-awareness and perspective you gain on your expedition has a meaningful and lasting impact on your leadership practice, Safarini’s certified executive coaches can provide remote group coaching for 6-8 weeks following the completion of your expedition.

Your group coaching engagement can also include re-administering your pre-expedition assessments to explore immediate, measurable developmental impact.

Optional Add-Ons

The below engagements can also be incorporated into your journey, in addition to the core expedition and coaching.

Market Entry Advisory & Facilitated Networking

In five years, 20% of humanity will live in Africa. For clients seeking to understand the endless potential and unique challenges of rising African markets, Safarini will convene targeted meetings, panels and events in Nairobi. These facilitate introductions and engagements with key professional service providers, investors, academics, cultural leaders, facilitators and government consultants.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Kenya’s beauty, heritage, and prosperity face a range of social challenges. Poaching and habitat destruction risk the extinction of its famous wildlife. Increasingly severe drought threatens its pastoralist communities. Meanwhile, Kenya’s youth suffer from unemployment and limited opportunities for professional skills, which limits further economic development. Our clients possess the skills, experience, and means to contribute to sustainable solutions to these problems. During their journey with us, we invite clients to learn from and co-design a support initiative with one of Safarini’s many local CSR partners.

Strategy Workshops (for teams)

For co-workers, departure from familiar settings enables departure from familiar thinking. Immersion in unique environments, properly facilitated, can unlock unique creativity and innovation and soften hierarchies. Our team will facilitate pre-agreed workshops and enable you to do your best work. Think creatively, devise innovative solutions, and make bold decisions that will drive your organisational success.

Downtime Excursions

Kenya is the ultimate ‘bucket-list’ destination. Diverse in every sense, the country has a rich cultural tapestry reflected in 45 tribes and 68 languages, in addition to the magnificent “Big 5” wildlife species, boundless savannah, snow-capped mountains, enchanting desert, lush rainforests, and pristine tropical beaches. 

Safarini Leadership has partnerships with Safari, beach and adventure travel operators to organise additional excursions for you, either before or after your expedition.

explore add-on excursions

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Safarini Leadership journeys are flexible. We design itineraries and programming to meet the needs of our clients. Contact us to craft your experience according to your budget and goals.

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