Thinking Expeditions
There are no exercises on an expedition. Everything is real work.
An excursion made for a specific purpose: to investigate unknown regions in search of something previously unseen. For a project team or an organization struggling to get different results on an urgent, critical problem.
3 to 5
days, offsite
15 to 18
hours a day, mealtimes unscheduled
16 to 24
participants plus mindshift guides and a basecamp manager
1
urgent “Big Mess” with impossible results demanded on short notice
How an expedition runs
A clear mission. A deliberately fuzzy route.
A Thinking Expedition is not normal. Some things are clear and precise; many are not. The agenda is purposely unclear, because the content comes out of the process of discovery as the expedition unfolds. There is a plan and a schedule; what is planned frequently does not work out. Flexibility in execution is essential.
01
Mission and backers
Pre-planning with sponsors sets a clear mission and objectives. The expedition is strongly focused on mission and results; the route is not. The sponsor defines the mess and the content; the guide is responsible for process; team members are responsible for new ideas and diverse perspectives.
02
The VISA
Every participant completes an Expedition VISA before departure: the knowns and unknowns they bring, their creative style and temperament. The guides use it to design the route and the smaller teams.
03
Stretchers
Two or more outsiders join every team: people who know little about the problem, think out of the box, and bring naivety and a different perspective. Customers, suppliers, School for Innovators graduates. Ideally a team includes at least four.
04
On expedition
The team moves out together, stays together and shuts things down together. Days are long, full, intense and demanding; the schedule deliberately pushes people outside their normal limits, mentally and physically, so they can start to think diffferent. Thinking, and particularly thinking diffferent, is hard work. Reflection time is critical.
05
Hot wash-up and ideas into action
The expedition ends with results, not a report: ideas turned into action plans, a team formed in fast-forward, and a hot wash-up that captures what was learned on the way up.
Do you realize that…
If you need to “build a team”, don’t.
Give them an urgent problem and a challenging mission, demand impossible results in an unreasonable time frame with very short notice, and send them off on expedition. The team forms itself around the work. Before you go, do you realize that…
- every expedition is different, and the route is unclear and little is known about it?
- frequently what is planned does not work out, and the results are unpredictable?
- an expedition is built on trust, and your normal routine will change radically?
- you will be working long hours with little rest, and meals and breaks are taken when the operation permits?
- an expedition is not a meeting or a training session: you will be expected to be a full team member?
- you may miss the summit because you helped a team member down safely, and the team member needing help could be you?
Criteria
Is a Thinking Expedition even worth trying?
The idea
- What’s the challenge? Is it unusual, difficult, impossible?
- Is it urgent? Do you need results now? Can you schedule it within the next 30 days?
- Are you really looking for diffferent results and 3-Sigma ideas?
- What is within your power to control, influence, change, make happen or stop cold? Assume everything else is not.
- Who will back and sponsor the expedition with time, visible endorsement, personal involvement and funding?
Getting started
- Think through, very clearly, what results you want and what you will do with them afterwards.
- See yourself on expedition. Get excited about attacking the problem differently, and model it for everyone else.
- Start recruiting the team now. Schedule it now: put dates on the calendar and lock them in.
- Advertise it. Keep it in front of people. KMF: keep moving forward, keep moving fast.
- Anxiety and doubt are normal before exploring terra incognita. Cross the point of no return: commit funds.
Smaller mess, or a team that is new rather than stuck? A Thinking Adventure is the lighter, more strategic version.
“Our engineering paradigms about facilities in the Arctic would have prevented us from seeing the solutions that came out of expedition as reasonable assumptions. We discovered one new concept that will reduce the cost of building a facility by $50 to $100 million. Another will reduce the cost of building an offshore platform from $600 million to $275 million.”
Project Manager, Fortune 50 oil company · More sponsor comments
Tell us about the mess.
A short conversation is enough to know whether an expedition, an adventure or a ThinkShop is the right route.