• Business Technology Consulting Graduate Blog
• Consulting Blog

Raleigh 10A Phase 1 - Kiulu Valley and Crocker Ridge Trek:

Post-expedition blues: a common medical ailment affecting those who have recently completed a Raleigh expedition...

Fortunately for me I have not had the opportunity to experience post-expedition blues as, upon completing the 09K expedition as a venturer, the 10A expedition was upon me and promised to be a huge challenge in comparison.  Following ten weeks of intense work in Borneo completing three project phases (Adventure, Community and Environmental), I have returned to Sabah as a Project Manager to lead trekking teams of up to fifteen 17-24 year-olds through one of the toughest environments in the world; the infamous 100% humidity primary jungle. 

As a venturer in 2009 I had several Project Managers each with substantially contrasting management styles from which I picked up many golden nuggets of advice, such that by the end of the expedition I had a very clear hypothesis in my mind of how I wanted to lead a group in a manner that would be most beneficial to them:

- To earn the team's trust through being socially involved
- To earn the team's respect through leading by example
- To empower the individual, fostering creativity, innovation  and self-belief as a leader - to me this is by far the most important point as being a Project Manager on Raleigh one of your primary goals should be to develop the individual.

This was and still is just a hypothesis that needs to be tested to the point of exhaustion before becoming a solid foundation for me to build upon and develop as a management style.  Every Project Manager needs to find his or her own method of management that feels right, complimenting their own strengths and weaknesses.  Furthermore, the best lessons learned in life often come through the painful process of trial and error, meaning this hypothesis was going to be put to the test in a live and therefore relatively high risk environment and would more than likely need to be drastically adapted on the fly.

The Kiulu Valley and Crocker Ridge trek, to which I was chosen to lead, is a new venture for Raleigh and as such is an honour to be a part of (even if it did involve more paperwork).  The first section of the trek in the Kiulu Valley region is an ideal training ground in the foothills of Mt. Kinabalu, providing exceptionally breathtaking and inspiring views as well as physically and mentally challenging hikes in the heat.  Upon finishing the first part of the trek the team will be shipped off to Mamutik to complete the PADI Open Water course before returning to the dense jungle to traverse a ridge on the aptly named Orangutan Trail in the Crocker Range national park, climbing 500m vertically in an extremely challenging A-to-B style trek over a period of eight days.

Having now completed Phase 1 and received the feedback from the team I can comfortably say that as a foundation my proposed management framework is a relatively stable base on which to build.  Whilst on phase I chose to trial a few additional methods of encouragement, the most effective of which being pride; giving the team a sense of confidence to achieve something great, spurring them on to conquer a huge mental and physical challenge.  Pride has been especially useful this phase in helping the team overcome the several unforeseen problems that the Crocker ridge has thrown at us, including a distinct lack of drinking water, a near miss with a clouded leapord and a formidable nine hour trek.  This method of motivation however is still in its infancy as it has only been trialled once in a the jungle - I will touch on it again in the next blog post at the end of Phase 2 once I have put it into practice with a new group so until then...