Empilweni Leadership Retreat
Sometimes we need to step out to be able to change step.
Step out to change step
Has your sense of purpose become jaded? Is leadership starting to feel transactional, despite your success?
The Empilweni Leadership Retreat is a five-day wilderness experience in Zimbabwe’s Mana Pools — a place where leaders can reconnect with what matters, far from the noise.
12–16 September 2025 | With Malcolm Dunn & Neville Jones
The Location
Zambezi — a river of legend, mystery, and wild majesty — flows past Camp Mana, within Mana Pools National Park, protected since 1952 and inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984.
This is a place where iconic wildlife moves freely, not for show, but with the same rhythms it always has. We are the visitors here — observers of an ancient, ongoing story shaped by the land itself.
The Daily Experience
Leaders
- Immersive learning sessions
- Guided workshops and reflection
- Walk-and-talk sessions
Partners
- Creative sessions (art, photography, writing)
- Reflective journaling and self-guided time
- Community engagement
Combined
- Morning movement and meditation
- Game drives and walking safaris
- Meals and campfire storytelling
What You’ll Leave With
Over five days in the wild, you’ll begin to see your life as a system — not a list. From that perspective, clarity emerges. You’ll gain a renewed sense of direction, a quieter mind, and the courage to re-enter complexity with purpose.
This isn’t a reset. It’s a reconnection.
“to diagnose a system or yourself while in the midst of action requires the ability to achieve some distance from those on-the-ground events. Leaders can observe patterns, dynamics, and interconnections that are often obscured in the midst of action. This ability is essential for effective leadership.”
– Ronald Heifetz
Why Wilderness Works
“Over 30 years facilitating leadership development, I’ve seen that true insight rarely arrives in meeting rooms. It emerges in stillness — when we create the conditions to notice, reflect, and reconnect. Informed by the leading masters of change such as Heifetz, Scharmer, Laszlo, Senge and Kegan we offer this transformational experience in Wilderness.
Immersion in nature enhances consciousness. It restores attention, deepens sensory and emotional awareness, fosters mindfulness, and shifts values toward a deeper sense of connectedness with the world.
These effects combine to support a more expansive, present, and integrated state of being — the ideal condition for adaptive leadership growth.
Wilderness experiences offer that space. When stripped of distraction and immersed in nature, leaders begin to see themselves and their systems more clearly.
It’s not escape — it’s perspective.”
– Malcolm Dunn
Pricing
- US$5,990 – Participant (tax deductible for most)
- US$4,300 – Partner (sharing)
- US$627 – Charter flight each way (Victoria Falls ⇄ Mana Pools)
Accommodation at Intercontinental OR Tambo (11 Sep) and Victoria Falls Hotel (16–17 Sep) is additional and will be arranged with Experiential Travel.
Request More Information
For full details or to express interest, contact:
Neville Jones
[email protected]
+61 418 325 812
Your Hosts
GUIDE
Malcolm Dunn, MAICD, M.Psychotherapy, GradDipBusAdmin, B.BusSci (Finance), B.Sc (Computer Science)
Professor of Leadership
Quantum Leadership Wilderness Adventures
Melbourne Business School
Australian Graduate School of Management
University of Sydney
M: +61 412 474 423
HOST
Neville Jones, MAICD, B.Photog
Experiential Travel
M: +61 418 325 812
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