Lutz Otto

Lutz has a lifelong passion for adventure, wilderness, leadership and psychology. In 2005, as a vehicle to express this passion, he founded Spirited Adventures in parallel with his then corporate role.

Lutz specializes in creating walking safari and wilderness backpacking experiences. He started leading multi-day wilderness backpacking experiences in 1989, and has led safaris, over-landing trips, mountaineering, canyoning, rock and ice climbing trips across Southern Africa and Europe. His guiding style is interpretative, and guest inclusive, and is almost always interwoven with conservation messages. Lutz deeply understands the psychological and physiological benefits of spending time in natural environments, and firmly believes that exposure to raw wilderness helps shape who we continue to become. In 2015 Lutz was awarded the Order-of-the-Bateleur for his conservation work.

In the guiding space, Lutz is both highly experienced and qualified‹*›. He is unique in that he is both a safari as well as a mountain guide, and is one of only 40 guides to have globally achieved the Specialist Knowledge and Skills: Dangerous Game qualification. He has developed a specialist training program for working in Africa’s big game areas, is the founder of an Honorary Ranger Initiative in the Greater Kruger National Park, served for 6 years on the executive committee of the Field Guides Association Of Southern Africa and has been a member of the Mountain Club of South Africa since 1993.

What differentiates Lutz, and which allows him to successfully deliver outcomes in both traditional business and wilderness, is that he understands both worlds well.

He has extensive local and international experience at executive leadership at C-suite level which includes the implementation of numerous change processes, major business turnaround, consulting and coaching. He served for over a decade on the SA executive team of a FTSE100 London Stock Exchange listed multi-national, authored a sales training manual, has spoken as a guest speaker on change management and featured in a number of articles. Having worked in diverse environments and travelled to 37 countries, he is comfortable in culturally diverse settings.

Lutz is a highly experienced facilitator, accredited psychodynamically oriented executive, personal and counselling coach. Outside of the work he undertakes in wilderness, he serves both private clients and corporate from his coaching practice www.honeyguideconsulting.co.za . Combining coaching, psychology, leadership, systems, mentorship, and change principles, he has facilitated sustained change for groups and individuals.

He is a member of the global Association for Coaching and works by the association's Global Code of Ethics. He is a business school graduate, with a skillset developed on a foundation of extensive experience and numerous subsequent programs. He has a deep practical understanding of psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral, developmental, performance and organizational psychology. Explore his experience and approach at https://www.honeyguideconsulting.co.za/

Lutz has written numerous articles that speak to wilderness, conservation, psychology and leadership. He has designed a number of multi-day psychological wellbeing retreats and two psychodynamically oriented personal leadership programs that he facilitates in businesses.

Lutz is direct and insightful, driven yet humble, compassionate and kind. He has consciously worked through significant personal and professional change, has achieved success and learned from failure. Lutz easily connects to people, whilst his authenticity, veracity and depth of holistic experience positions him uniquely to facilitate personal and leadership transformation work.

‹*› Specialist Skill Knowledge: Dangerous Game Guide [SKS DG], Professional Trails Guide [L3], Professional Field Guide [L3], Savanna Biome Guide and Mountain Guide.