How is this different from team building?

Team building is activity-focused and rarely lasts beyond a week. A strategic leadership immersion is outcome-focused, grounded in organisational psychology (VIA Character Strengths, Appreciative Inquiry, PsyCap), bespoke to your team, and produces measurable behaviour change supported by a 4-week post-immersion integration session.

Do participants need to be fit?

No. Programs are designed around your actual team — sedentary to active. Terrain is matched to capability, and challenge is calibrated so everyone is stretched but nobody is excluded.

Where are programs delivered?

Most programs run in Victorian alpine, coastal, or bushland terrain near Melbourne. Interstate and international delivery is available on request.

How long does a program take?

The Spark runs as a 1-day activation, The Ascent is a 2–3 day overnight immersion, and The Expedition is a 3–5 day deep integration. The Summit (large-scale event) is sized to your organisation.

How much does it cost?

Programs are priced to your team size, format, and location. A typical Impact Adventures program costs less than the fully-loaded cost of losing one mid-senior team member. Download the brochure for indicative ranges.

Sunlit ridgeline at dawn — Victorian High Country

Leadership Immersions in Nature

Strategic outcomes,
grown outside the boardroom.

We design evidence-based leadership immersions for executive teams — combining organisational psychology with genuine challenge in nature, so the alignment, trust and clarity you need actually take root.

Download the Brochure → Have a Conversation

No pitch — we listen first. If we’re not the right fit, we’ll tell you.

What your team leaves with

Outcomes that show up at the next board meeting — not just on the trail.

Strategic alignmentOne direction, owned by everyone in the room.

Stronger leadership pipelineConfidence and capability, visible on Monday.

Trust & psychological safetyThe conversations that needed to happen, finally do.

Reduced regrettable turnoverPeople stay where they feel seen and stretched.

$1 : $6

ROI on leadership development
Bersin by Deloitte

3×

Skill transfer through experiential learning
Kolb, 1984

↑70%

Engagement when leaders use strengths
VIA Institute

$11K+

Cost to replace one mid-senior person
AHRI Australia

What we believe

Three things we’ve learned about real leadership change.

Most offsites produce a good feeling that fades by the next quarterly. We design for something different — and these three convictions shape every program we run.

Real change happens in the body, not the slide deck.

When a team navigates a steep ridge or a long trail together, leadership lessons don’t need to be taught — they’re lived. That’s why they last.

Nature does work no facilitator can.

Cortisol drops. Defences soften. People become more honest with themselves and each other within hours — not the months it takes inside a building.

Outcomes belong to your board, not our brochure.

Every immersion is designed backwards from a measurable shift — alignment, retention, decision-making confidence — that you can name, and that your people can feel.

Why Nature & Adventure

The trail is the method.
Not the backdrop.

A four-step sequence we’ve refined over a decade of guided programs in the Victorian High Country — grounded in positive psychology, experiential learning theory, and what nature has always done for human beings.

Ground

Bodies arrive before minds do. Time outdoors regulates the nervous system — people land. Strategic thinking becomes possible.

Move

Walking unlocks thinking that sitting cannot. Skills learned through the body transfer back to the desk at three times the rate of classroom learning.

Connect

Shared challenge creates psychological safety faster than any icebreaker. The conversations that have been waiting for two years happen by night two.

Grow

The moment someone does something they didn’t think they could, their internal story changes. Leaders who’ve stood on a summit together lead differently after.

First lightGrounding the team

Group walking and talking on a trail together

On trailWhere conversation opens

Around the fireHonest, structured, lasting

The forest doesn’t care about your title. That’s precisely why it works.

An executive team in nature is a team without status armour. Hierarchy softens. Listening sharpens. The CFO and the new head of people end up sharing a packet of trail mix and the same conversation — and something genuine becomes possible.

That’s the quiet, repeatable mechanism behind every Impact Adventures program. We don’t manufacture vulnerability. We choose terrain and structure that lets it arrive on its own.

Flagship Program

The Ascent™ A 2–3 day overnight leadership immersion in the Victorian High Country.

The program your team will still be talking about six months later — because the change is visible back at work. Designed for executive and senior leadership teams of 8–20.

VIA Character Strengths assessment & facilitated team debrief

Strategic sessions structured by Appreciative Inquiry

Walking, ridgeline ascent, and shared meals on Victorian alpine, coast or bushland

Individual strengths-led development plan for every participant

Integration session at four weeks — back at the office

See the Full Program → Download Overview

Most chosen by leadership teams

The Ascent™

2–3 days · Victorian terrain · teams of 8–20

How a program comes together

Discovery call

30 minutes. We listen first — no pitch until we understand your team.

Bespoke design

Built around your outcomes — terrain, methodology, and challenge calibrated to your people.

The immersion

Ground. Move. Connect. Grow. Two or three days in some of Australia’s finest country.

Integration

Four weeks later. Insights translate into lasting behaviour change — not a fading good memory.

Investment: Priced to your team size, format and location. Indicative ranges in the brochure.

The Full Suite

Three ways in — one philosophy throughout.

From a one-day catalyst to a multi-day deep integration, every program is grounded in the same evidence base — calibrated to where your organisation is right now.

Whole organisation · any size

1 Day · Catalyst

The Spark

A one-day shift to start something

A purposeful day outdoors for whole organisations — with optional charity alignment. Designed for every fitness level. Nobody excluded.

Learn more →

Flagship

2–3 Days · Flagship

The Ascent™

For executive and leadership teams

Overnight leadership immersion with VIA strengths profiling, strategic facilitation, and physical challenge in Victorian terrain. Integration session at four weeks.

See the program →

Deep integration · 8–14 people

3–5 Days · Transformation

The Expedition

When your team is ready for more

A longer-form integration with full strengths profiling, systems mapping, optional interstate terrain, and follow-on workshops back at work.

Learn more →

The People Who Run It

Organisational psychology meets a decade in the field.

Most outdoor leadership companies are guides who learned to facilitate. We’re the opposite — deep psychology grounded in real outdoor operating experience. It’s a rare combination, and it’s why our programs hold up under pressure.

Grounded in positive psychology

VIA Character Strengths, Appreciative Inquiry, PsyCap, SDT, and Kolb — built on the research, not inspired by it.

A decade of outdoor operations

Take Shape Adventures has run guided outdoor experiences since 2015. Safety systems tested in Victorian and international terrain.

Tracey

Founder · Lead Facilitator

MAPP · Master Nutrition · PhD Candidate

Founded Take Shape Adventures in 2015. VIA facilitation, outdoor leadership and positive psychology research underpin every program.

Adrian

Program Designer · Guide

Program architecture · Terrain · Risk

Plans every route by hand. Designs programs where the difficulty is precise, not accidental.

Susan

Strategic Facilitator

Appreciative Inquiry · OD · Leadership

Hasn’t facilitated a strategy session indoors since discovering what happens on trail.

Brett

Adventure Guide · Events

Safety · Events 50–500+ · Navigation

Specialist in outdoor safety and group leadership under real conditions. Groups trust him immediately.

A Real Story

Sometimes a few days on a ridgeline does what two years of meetings couldn’t.

Professional services · Melbourne

A leadership team of 14. Two years of growing silos. Three days on The Ascent™.

The team had strategy. They had talent. What they lacked was trust — and the psychological safety to say the things that needed to be said. Previous offsites had produced good intentions that evaporated within weeks.

By night two, around the fire, the conversations that had been waiting two years were finally happening. The terrain made them honest. The facilitation made them structured.

14 people · The Ascent™ · 3 days · Victorian High Country

Six months on

20 min

First unanimous board decision — on a question that had stalled for a year.

Regrettable departures from the leadership team in the following six months.

“The meeting that would never have happened before the trail.”

Get the Full Brochure →

We Listen First

Built around
your outcomes.

No two programs are the same, because no two organisations are. We start by understanding your specific situation — the challenges, the culture, the people, and what you actually need to shift.

Discovery call

30 minutes. We listen — to your challenges, what isn’t working, and what you want different.

Bespoke program design

Terrain, methodology, VIA pre-work, challenge calibration — built for your people, your goals, your timeline.

The immersion

Ground. Move. Connect. Grow. Every element purposefully sequenced for your outcomes.

Integration

A follow-up session at four weeks. Insights become lasting behaviour change.

For real people.
Not assumed athletes.

Challenge that stretches without excluding. No exceptional fitness required — just a willingness to show up.

Inclusion & accessibility — by design

Programs designed for diverse fitness levels — sedentary to active
Terrain matched to your team’s actual capability
Challenge calibrated so everyone is stretched — nobody excluded
Nutritional, dietary and health needs built in from the start

What organisations leave with

Strategic alignment

Shared strengths language

Psychological safety

Reduced silos

Leadership confidence

Faster decisions

Start Here

The 4-page guide
your board will actually read.

Everything you need to understand what we do, make the case internally, and decide whether an Impact Adventures program is right for your organisation.

What The Ascent™ looks like in practice
All three programs with indicative investment context
Five measurable outcomes with research citations
A simple ROI framework to share with your CFO or board
How to book a discovery call and what to expect

The Nature-Based Leadership Ascent™

Program overview · PDF · Delivered instantly · Free

Get in Touch

Ready to talk?
We’ll call you.

Leave your details and the best time to reach you. Tracey or a member of the team will call within one business day — no scripts, no pitch, just a real conversation about your team.

Emailhello@takeshapeadventures.com.au

LocationMelbourne, VIC — programs delivered Victoria-wide & interstate

ResponseWithin 1 business day — always a real person

Strategic outcomes,
grown outside the boardroom.