5 Pathways to Explore

Deep breath...

We have been through SO much unwelcome change over the last two years. The unprecedented and unforeseen nature of these changes over the last two years means many of us have been ill-equipped to navigate the changes and uncertainty.

As Jim Collins and Bill Lazier said in their 2020 update of the classic Beyond Entrepreneurship:

“If the first two decades of the 21st century have taught us anything, it’s that uncertainty is chronic; instability is permanent; disruption is common; and we can neither predict nor govern events.

There will be no ‘new normal;’ there will only be a continuous series of ‘not normal’ episodes, defying prediction and unforeseen by most of us until they happen.”

The one thing we can be 100% sure of is that large scale disruptive change will continue. We can’t put the genie back in the bottle. We will be asked to explore new frontiers in multiple aspects of our lives.

Not all changes are received with unbridled enthusiasm and so much of what we are doing now, within our organisations, our communities, and our relationships, represents exploration of new frontiers. So I want to offer you five pathways to enable you to explore these new frontiers, at whatever pace you need and like all unchartered territory these pathways may cross over and intersect.

There’s a reason why I am intentional with the word exploration.

 Exploration is an antidote to the unprecedented nature of the world we are living in. The word unprecedented became ridiculously overused from about March 2020. Faced with newness and considerable uncertainty people were paralyzed and polarized with how to behave and what to do.

And yet newness and uncertainty are hardly unprecedented. There’s a group of people who have tackled this domain repeatedly. They’re called explorers.

Burke and Wills

Amelia Erhardt

Neil Armstrong,

Barack Obama

Harry & Meghan

Elon Musk

All provide us with prototypes of exploration and covering new frontiers.

Explorers bring with them a set of strategies to moving forward and finding pathways that allow them to map new terrain. There can be a really permissive and energising element of exploring.

Explorers know and expect they will take a wrong path at times, explorers know that not everything has to happen quickly. You can take your time and get it wrong when you explore new frontiers.

I said can be energising. It can also be extremely exhausting and taxing on your physical, mental, and emotional being. Its for this reason we need to set up two pre-conditions for exploring.

Need And Want

Examples of needs-based exploration include:

• You have used up non-renewal resources like oil, gas, coal

• You have run out of drinking water, and you need to find new sources

• Your companies IP patents have run out – you need to find a new competitive advantage

• Your company’s financial performance is dire – what you are doing is not working now

• A pandemic hit and you can no longer work or teach in a centralised geographic space.

• You need to connect with some-one who has radically different beliefs to you – you work next to them each day; they are your boss, and you can’t afford to leave.

Wants based exploration is born out of desire, curiosity, and wonder

• You want to think about new ways of working – it’s exciting to you!

• You’re curious about what products would best serve your market

• You want to connect with a person who has radically different views to you – you love them, you have a lot invested in the past with them.

 To the point that sometimes exploration can be mentally, physically, and emotionally taxing, when tempted to start exploring the first question you must ask is Do I NEED to explore, followed by Do I WANT to explore?

If the answer is no and no, then stop. Continue as usual. Conserve your energy.

Assuming there is a yes, and yes -- then in this series I am going to invite you to take on board the mindset of an explorer and consider five pathways that enable you to engage with others after being socially atrophied, lead your work team into a new domain of business, or create a new future for your community.  

The benefit of having five pathways to chose from is one or two of them don’t work for you or your situation, you have fallbacks, your choice of pathway provides flexibility.

Stay tuned for the next post, which unpacks the first of the five pathways: The Semantic Path.