Okategoriserad

What do you want to succeed with? What is deeply meaningful to you? To what do you want to contribute?

When we are in touch with our dreams and our inner motivation, and from this, encounter different contexts with curiosity and a willingness to contribute, unexpected results and value can arise. One group that stands strong in this is entrepreneurs. Behind the entrepreneur’s creativity lies the connection between seizing opportunities, solving challenges, and creating value for others while the business itself develops.

We can all adopt the entrepreneur’s mindset, which is effective regardless of context or role. A metaphor that can help illustrate this is to see oneself as a personal company. If I, figuratively speaking, resign today and come back to my organisation tomorrow as an entrepreneur, what do I do then, and what questions become important? Who is my customer, and what does she want to achieve? What opportunities and challenges does my customer have? Is there something I can offer? What do I want to achieve and contribute to? This shift in perspective also creates a shift in energy. What was previously problems and obstacles become business opportunities for the personal company. The one who was previously my boss is now my customer. We know that this shift creates a new interplay between the part and the whole, where both parties grow.

Gaia Mindset A New Approach to Leadership

On this blog you can read about the three other components of Gaia Mindset: Holistic Perspective, Learning and Co-Creation. Their starting point is the inherent power and ability of humans. If we take that view of humanity seriously, the prevailing view of leadership must change. However, our view of leadership is not only a consequence of our view of humanity. It is also a catalyst that works to create results through co-creation, learning, and a holistic perspective. We believe that this transformative power emanates from each one of us.

Throughout this text, we have used the entrepreneur and her approach as an illustration of how Gaia Mindset can be manifested. The parallel between the entrepreneur’s way of working and leadership is striking. When I step forward and take responsibility, based on a holistic perspective and with the intention of contributing to a forward movement for both my context and myself, I act as a leader.

We all have three jobs

To address many of the crucial challenges that we, our societies, and our organisations currently face, while also realizing the opportunities that exist, we at Gaia are convinced that the world needs more, not less, leadership. The starting point, and expectation, must be that people are mature and capable of taking responsibility for themselves and the contexts they are part of. We then meet as equals, a meeting of subject-subject, and not subject-object. In short, a perspective where each of us sees ourselves as leaders.

In everyday life, this concretely means that I stop thinking that I have one job. Instead I realize that actually have three:

• I take responsibility for developing the whole I am a part of.
• I take responsibility for driving and developing my area, my position.
• I take responsibility for my own development and am clear about the conditions I need.

The Personal Business Plan

To manifest the idea that every person is a leader and the alignment between the whole and the part, we at Gaia have been working on something we call The Personal Business Plan for over 20 years. It is based on each individual understanding the needs, opportunities, and challenges of the whole, formulating what she is passionate about, wants to contribute to, and take responsibility for, and asking the question: Is there a match between my driving forces and the factors that can make the whole successful? If the answer is yes, concrete proposals and solutions are formulated for the areas where I want to make a significant difference, both for my development and for the whole. The Personal Business Plan thus becomes a proactive proposal to the whole and therefore needs an active and interested recipient, a customer for my personal business. This becomes the role of the manager, to receive and challenge the individual and her offer to the whole.

What we propose can be summarized as follows: An approach where you start from and identify with the whole you are part of. A focus on your own and others’ learning. Co-creation with your surroundings to build sustainable value. Seeing yourself and those around you as leaders.

 

You can read more about Gaia Mindset here. In a series of blogs over the coming months, we will present different aspects of Gaia Mindset. They are both from the perspective of the thriving individual and of the resilient organization.

 What do you want to succeed with? What is deeply meaningful to you? To what do you want to contribute?

When we are in touch with our dreams and our inner motivation, and from this, encounter different contexts with curiosity and a willingness to contribute, unexpected results and value can arise. One group that stands strong in this is entrepreneurs. Behind the entrepreneur’s creativity lies the connection between seizing opportunities, solving challenges, and creating value for others while the business itself develops.

We can all adopt the entrepreneur’s mindset, which is effective regardless of context or role. A metaphor that can help illustrate this is to see oneself as a personal company. If I, figuratively speaking, resign today and come back to my organisation tomorrow as an entrepreneur, what do I do then, and what questions become important? Who is my customer, and what does she want to achieve? What opportunities and challenges does my customer have? Is there something I can offer? What do I want to achieve and contribute to? This shift in perspective also creates a shift in energy. What was previously problems and obstacles become business opportunities for the personal company. The one who was previously my boss is now my customer. We know that this shift creates a new interplay between the part and the whole, where both parties grow.

Gaia Mindset Co-creation

There is a strong human drive to interact, rooted in our long history of living in herds whose survival depended on the ability to cooperate and build trusting relationships. Although we don’t live that way today, this drive and these needs remain in us. In today’s organisations and contexts, it helps us build relationships, be connected, and assist each other. We can also use this power to seek win-win solutions and arenas for co-creation and synergies – something that many today testify is crucial for success. From this, questions arise: How do I help others succeed? And how can I open up and become a magnet for co-creation? How do I build a network around me?

Understanding that I need others to succeed is central to a sustainable entrepreneurial approach and to creating truly sustainable value and results. When I see myself as a personal company, I also see that I do not need to know everything and solve everything myself. Others grow by helping, and similarly, there is satisfaction in offering help when it is requested. We all need more perspectives, more angles, and sometimes actually concrete, tangible help. My network thus becomes one of my most important resources, and it becomes important to find a balance between my need for autonomy and the need to co-create with others. Wanting to be in mutual dependence with others creates partnerships. We meet, think, reflect, learn, and create together. At the same time, I need to be an independent person who stands firmly in myself, is internally driven, and takes responsibility for myself and my own development.

Warmth and togetherness

Today’s world calls for our engagement and leadership – not least when it comes to taking responsibility for myself and the whole I am a part of. To enable this for myself and others, warmth and togetherness are needed. To feel that I am in close contact with others and to feel that I want to contribute to making others better. When I look at myself and others with a warmer, more compassionate gaze, it becomes possible for me to see life as an adventure, a journey, where I constantly learn and grow as a person. And when I venture into the unknown, take risks, and perhaps experience that I sometimes fail, self-compassion helps me move forward.

When we meet ourselves and each other with compassion and in contact, we gain access to more perspectives of the whole and to increased mutual learning. When we feel that we are in relation to another person, we want her to succeed and grow, we want to exchange thoughts and ideas, we are interested in her perspective and input. In short, we become better when we are in relation and create value together. So real co-creation within an organisation starts and ends with relationships and interpersonal contact.

What we propose can be summarized as follows: an approach where you start from and identify with the whole you are part of, focus on your own and others’ learning, co-create with your surroundings to build sustainable value, and see yourself and those around you as leaders.

 

You can read more about Gaia Mindset here. In a series of blogs over the coming months, we will present different aspects of Gaia Mindset, both from the perspective of the thriving individual and of the resilient organization.

What do you want to succeed with? What is deeply meaningful to you? To what do you want to contribute?

When we are in touch with our dreams and our inner motivation, and from this, encounter different contexts with curiosity and a willingness to contribute, unexpected results and value can arise. One group that stands strong in this is entrepreneurs. Behind the entrepreneur’s creativity lies the connection between seizing opportunities, solving challenges, and creating value for others while the business itself develops.

We can all adopt the entrepreneur’s mindset, which is effective regardless of context or role. A metaphor that can help illustrate this is to see oneself as a personal company. If I, figuratively speaking, resign today and come back to my organisation tomorrow as an entrepreneur, what do I do then, and what questions become important? Who is my customer, and what does she want to achieve? What opportunities and challenges does my customer have? Is there something I can offer? What do I want to achieve and contribute to? This shift in perspective also creates a shift in energy. What was previously problems and obstacles become business opportunities for the personal company. The one who was previously my boss is now my customer. We know that this shift creates a new interplay between the part and the whole, where both parties grow.

Gaia Mindset Learning

A present holistic view, where we integrate different perspectives, provides a platform for moving forward – even in the most complex environments. Such progress requires that learning is at the center, as we can seldom solve new questions and problems with the previously known solutions and answers. Our contemporary world, the constantly shifting landscape, the significant challenges that almost all businesses face today, means that the time before knowledge starts perishing is getting shorter. It becomes crucial that we see ourselves and each other as developable and constantly growing. I need to value the ability to experiment rather than provide ready-made solutions.

One way to grow and connect with what is meaningful to me is to develop the ability to be aware. My awareness strengthens when I am in touch with the present moment and with what is happening in every moment – both internally and externally. With increased awareness, I can see things more clearly and make more active, conscious choices. It helps me to let go of old thoughts and behaviors and continue with lighter steps and greater confidence towards what is important to me. Awareness gives me access to the central insight that I am not my thoughts and feelings, but I have thoughts and feelings. When I can pay attention to myself in this way, I provide conditions for personal growth and direct more energy towards what is both meaningful to me and creates value.

For the entrepreneur, it is obvious that she herself is the only one who can take responsibility for her development. If we continue to play with the idea of the personal company, I need to ask myself: How do I ensure my continued learning? And what does my research and development department look like? How do I ensure that my company is innovative and relevant? How do I create a learning culture for myself?

To learn is to grow

Learning can start in many ways. Inspiration makes me explore new knowledge. Taking responsibility challenges me to new insights and other ways of working to achieve results. Challenges create action, increase urgency, and make me stretch towards what I may almost not believe is possible. Curiosity gives me the courage to embark on an adventure towards unknown destinations. It also challenges me to see things from someone else’s perspective by asking questions rather than drawing my own quick conclusions.

To translate our exploration into action, we can use our creativity. Then we gain access to imagination and can visualize, think anew, and imagine things beyond the possible obstacles we may see in the present. To make creativity effective, we also need to concretize and manifest our ideas externally and invite others to share them. It is then that our curiosity, desire for learning, and idea generation are translated into new solutions and paths forward.

We also need learning that not only strengthens our skills but also creates increased maturity and stronger judgment, learning that means we meet life’s challenges by continuing as adults to gradually develop our ability to lead in complexity, create meaning, and self-reflect. It’s simply a journey where we continue to grow throughout life, we get twenty years of experience instead of one year of experience twenty times.

Growing as a person enables us to reach new levels of complexity and perspective awareness, i.e., an increased ability to see broader and deeper, to highlight aspects that I have not noticed before. It is a way of taking ourselves and what we want to achieve seriously. We become leaders not only in our own lives but also in the contexts we choose to operate in.

What we propose can be summarized as follows: an approach where you start from and identify with the whole you are part of, focus on your own and others’ learning, co-create with your surroundings to build sustainable value, and see yourself and those around you as leaders.

 

You can read more about Gaia Mindset here. In a series of blogs over the coming months, we will present different aspects of Gaia Mindset, both from the perspective of the thriving individual and of the resilient organization.

What do you want to succeed with? What is deeply meaningful to you? To what do you want to contribute?

When we are in touch with our dreams and our inner motivation, and from this, encounter different contexts with curiosity and a willingness to contribute, unexpected results and value can arise. One group that stands strong in this is entrepreneurs. Behind the entrepreneur’s creativity lies the connection between seizing opportunities, solving challenges, and creating value for others while the business itself develops.

We can all adopt the entrepreneur’s mindset, which is effective regardless of context or role. A metaphor that can help illustrate this is to see oneself as a personal company. If I, figuratively speaking, resign today and come back to my organization tomorrow as an entrepreneur, what do I do then, and what questions become important? Who is my customer, and what does she want to achieve? What opportunities and challenges do my customer have? Is there something I can offer her? What do I want to achieve and contribute to? This shift in perspective also creates a shift in energy. What was previously problems and obstacles become business opportunities for the personal company. The one who was previously my boss is now my customer. We know that this shift creates a new interplay between the part and the whole, where both parties grow.

Gaia Mindset Holistic Perspective

To see that I, together with others, am part of a whole is to connect with something greater than myself – a driving force that we all have.

When I identify with a larger whole in this way and choose to take responsibility, I adopt a different approach. I see the bigger picture, see individuals, situations, and events in a broader context. I see how different parts of the system interact with each other and bring that perspective with me when I tackle a specific situation or issue. This increases my ability to create value and sustainable results. I also see that my colleagues are parts of the same whole, and then it becomes relevant for us to cooperate rather than compete. It’s good for me if things go well for others because we are all parts of the same whole.

Embracing Complexity

To truly adopt a holistic perspective, I also need to cultivate the ability to embrace complexity. Seeing how different things, which at first glance may seem contradictory, are connected helps us integrate them into a “both-and” instead of separating them into an “either-or.” I see that in a complex situation or issue, there are seldom simple answers. It’s all about being able to shift perspectives, create meaning and clarity, and based on this make decisions, act, and move forward.

The part and the whole

With a holistic perspective present, I create an ability to lead myself in a direction where the interaction between myself and the whole provides sustainability, coherence, and results. A present holistic perspective provides meaning without losing track of my own boundaries and values. Instead, I can connect my own personal purpose with the overarching purpose of the organization. From this reasoning, the task is to choose a whole that I truly want to succeed. When I find the whole where the connection between my why and the whole’s why is undeniable, I can, like the entrepreneur, create both internal and external growth and integrate the whole’s success with my own.

What we propose can be summarized as follows: an approach where you start from and identify with the whole you are part of, focus on your own and others’ learning, co-create with your surroundings to build sustainable value, and see yourself and those around you as leaders.

 

You can read more about Gaia Mindset here. In a series of blogs over the coming months, we will present different aspects of Gaia Mindset, both from the perspective of the thriving individual and of the resilient organization.

Gaia Mindset Thriving People in Resilient Organizations

We have always built our company, our Gaia, on some fundamental beliefs: Our trust in the inherent power and ability of people, together with our conviction that successful organizations are created by people who make use of more of their potential. From this, our core has developed and expanded, with the certainty that strong results and sustainable development require an integration of the part and the whole, where both people and business can grow.

When we look around the world today, in an increasingly difficult-to-navigate landscape, with rising complexity, rapid and unpredictable changes, and mutual interdependencies, we see that what we believe in and stand for has never been more important. How do we unleash the power in our organizations? Can we create both development and growth while strengthening the focus on sustainable value? How can we lead and steer today’s and tomorrow’s organizations to meet the ever-accelerating pace of change?

We want to tell you more about our core, what we call Gaia Mindset, as a way to address these questions. We truly believe it makes a difference if many, together with us, take on the challenge of creating resilient organizations built by thriving people.

What would be possible in your organization if:

• Everyone takes responsibility for the development of the whole.
• Each individual’s inner purpose is strongly connected to the purpose and direction of the business.
• Challenges in the external environment lead to development and ownership internally.
• There is a focus on sowing rather than just harvesting.
• Problems are solved at the level they arise instead of being delegated upward.
• Internal co-creation occurs naturally across organizational boundaries.
• Each person takes responsibility for their own development, thereby growing as an individual.
• Everyone is focused on making each other successful.

What reflections arise as you read this? Does it feel like utopia? We at Gaia know that it is possible to build organizations that truly harness the inherent power of every individual. These things can indeed be realized, but it requires a new mindset. We also know that an individual can make a difference even if all the conditions aren’t in place. Perhaps it is precisely then that the thriving individual is most needed.

As we summarize our encounters with hundreds of organizations and thousands of leaders, we see that today’s organizations face two major challenges:

• An external one: increasing complexity where rapid changes and interdependencies characterize existence.
• An internal one: a lack of engagement and sense of meaningfulness.

No single part can be successful if the whole does not succeed. The thriving individual needs to understand and identify with the whole, so that it too can be sustainable and vibrant. At the same time, no whole can exist, let alone be resilient, if it does not invest in the development and well-being of its parts. One is a prerequisite for the other in an eternal interplay.

Four cornerstones

For us, four cornerstones emerge, or four individual and organizational capabilities, which become crucial to help us both lead in a transformative time and realize people’s potential and engagement:

• A strong holistic perspective.
• Focus on learning and development.
• Co-creation and caring.
• And finally, the component that acts as a catalyst for the others: a new approach to leadership where everyone is a leader.

Gaia Mindset is built on these four components. They have a decisive impact on how we build our organizations, but above all, this needs to be based on and carried by the people in the organization and by interpersonal relationships. It is in you, in me, and in us together that the journey begins – the truly powerful change is the one that comes from within.

What we propose can be summarized as follows: an approach where you start from and identify with the whole you are part of, focus on your own and others’ learning, co-create with your surroundings to build sustainable value, and see yourself and those around you as leaders.

 

You can read more about Gaia Mindset here. In a series of blogs over the coming months, we will present different aspects of Gaia Mindset, both from the perspective of the thriving individual and of the resilient organization.

In 2023, Loomis launched its first global leadership program, “Catalyst – Leadership delivering business results,” and Gaia has been Loomis’ partner in this program. In a company that has truly lived by the motto “business is local,” they had previously avoided large joint initiatives. However, Loomis is now in a situation where the company is evolving, and a global business and leadership program is needed. We spoke with Mårten Lundberg, CHRO/CMO at Loomis Group, and Elisabeth Stjerndorff, the project manager responsible for developing Loomis program “Catalyst – leadership delivering business results”.

“There was a strong demand from several senior managers: we need to create a business education to continue evolving.”

“There was a strong demand from several senior managers: we need to create a business education to continue evolving. And that’s when we started developing Catalyst,” Mårten explains.

Loomis is in the midst of a transformation where they aim to succeed on a new level in two major areas. They want to expand their portfolio and offer more products and services to existing and new customers. Where they currently offer services such as cash handling, they want to provide customers with other types of payment solutions and automated digital services. They also aim to evolve from a service provider to a proactive partner using the customer data they have.

“Our managers need to be able to lead in a more complex world.”

“We have skilled, often internally recruited, managers who have grown with the company. Now, as we broaden our portfolio, leadership needs to include broader perspectives, strengthen collaboration across borders and functions, and develop the business. Our managers need to be able to lead in a more complex world,” says Elisabeth.

“Loomis has been involved in transporting gold and cash since 1852. The company’s development means that our employees have had to complement their skills with a range of payment solutions on many platforms, new digital products, and thus meet customers in new ways,” adds Mårten.

The target audience for the program is managers who have worked for several years and have made progress in their careers. Through the program, they have had the opportunity to see different aspects of their leadership and delve into how they lead the business and its development. It was also important for participants to be able to apply their knowledge directly in their daily lives so that it wouldn’t become theoretical and quickly forgotten.

In the program, group coaching has been employed, and participants have formed business case groups where they have worked practically with real needs and opportunities.

Naturally, a crucial aspect has been how to involve employees so that what the company aims to achieve reaches all the way, while insights and knowledge from those who meet and serve customers every day also contribute to the overall success. Since many employees are value transporters who leave the office when performing their duties, managers really need to find ways to capture, involve, and meet them.

“The reason we chose Gaia as a partner is that we shared a vision in integrating business and leadership.”

“The reason we chose Gaia as a partner is that we shared a vision in integrating business and leadership. That alignment was crucial. Equally important was the experience of running programs in international environments,” says Elisabeth.

Are you seeing any effects already?

“We see that the knowledge of how to prepare, present, and even scale up a business case is incredibly strengthened in the group that went through the first program. There has also emerged a network of managers from different continents, making collaboration and knowledge sharing easier,” says Mårten.

What have you learned so far?

“It is extremely important that we make participants feel safe in the program. To help them grow, they need to feel a sense of security, dare to open up to learning. We really succeeded in creating that, and it was a crucial success factor for the program, for the participants, and thus for Loomis as a company,” explains Elisabeth.

“I see two important lessons from the pilot. The environment around the participants is crucial. How do the participants’ responsible managers take care of a well-educated employee? We don’t quite have that tradition in place, so we will continue to develop it. The second lesson is that a very professional handling of a global program is needed, from the practical aspect to getting top management on board. We have succeeded well in this aspect, and it is crucial that we maintain it,” adds Mårten.

Loomis program “Catalyst – leadership delivering business results” has become a winning concept, leading to a continued significant investment in leadership within Loomis. The pilot was conducted in 2023, and there is now a decision to also implement the program in 2024. They have hired a Head of Leadership Development, Claire Screaton, to drive the program forward.

Many of our ways of thinking around business and organizational development, leadership and management were born during the industrial revolution, somewhere in the 19^th century. We have transcended them from generation to generation, programmed us to think how an organization should be designed, what it means to lead and how we succeed with change. Let’s face it – the world has changed since then.

One thing that we have been programmed to do is to separate the interhuman and interpersonal processes from business development. We have been taught to separate the professional self from the personal self. The intellect from the heart. The smartness from the passion. To separate the structure from the culture. With increasing speed an uncertainty, this has caused us to feel less engagement, purpose and meaning.

We need to operate with a much bigger awareness and a clearer intent.

And yes, we have moved the different perspectives closer – but we still tend to separate them and even pendule between them. To integrate perspectives requires more energy from us, more of our cognitive capacities. And let’s face it, our brain is by nature lazy. But the human being has incredible potential – for finding purpose, seeing the bigger picture, see different perspective, to learn, to be creative, to have empathy, to connect – and to take responsibility and leadership. To use these amazing capabilities, that the world and businesses of today needs from us, we need to operate with a much bigger awareness and a clearer intent.

We at Gaia always strive to work with business and personal growth – at the same time. The times where we could create a business strategy that were just smart – but no one really cared about – are over. To create sustainable, resilient businesses today – and that will continue to create value in the future, we need people to grow and mature. But not just to create self-leadership that is for me, myself and I. On the contrary, we would say it’s essential for people to grow in connection with the business, with commitment to a whole that is larger than me, with the feeling of accountability and ownership. With this integration of my own purpose, passion and learning with the business direction and development – we can create conditions for really great things to happen. And therefore, a potential for really strong, resilient and profitable businesses – that could manage whatever challenges the world throws on them.

Let your curiosity lead you.

Maybe you are thinking: “Is it really possible?” Well, when living and leading in complexity, the only way of knowing is to try. Let your curiosity lead you. What would happen if I started to integrate perspectives more, aiming for the both-and instead of the either-or? To challenge yours, and others, old ways of thinking. And if you want a partner in that wayfinding, or just someone to discuss with on how to do or think, we are always open for those conversations. In fact, we love them.

A simple question to ask myself before a new month, before a new day, before a meeting, or even in a meeting before I give someone a specific input.

Why do I do what I do and what do I want to succeed with? How can I expand my intention and also connect it to my learning?

Intention comes from the Latin verb intendere. From the beginning with the meaning to stretch, to expand. The meaning has wandered through the centuries, for example to the French entender – to hear and to perceive.

Part of the word’s journey has always been about transferred meanings of stretching, as in stretching after, striving.

So, a combination of perception and effort has followed the path of intention.

When the word intention is used within the social science context it is about describing an individual’s relationship to their own, future behavior. Or as the causal variable that precedes our acting or exhibited behavior.

The dictionary gives us the words objective and purpose. And that is perhaps the core of the word intention now. In the integration between objective and purpose, between what I want to achieve and why. My relationship to my own future behavior – a causal variable that precedes my actions. To intend, to mean.

Growing as a leader and achieving more with less energy is largely about becoming aware of and then expanding your intention.

What do you really want to succeed with? What perspectives do you consider when deciding on what you want to achieve? The point here is once we start focusing on this, we realize that we can succeed in many different things at once (thus achieving more with less energy).

Take the example of a manager who wants to push through a certain decision in a certain meeting. What happens when she only focuses on getting that done? And what happens when she expands her intention: What do I want to succeed with in the long term, what learnings do I want to create, what kind of culture do I want to nurture, how do I use this opportunity to increase the maturity of the group, etc.

I think it’s important that we let our intention expand, rather than shifting focus (which is another process). In the example above, for example, if she would completely let go of her first intention, to come to a decision, the gain is lost. Growth occurs when we challenge ourselves in “both and” rather than “or”.

Finally, it is also important to use the intention in relation to my learning.

We all know that we should build more reflection time into our calendars. We know that it is good to reflect and evaluate our leadership and to actively seek feedback.

To increase the effectiveness of our reflection, requesting feedback and learning, it is effective to link this to the intention I have.

It is in the light of our intention that we should make the subsequent reflection. It doesn’t always make sense to generally ask: – Did I carry out this meeting or this process in a good or bad way?

If person A asks the question after a management meeting to person B: -Could you give me some feedback. Maybe person B should ask the counter-question: – What was your intention into the meeting, what did you want to succeed with and how did you want to be in the meeting? If person A really thought this through before the meeting, the conversation will be much more effective. And in a similar way, of course, we could think about our inner dialogue.

So, a process to increase your own learning can look like this:

1. Be clear about your intention
2. See if you, with more perspectives, can expand your intention
3. Link reflection and feedback to your intention

Talking about right or wrong in leadership is seldom meaningful. However, we can talk about awareness or unawareness – and awareness is always better.

So, what is your intention? And what happens in and around you when you pay attention to and honor your intention? And how can you expand it? What are the “both ands” that you want to succeed with? How can you connect your intention to your learning and development?

Have you ever tried to navigate by completely trusting a GPS while hiking in unknown territory, like in the mountains? If yes, you know it might get you into trouble… If no, maybe you should listen to advice from someone that has tried: Don’t do it! You will probably only get stuck out in the mud somewhere you can’t get through, because the GPS wanted to lead you the straightest way forward without taking into consideration all the unknown unknowns on the way. This image can serve us as a clear example of the trouble we might end up in when we give navigation too much belief. But what happens when we shift our minds into thinking that we should be wayfinding instead of navigating? Maybe we would let go of the idea that we should reach a specific destination in a certain way and be willing to let go of the thought that there is a perfect plan. Maybe we would open up for the adventure itself instead.

We think, discuss and co-create with our customers constantly on how to meet the complexity of our time. How can we develop our businesses when it becomes more and more difficult to foresee the future? How can we continue to be profitable, continue to create strong business results, when we have this feeling that what made us successful up until now might not be the answer going ahead? How can we innovate, come up with new ideas when our analysis and strong intellects might not be fully sufficient?

The metaphor of hiking in unknown territory, where we don’t really know what the nature will look like until we’re actually there, might be helpful also in the business landscape. We are so programmed to make plans, trying to predict and control, to ensure that we will deliver according to plan. Since the 19th century that’s how most successful businesses have been managed, it’s what most of us learnt in business schools and what’s been expected of us in our leadership assignments throughout our careers. And yet, most of the people we meet are starting to realize that navigating in this way isn’t helpful anymore – but what is then the right answer, now and in the future?

First of all, we believe that we have to let go of the idea of right and wrong, good or bad. So if you expected a right answer, we will disappoint you… But maybe there are mindsets that can be helpful when wayfinding instead of navigating, some learnings that we’ve drawn. Here we have tried to conclude them so far:

• To view the adventure itself as both the destination and the journey – at the same time. It’s all about the progress, the movement. Focus on the sowing, rather than on the harvest.
• To increase our awareness. To use more of our senses and capabilities than just our analytical and intellectual mind – our intuition, our emotions, our ability to take in our surroundings, to listen, to see and to be present. Why? Because we need all of that to be able to explore, learn, to collaborate and to be creative together.
• An overall purpose and intention are powerful, it helps us set the direction – not in the exact GPS-coordinates but in which direction we should start moving and where to look for energy when we are starting to get tired or feeling lost.
• Constant learning and reflecting are what will make us continuously develop and grow. If we use the insights to adapt our actions and steps further.
• And what is a great adventure without joy, playfulness and laughing together? To invest in our relationships and working together, supporting and helping each other, will make the effort worthwhile.

This is how far we have gotten in exploring wayfinding as a strategy to be a successful, sustainable business in today’s uncertain and unpredictable business landscape. It’s probably just a starting point and we will learn more as we move on our adventure. Maybe you want to be part of that exploration with us?

What is interaction? Inter – between. Action – doing, acting. The middle ground.

We often long for interaction. A real meeting where we focus on something we have between us.

And at the same time, we talk a lot about the need for collaboration. Many organizations are struggling to increase collaboration, build collaborative cultures.

Several buzzwords here: collaboration, co-creation, cooperation.

Sometimes it is interesting and clarifying to look in to the actual meaning of a word. Especially to look at what sets it apart from other words that we might use as synonyms.

Co- as a prefix means something that is common, shared.

An interesting difference compared to the prefix inter-. Inter as a prefix points to something that is between us.

When the meeting and what we are going to do together are placed between us, instead of it being immediately shared, it might create more space for action. And perhaps even more important: a space for seeing more clearly, seeing the different perspectives and degrees of complexity.

And that space can also allow for a meeting between independent parties, where different perspectives can create movement and new insight.

Sometimes we might be helped by choosing interaction rather than collaboration. That we choose, as a mindset, to not make the task at hand shared. Instead we can choose to place it between us and work in that space, in the meeting between our perspectives.  Then it creates a better arena for the collaboration, co-creation, and cooperation that we always need to engage in, sooner or later, to create results and value.

To read more about our thoughts in the need for co-creation and collaboration, read about Gaia Mindset.