FIVE DAYS · ONE TEAM · CHANNEL ROCK, CORTES ISLAND, BCYour team is capable of more than its roles allow.
Explore Human is a five-day wilderness program for leadership teams and boards. On a remote stretch of the BC coast, people step out of the parts they’ve been playing and come home seeing each other, and what they can carry together, in a new light.
Why teams comeMost teams know each other by their job descriptions.
Over the years, a team settles into a story about itself, about who leads and who stays quiet. That story is efficient, and it keeps people small. Out on the coast it stops working, because the tide doesn’t care about job titles. What replaces it is why teams come here.
PerspectivePeople are seen anew
Shared difficulty rewrites the story a team tells about itself. Colleagues see things in each other that the office never asked for, and they bring that new picture home.
LeadershipLeadership moves around
On the water and in the forest, the person who knows what to do changes. Senior people practice following, and others find out they can lead.
RecoveryCapacity to tackle the future
Days of real challenge without screens, in a place that makes everyone feel nourished in the same way. People come back steadier and more generous with each other, which is what hard decisions need.
The five daysWe work with wilderness to work on your team.
Every day is designed around one question: what can this group do together that it doesn’t know about yet?
Sunday eveningArrive by water
The water taxi drops you on the rock. Phones go quiet. Dinner is cooked for you.
Days 1–2Learn the ground
Tides, weather, boats, fire and first aid. Everyone starts as a beginner, and that alone changes how a team talks to each other.
Day 3Hand over the lead
Roles rotate deliberately. New voices set direction; familiar ones learn to back them.
Day 4Take it on together
A shared challenge sized to stretch the whole group. It only works if everyone is used well.
Day 5Carry it home
The team names what it learned about itself, and decides what it will do differently on Monday.
Words from previous attendees“[Testimonial on seeing a teammate in a new role.]”
[Name], [Role]“[Testimonial on what the team took on together.]”
[Name], [Role]“[Testimonial on what changed back at work.]”
[Name], [Role]“[Testimonial on what changed back at work.]”
[Name], [Role]“[Testimonial on what changed back at work.]”
[Name], [Role]
The placeWild days. Comfortable nights.
You don’t need to be a hardcore outdoorsperson. No tents on wet ground, no dehydrated dinners. Channel Rock is a boat-access property on Cortes Island, on Klahoose territory. It was once home to the writer Gilean Douglas and stewarded by owners since. There are real cabins, real beds and good food. The challenge is in the experience, not the endurance.
Lodging: multiple cabins with real beds
Food: a dedicated chef cooking nourishing meals
Getting there: water taxi from Campbell River, British Columbia, Canada
Experience needed: none
The evidenceWhy it works.
Every day is built around eight mechanisms from the research on teams, stress and the natural world.
Co-regulation · Role redistribution · Eustress · Parallel communication · Environmental awe · Neuroplasticity · Attention restoration · Narrative consolidation
Experiences of awe make people more generous and more cooperative.
Piff et al., 2015 · Journal of Personality & Social PsychologyLeaders who show humility build more engaged, better-performing teams.
Owens et al., 2013 · Organization ScienceTransformative multi-day shared experiences leave lasting increases in generosity toward others.
Yudkin et al., 2022 · Nature Communications05PreparationThe work starts months before the boat.
Each participant gets four one-on-one sessions with a Restore Human coach, at our Vancouver or Victoria studios or with a partner coach near where they live. We see where each person is starting from and give them a plan, so the week can be about the team rather than anyone’s fitness.
The four sessions are included. Anyone who wants to keep training with their coach afterwards can arrange that directly, at their own cost.
2027 seasonOne team at a time. A handful of weeks a year.
Each program is built around a single team, with the whole island to itself.
Group size: up to 12 people
Facilitation: two facilitators for every six people
Format: Sunday evening arrival, Monday to Friday
Before and after: [pre-program interviews and a follow-up session]
Included: lodging, meals, water transport, gear, safety cover, and four one-on-one preparation sessions per participant
062027 weeks · provisionalMay 24–28
June 21–25
August 17–21
September 13–17
Investment from [$XX,000] per team, all-inclusive from the Cortes Island dock. Email kayeremihope@gmail.com to hold a week.