Learning from the Edge recorded a conversation with Paul Taylor MBE, who led international operations for REACT Disaster Response in Nepal.

Learning from the Edge is a leadership development practice and a podcast, built on one conviction: the clearest lessons in leading under pressure come from people who do it for real. Our programmes build whole team leadership for tight conditions — situational leadership as a collective practice, developed at team level, for a world that's uncertain, changing, and moving faster than most leadership models were built for. We draw on our experience of mountain leadership, expedition leadership, and mountain rescue, and work directly with Dartmoor Search & Rescue Team, translating what holds a team together under real pressure into a model for leadership teams navigating change now. Bandwidth is the real constraint. Under pressure, the brain's capacity to process information narrows, and performance that could have stayed sharp starts to break down. Most leadership teams are closer to that edge than they realise. We teach situational leadership as three stances — leading, following, and strategic observership — each with its own shift, produced by reading the situation properly, not instinct. Underneath: situational assessment at individual, team, and systemic level; presence, to stay regulated under pressure; and frictionless communication, so decisions move fast enough to matter. Our podcast, Learning from the Edge, carries the same thinking into conversation — monthly discussions with people who lead under real pressure, from expedition leaders to mountain rescue professionals. What makes us different: capability built at team level, not just the individual leader. Observership taught as a deliberate stance, not an afterthought. Tested under real stakes with Dartmoor Search & Rescue Team, not case studies. And it starts with Dr Jon Rhodes' Leadership Archetypes diagnostic, University of Plymouth.

Founded 2025