Leadership development
with terrain.
Journeys for leaders navigating complexity and consequence.
Leading under sustained pressure changes you. Over time, attention narrows. Perspective compresses. Judgment follows.
This isn’t a tour.
And it isn’t a retreat.
It’s an adventure that brings you into direct contact with the world — wild, complex, and fully alive — and reorients you within it.
What we offer
Modern leadership environments place sustained pressure on attention and cognition, leaving even highly capable leaders functional but operating inside a smaller field of judgment and perspective.
The Jaguar & the Hummingbird designs and hosts journeys — from Canada’s wilderness to the world’s most remote, biodiverse places — for leaders and groups carrying work of consequence.
Shaped by the land, the weather, and the realities on the ground, these journeys return you to yourself: in your body, in the world, and in the work you carry.
What makes these journeys different
Access
We take you beyond what most people can reach or arrange, into landscapes, communities, and initiatives accessible through long-standing trust and careful stewardship.
Peers
You travel with an intimate group of peers who understand the terrain of this work: the weight of decisions, the trade-offs, the uncertainty, the responsibility.
Shared, awe-inspiring experiences collapse distance. Trust forms quickly, and conversations move to what actually matters. The group becomes a space where ideas, experiences, and perspectives cross-pollinate.
These relationships continue well beyond the journey itself, supported by ongoing facilitation and gatherings, becoming an enduring source of perspective, counsel, and connection in the work that follows.
Held with intention
Each journey is intentionally held, balancing depth and pace, and drawing on years of experience supporting leaders operating in complex, high-stakes environments.
The role of facilitation is not to instruct or direct, but to help participants integrate the journey by connecting what is experienced across terrain, conditions, and the group to the decisions and responsibilities they navigate.
Through this combination, something shifts. Attention widens. Assumptions surface. Clarity returns.
You don’t come
for a vacation.
You come to step into something rare and demanding, alongside people who recognize the path you’re on, and to return with new relationships, renewed energy, and a sharper sense of what matters and of what comes next.
Journeys
There is a world that is vast, wild, and teeming with life. These journeys take you into it.
Who this is for
These journeys are for leaders living with responsibility that rarely stays neatly within working hours.
Many arrive capable and committed, yet aware that something essential has gone quiet beneath the pace and demands of their work.
What tends to unite people here isn’t a job title. It’s the terrain.
You move between time horizons, trade-offs, and uncertainty. Urgency is real. Decisions are rarely clean.
Over time, even the most meaningful work can compress the world. The days fill. Attention narrows. The wider world begins to feel strangely out of reach.
These journeys are for those who recognize that what’s needed next isn’t another conference, framework, or offsite, but something powerful enough to restore perspective and aliveness alongside people who understand the stakes.
This isn’t passive, and it isn’t designed for comfort or escape.
It’s for people drawn to something rarer: adventure, full-bodied presence, and moments of awe, held by facilitation that creates the conditions for clearer thinking, grounded judgment, and consequential decisions.
Featured journey
Costa Rica:
Unseen
Go beyond what most visitors ever experience, with access to remote regions and initiatives in one of the world’s most biodiverse landscapes, made possible by over two decades of local relationships.
This journey includes:
deep immersion in some of the planet’s most intact cloud forest, rainforest, and coastal ecosystems, far from conventional routes
rare access to frontline conservation efforts, Indigenous communities, and on-the-ground initiatives
active days in rugged landscapes and on water, balanced with reflection and conversation.
a cohort of peers
What to expect
These 6–9-day journeys are deliberately designed to be captivating, challenging, and deeply grounding, without spectacle, extraction, or overwhelm.
Structure that leaves room for the unexpected
Days are shaped by terrain, weather, and real-world conditions, guided but not governed by an itinerary. There is enough structure to hold the journey, and enough flexibility to respond when circumstances intervene — like setting aside a few hours when a whale shark is sighted nearby.
Physical challenge
Days involve sustained physical activity in rugged landscapes and on water, requiring attention, coordination, and sound judgment under real conditions. This is not about endurance or performance, but about moving through complex environments in ways that are alert, responsive, and precise. Participants should arrive in good general health and comfortable being active outdoors for extended periods, including in variable weather and challenging terrain.
Attentive guidance
Each journey is guided by experienced facilitators, creating the conditions for individual reflection, group dialogue, and collective sense-making, so participants can draw insight, connection, and clarity from what they experience.
A committed cohort
You’ll be alongside people who live with complexity, responsibility, and consequence, fostering trust, candour, and conversations that don’t usually happen elsewhere.
Encounters that move you
You’ll spend time with people whose work is inseparable from the mountains, forests, and coastlines you’ll be immersed in: conservation leaders, land defenders, Indigenous community members, local guides, and entrepreneurs. These are not staged visits, but conversations and shared experiences made possible through trust, offering insight that can’t be gained from a distance.
Respect for people and place
These journeys exist because of long-standing local relationships. We move as guests, with care, humility, and reciprocity, in relationship with the people, cultures, and ecosystems that make the journey possible.
While deeply experiential, these journeys are intentionally designed and facilitated as leadership and professional development. Depending on role and context, participation can be expensed.
Is this journey for you?
Adventures that widen your world.
We invite you to begin a conversation.
Behind the Jaguar & the Hummingbird
The Jaguar & the Hummingbird was founded by Barnabe Geis. For over a decade, Barnabe has supported leaders navigating high-stakes challenges in climate, conservation, and social impact.
Over time, a pattern became clear: even the most capable, committed leaders can go years without experiences that truly reset their sense of scale. The work remains urgent and purposeful, but it is increasingly mediated, abstract, and relentless. These journeys emerged as a response.
Barnabe brings years of travelling and working in remote and complex environments — from cloud forests to conflict zones. He's guided clients through challenging locations, trained in adventure tourism, and has a lifelong connection to wild places. He’s also designed and led accelerators and educational programs serving hundreds of entrepreneurs and innovators, and has experience as a founder, executive, consultant, and advisor.
These journeys are designed and led collaboratively. Each one is co-created and co-hosted with skilled facilitators, alongside local partners who hold deep knowledge of the land, its ecosystems, and the communities that steward them. The power of these journeys lives in this collaboration.
These journeys are grounded in a belief that adventure, when held with care and intention, can become a watershed moment — one that reawakens the senses, builds connection, and helps people return to their work with renewed energy, insight, and orientation.
Connect with the founder on LinkedIn
Future journeys
We’re designing a small number of journeys each year in different parts of the world.
If you’d like to stay connected as future journeys take shape, you can sign up below to receive occasional updates.