Access Your Intuition Through Outdoor Intelligence - The August Refresh, Archive Episode

This is the transcript of The Refreshing Leadership Podcast episode: Access Your Intuition Through Outdoor Intelligence - The August Refresh, Archive Episode, published on 17th August 2026.

Welcome to the Refreshing Leadership Podcast, and specifically welcome to our August Refresh series. This month I am re-sharing some of our most impactful episodes centred around the theme of rest, rejuvenation, and being a little bit more dreamy.

If you're a long time listener, there's a chance you might be hearing one of these episodes for the second time. This is actually good news - when I listen to a podcast episode the second time, that's when I actually integrate it into my life. The first time I'm listening at a cognitive, intellectual level, getting familiar with the concept, which is of course super helpful.

If you're listening for the first time, my hope is that all of the episodes this month will help you embrace a refreshing summer, whatever that means for you. I personally am taking a much-needed creative pause, and I encourage you to join me in your own version of that. I look forward to connecting with you in the second week of September, and until then, I hope these episodes help you to really embrace your own refreshing August.

What is outdoor intelligence?

Fi: Outdoor intelligence is essentially having an experience of knowing more when we're outside. During the day, you and I sit at our desks, and facts and information hit our brain. When we step outside into nature, something really different happens, because our bodies and our brains engage much more together. Our brain just works better, it's better referenced, and we're embodying that experience of new thinking. And then beyond that, we have these moments outside of connecting with nature - there's an awe in that, and a connection with life beyond the human world, and if you like, a collective intelligence.

This is all stuff that our ancestors knew. It's how they sought wisdom - they walked out onto the land. We don't do it that way anymore, but I think there's lots of really good stuff we can get from doing that.

I came into this work myself because nearly four years ago I had an extreme experience in nature that enabled me to know a lot more about myself and the work I had to do in the world. That was in a process called a vision fast - a four-day process alone in the wild.

Maya: A vision fast? Where did you do that?

Fi: On a fell in the Lake District at the end of September.

Maya: Was that a pivotal moment for you in interacting with this subject?

Fi: Yes. In the previous few years I'd started walking quite a bit. I got a dog, and then I just walked further and further - started doing walking holidays, a swim trekking holiday. I was pushing my body a bit, and there was more of an adventure psychology angle to it then. And then it moved into this slightly different thing where I realised I came to experience the world differently, myself differently, and my insight and intuition much differently when I had let go of the trappings of daily life and really went out there.

Outdoor intelligence as a golden hour

Maya: When I talk about the golden hour, it can be any time of day really. The idea is that not all hours are created equally, and that in some ways we need to be quite intentional about lifting ourselves out of the automatic and normal ways of being. Do you think walking outside can be a golden hour?

Fi: Absolutely, and for me that's at the core of my practice and the way I source new work. This morning I got up, I've got five lists as long as my arm - and my priority was to go out for an hour before I came to sit at my desk. My time outside first thing in the morning is like a double golden hour. I have my walking where ideas surface. I'm quite creative when I'm walking, lots of stuff comes to me, I get a bit zen, and I feel very connected with my work and what I'm here to do. And then I come back to my desk and I'm often writing, creating, putting together content and material that I want to share with the world.

The physicality of that first golden hour means I come into my work in a very fresh, alive, energised, and awake space.

Maya: So what you're saying is that the walk does two things. When you're out there, you're having more creative thoughts and you're embodied - so for those reasons it constitutes a golden hour. But it also prepares you in the best possible way for when you do sit down at your desk, making that time so much more powerful. I love that double-yolked egg golden hour.

Mine involves going to pick up a coffee, forming part of that ritual, and then sitting down at my desk and tackling those most tricky tasks first. I'm a huge fan of walking and I'm very religious about doing that - but I will often have headphones on. I'll be listening to podcast after podcast, listening to audiobooks, sending voice messages to friends. It's quite a hectic time. And I know when I've said this to you before, I've seen the expression on your face of, "Maya, come on" - this is not outdoor intelligence.

So what I'm looking for is a few simple steps to take a portion of that time and access a bit more outdoor intelligence. What would you recommend for someone like me who's quite wedded to their routine?

Fi: Let's not mess around here - you've got outside. Fantastic. All really good. Clearly what you're describing from your practice is that you're waking up your body, waking up your mind, and processing some content, and all of that will be better for you getting outside. Great stuff.

To move a bit beyond that, if you want to, you might want to experiment with having a little bit of your walk time where you choose to walk not deliberately thinking. There's a real myth that intelligence means we've got to be out there thinking even harder than we would at our desks. To take the podcast out of your ears, put your phone on airplane mode, and just walk noticing what's around you.

My experience, talking with many people about this, is that when we notice what's around us, the busyness of the mind drops away. And what comes then is the things that want to be paid attention to in your life, in your work, and ideas about how to respond to those.

There's probably a place a bit further out from there as well, which some people would call a more spiritual place - a place where you can have a greater sense of purpose and the way you want to engage with the world. I'll call it thinking space, but it's slightly more nuanced than thinking. It's almost a being place. "What's for me to do here in this time that I have?" That's all there as a possibility.

Maya: Spring is that time of year where you can't help but notice the surroundings - the birds are loud, there are so many different colours, the sky is bright. If there was any season to go out and start noticing, it's probably as easy as it possibly could be right now.

I do find myself turning off the podcast because you think, "What is all this in my ear? I just want to hear the real noises." So I do already do that sometimes. And I really like the question you've mentioned - what am I noticing? And what was the other thing you said?

Fi: What is my work that I'm here to do in the world? Amongst indigenous people, the young people of the village would be sent out in quest to hear the wisdom of the land about what was theirs to do, and then they'd come back. The whole point isn't to go out and see beautiful bluebells and fluffy squirrels. The point is to have a connected experience when we're out, so that when we come back, we come back knowing ourselves and the world around us. We come back with clarity: my clarity for today is this. It's something about presence and about what we know in our heads, but it's all mixed up together. We come back presencing ourselves in our work differently.

The experience I've had working with groups of coaches in my programmes is that they come back changed. They come back saying, "Wow, I had no idea about these things." But it requires a little bit of quiet to hear. And there is some really good research around sending people out with and without a phone, and how that impacts the brain. One phone call in a 40-minute walk radically impacts our brain and our ability to recall what we read before we went out. It's a real game changer in the kind of attention we can have in the moment.

Maya: That raises a very practical consideration, because I'm aware of digital wellbeing and distraction - but there's also a safety thing. As a female going out into the woods, I take some comfort in having a phone with me. Is that a valid concern or is it an excuse?

Fi: Safety is a real concern, and we all have to make our own judgements about that - it depends on our own relationship with being outside, where we're walking, who else we tend to come across, and how sharp our instincts are about what we meet when we're out.

I'm not suggesting anyone go out without a phone at all. I suggest the phone is on airplane mode. We can make an emergency call if we want to, but there's not that ping, ping, ping, or even those little cues on screen - oh, another seven WhatsApp messages. It's a subtle difference, but it can completely change the way we interact when we go out.

The impact on leaders

Maya: You've described some of the impacts your coaches experience as a result of going through your programmes. What have leaders experienced as a result of embracing outdoor intelligence more?

Fi: Sightedness - being able to see things more clearly. This is quality thinking time, quality getting close to yourself, and knowing your priorities. That really speaks to the golden hour piece as well. What's on top here? What is the single most important thing I have to do today? And at a bigger level, what is my absolute point of most impact this week? That fits so much with what my clients say they need more of - they're saying, "I don't have time for the strategic thinking, for the more visionary thinking and clarity." What a great thing to be able to dip into.

Maya: Have you experimented with outdoor intelligence at other times of day?

Fi: I'm a morning person, so mornings work for me. But we're all different, and when we're time-poor we grab our moments when we can. If I have any choice to walk rather than get in the car, I will always take that choice. But we just fit it in when we can.

I was working with a group of partners from a large consultancy at Canary Wharf, and one of them told me he used to leave home early - he was doing something like 12 billable hours every day - and he would act as if he was going to the tube station, but what he actually did was walk to the tube station three stops down the line. He got some thinking space on the way to work, because when he got into the office it was relentless and he knew he needed it. He absolutely treasured it.

Maya: It almost sounds like he paid himself first, and was therefore able to serve better as a result. And when you are highly externally accountable, it can be easy not to do that. And yet by doing so, you not only benefit from the clarity and vision when you're out, but when you do sit down you bring so much more to your work.

Outdoor intelligence in urban environments

Maya: When I think of your imagery, I think of leaves all working together, the systems of nature. I worry about those of us in more urban environments. If all I've got is time for a 20-minute walk around the block - a lot of pavement, a few trees - can I access outdoor intelligence even in that?

Fi: Absolutely. There are always natural systems. It's not about the perfect rural image of a budding beech tree. Look at the sky - we have cloud systems moving through the whole time. One big beautiful tree in a city, some tree roots coming out of the pavement - this is all nature.

The research shows that if we can do the deeper nature dive, we get more insight, changed consciousness, and can access the systemic intelligence more easily. But all of these things are on a continuum, so we take our moments when we can in the city, we get out when we can, and that connects with the slightly longer walk at the weekend or the day walk we take on holiday. It's all good.

What is systemic intelligence?

Maya: There's a term we've both used a few times - systemic intelligence. What do we mean by that?

Fi: We work in organisations, we work in people systems - and that is also a natural system. It might be a bit dysfunctional, but it is a natural system. When we think about bringing what we know back in, what that practice enables is that we can sense better what's going on. We can be aware of our intense interconnectedness - in a large consultancy, we're all having an impact on each other, seeding the culture, making a contribution or not, opening things up or closing them down. This is the stuff of natural systems. If we can change our state and our orientation to things in our time outside, we bring that change back into the work we do and into the ways we see things in that work.

Maya: I do use basic constellations in my coaching work, and it helps people get out of their current perspective and into another. You've just reminded me how powerful being out in nature can be for that switch - that feeling that we're part of systems. It's so easy to over-individualize and over-personalize, and using that time to let go of some of that and remind ourselves how integrated we are - I think that will be really valuable.

Fi: If you're thinking about your desktop constellation, what we're describing here is the possibility that you become the thing that knows where to move. As human beings in this world, we become part of that moving system, and we're really tuning into it for ourselves - and developing that as a skill, but also as an orientation to the work.

Outdoor intelligence and intuition

Maya: I notice that when I get really busy and really focused, I can completely forget about my intuition. What's the connection between intuition and outdoor intelligence?

Fi: It's pure gold. Deep vein intuition - that's what arises from that experience. What I'm starting to experience, having been in practice for quite a long time now, is that when I start to do something that cuts across my intuition, those moments where we have a choice and we think, "Oh, I could do that" - I actually can't do it anymore. I start to feel physically really uncomfortable and a bit unwell. I just can't do it.

Maya: Are there any simple practices we can adopt? So let's say I've gone and had some time in airplane mode, and I come back. Like people say to write down your dreams when you wake up in the morning - is there a useful practice for reconnecting with intuition through outdoor intelligence?

Fi: Three practices. The first is, if you've got a pressing issue you know is really important to you, make a question out of it, write it on a bit of paper, and stick it in your back pocket before you go out for a walk. The second is, as those strong things come to you when you walk, your phone on airplane mode can capture an audio note really quickly. And the third is either taking a seat when you're out and writing something down, or doing it when you come home - just get it down.

But honestly, why should anyone believe either of us saying this? The only way to start to get into this practice is to have your own experience of it. There are three things that really help people to develop this: getting real value out of the practice and realising how it's supporting their work; it being a delightful experience, intrinsically pleasurable in whatever way that happens for you; and it becoming a habit. Like our guy walking to the tube station - find a bit of the day, or latch it onto something else you do, and just make it a habit so you're not even thinking about it.

Maya: I love the idea of writing down a question. For those of us who feel we want to be productive, it feels productive. It also makes me think of Cal Newport - he talks about walking meditations, and he's very clear that these are not exercise. He walks quite slowly and deliberately with a specific problem he's solving, using the walks to help him make sense of it. He's definitely cultivated that practice.

I don't know how much the nature piece is important for him, since I think he would do it on any street. I do think there's a bit of a deconstruction here between the walking element and the other beautiful parts of nature - the two almost interact with outdoor intelligence. Even if we can get one or the other, that's not a bad thing.

Fi: Absolutely. It's like an equation. Nature plus walking equals deep work - Cal Newport's phrase - but it's a really powerful combination, and we take one if we can't get the other.

Maya: I love that equation, because it sums it up for those of us who like to see how all these things interact and make sense of them. Maybe we can add in intuition there as well - nature plus walking equals intuition plus deep work - because I do think the intuition piece is important. One can get disconnected from one's intuition in the busyness of daily life. And to think that the walk can give exercise, space, energy, and also help reconnect with the system we're part of, reconnect with intuition, and mull over some questions - to me that is really powerful. I can now see more of a pathway to accessing more outdoor intelligence. That's really helpful.

Is there anything you wanted to add before we close?

Fi: I'm a constant improver, so I'm still working on our equation. So I'm going to say: nature plus walking equals intuition plus deep work.

Maya: Brilliant. Well, we will continue to improve on that equation. It's been an absolute pleasure having you, Fi. If our listeners want to find out more about outdoor intelligence, where should they go?

Fi: They can visit my website at wildleadership.co.uk, connect with me on LinkedIn, and they can also listen to my podcast, Switched On!

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You can connect with Fi Macmillan at https://www.linkedin.com/in/fi-macmillan/

About Maya

Maya Gudka is an executive coach specialising in C-suite career progression and leadership development. She works with senior leaders in major organisations on strategic career planning, executive presence, and building sustainable influence. Maya hosts The Refreshing Leadership Podcast, which ranks in the top 2% of podcasts globally and has nearly 300 episodes exploring the challenges faced by ambitious professionals.