Ep.7 Out There Together: Leadership That Listens with Martin Foakes

In this episode of the Outdoor Education Podcast, Rob Carmichael is joined by Martin Foakes, Chair of the Board for OFFSEAS, a fast-growing community of outdoor educators across Asia.

Martin shares how his love for being outdoors started in childhood, and how that passion evolved into a career in schools, expedition leadership, and ultimately regional governance. Together, Rob and Martin explore what good leadership looks like in outdoor education: leading with humility, listening well, and creating a culture where people feel safe enough to share both successes and failures.

They also dig into how OFFSEAS has grown from a small roundtable into a major regional forum, the challenge of building sustainable systems beyond a single “passionate champion,” and why teaching risk management (not removing risk) may be one of the most important skills we can give young people.

Key ideas

• Leadership that listens (and doesn’t “boss people around”)
• Building sustainable outdoor programs that outlast individuals
• OFFSEAS: growth, community, and collaboration across schools + providers
• Risk, resilience, and responsibility: “I’ve got you” in the outdoors
• Why belonging matters, and how culture shapes the way we handle adversity