Wayfinding the Future
Know where you are to get where you want to go
The wayfinding process has been a part of how we build vision and direction here for some time, whether at Level Up Retreats or strategic retreats for leadership and organizational change and effectiveness.
In a recent MMC (Monthly Momentum Call) (a paid Substack subscriber exclusive), I offered a brief overview of how I use wayfinding to help people and organizations find a way forward.
Wayfinding is rooted in traditional ways of orienting and navigating the world. Ancient peoples found their way without maps or compasses, using only their memory and the stars. Comparable approaches can be found across many different cultures.
Our ancestors navigated their world, their place in it, and their way forward using cues from nature. That skill is one of many things that we in the modern world have forgotten how to do.
In this video excerpt from our call, I explain more about the wayfinding process (for those interested you can also read through the steps and a summary of what I said below 👇).
For anyone not yet a Premium or Pro subscriber, this is a solid opportunity to learn about the kinds of discussion you can look forward to in our MC3s each month. If these and other topics would be of benefit to you, consider upgrading your subscription.
Here is a summary of the discussion:
The four steps of the wayfinding process can be thought of as four questions:
Step 1: Figure out where you are, before deciding where you’re going. Are you acknowledging the gifts and experiences you’ve received along the path thus far? The most basic version of this question you might ask yourself is: Where am I?
Step 2: Figure out where you want to go. "Where" for most people, and in the context of most teams actually means "what do we want to see in the world?" rather than a physical place. The question you can use is: Where do I want to go?
Step 3: Find out what the route is between where you are and where you want to go. So how am I going to get there?
Step 4: This final step is about what to do when you’re on the path. Because once you know what it is how can you ensure you stay on it? How can you know if you’re still on the path? You’ll need to figure out some basic ways to figure out when you get off track. The simple question version of this: Am I on or off track?
Why is this important?
So much of the time we show up in our lives or on our journeys in a state of agitation and anxious transition — or if we’re not already in motion, deep down we feel dissatisfied and are churning on wanting to do something different.
We decide to start by just making a new plan: “I'm just going to do this other thing” and we jump into this hell, without really pausing to ask “Where am I actually at this moment? And where am I trying to go?”
Those navigational questions offer you the best chance to move forward strategically in developing a new plan.
Further parts of the discussion:
Do you give yourself time to figure out where you are, and to celebrate the steps already taken to get here — the gifts that are in front of you right now? Gratitude is a powerful drug. It’s powerful because it can both calm you and excite you.
Taking a moment to see truly what you’ve got going for you and the steps that you've already taken can totally alter the place you’re starting from. Start by considering the things that have mattered to you, and the experiences which have mattered and made you who you are.
So much of our work at PF is to get you to that step one stage: To where you're not always looking at your circumstances from a negativity bias. So many of us, because of the ways that we're wired as humans, find it hard to see objectively or with real appreciation and hindsight where have arrived in our lives, and therefore where we’re starting from (and what we’re starting with). Too quickly we start to think about where we're not, what we haven't done or don’t have, what we have yet to do. We end up stuck in a mode of trying to overcome and overcorrect.
What you should take away from this exercise: Figure out where you are and then move forward. Do you know where you truly want to go? Often people come to me with super rock solid plans and scenarios, and many different ideas about what they might do and clarity on those plans, what steps would be involved and how much it costs, and so forth, but are deeply under-indexed or under are aware of where they truly want to go.
If you had to focus on any of the four steps, be sure not to skip the first two (where you are and where you’re going) to get to those later stages. We do planning here, we’ve got planners. But if you don't know step one and step two, most of your plans are going to be chimeric or, worse, poorly-lived, because they won't get you where you're trying to go in the end.
Before signing off here, I’ll leave you with the closing point of this MC3 conversation, with another angle on how to better understand where you are:
Summary: “Imagine yourself 10 years ago, 20 years ago, looking at where your current self is. Think about it from that perspective, and you probably have a better perspective of where you actually are. Whenever your day goes sideways, or whatever happens, roll back 10 years, roll back 20 years, and say, what would that version of myself say about where I am today?”
I'm grateful that you're all here for this conversation with me, and I look forward to seeing you in our next conversation.