finding the future: why “learning journeys” give an...

Copyright 2004 © Nicole-Anne Boyer, [email protected] 1

A Draft Working PaperBy Nicole-Anne Boyer

May 2004

We’re now at moment in time whenmany other disruptions anddiscontinuities are afoot. Strugglingbusiness models, market saturation,and geopolitical uncertainty demandenhanced capabilities of perception,observation and discovery. As aconsequence, many more organizationsare making sure that their leadingmanagers get out from behind theirdesks. To do this effectively, they arealso turning to experiential learningprocesses and “discovery-basedplanning” as way to help them navigatethrough the many uncertainties facingtheir business.

Finding the Future:Why “Learning Journeys”

Give An Adaptive Edge

What is a “LearningJourney?”

Learning journeys, in the simplestterms, are customized field trips.But they tend to be much more than that:the highest impact learning journeys aredesigned to surface, test, and shift keyassumptions about the future of thebusiness.

A versatile methodology (Figure 1 below),learning journeys educate, inspire, catalyze,and transform individuals and teams. Theycan illuminate new strategic directions,jumpstart innovation processes,contextualize risk, test brand positioning,gain better alignment within a team orconnect different parts of the business, oropen the minds of top talent.

“The desk is a dangerous place fromwhich to view the world,” wrote theauthor John LeCarré. Yet this is where mosteaders and managers stay, locked andnsulated from the outside world bynumerous organizational layers and a hyper-kinetic schedule. With so many degrees ofeparation, it’s no wonder then that

managers and leaders frequently lose touchwith what’s happening on the ground, andhus get blindsided by missed opportunities

and unexpected changes.

Without question, there is no substitute fordirect experience. For venturing out into thefield to explore, discover, and sense wherethe world is going. Indeed, this is a timelesspractice, a pivotal process that has enabledus as a species to adapt to changingcircumstances. Leading innovators—scientists, entrepreneurs, and civil societypioneers—have always got their inspirationand cues through powerful experiences,keen observation and uncanny perception.

Sony’s legendary founder, the late AkioMorita, was an instinctive anthropologist,eschewing modern marketing researchmethods in lieu of careful observation ofwhat his children wanted and needed, andhow average people spent their time insubways and in the street. This approachclearly paid off manifold: throughout histenure, Sony became one of the mostvalued, high-growth companies in the world,introducing almost a dozen disruptivetechnologies, a track record of innovationunmatched by any other company to date.


How does a LearningJourney Work?

No learning journey is identicalbecause the best ones are customized to theorganizational context. And while manycompanies have field trips and other fact-finding missions, few apply the kind ofprocess design that ensures the maximum“return on learning,” not to mention thereturn on investment it takes to pull topmanagers out of their daily routines. As Ilearned at Global Business Network (GBN),one of the organizations who pioneeredlearning journeys, creating this kind ofprocess is part art and part science. Havingsaid that, there are some common featuresand phases, pedagogical steps grounded inthe most current learning science andpractice (Figure 2 next page).

The tricks and techniques for successfullearning journeys are many.

In terms of the basics, a learning journeyrequires a good facilitator (“the expeditionleader”) and a support team (“the sherpas”)of one or more people. Learning journeysshould include a dynamic mixture of carefullychosen field trips to people, places,prototypes, entrepreneurs, events,experiences, and so on. These visits areusually structured around key themes andhypotheses about the future business. Theyare sometimes complemented with “virtual”tours and other kinds of simulations andexperiences. Some of the cites arespecifically selected to challenge people’s“mental models,” particularly keyassumptions that may be shifting or indecline. At this time, participants also learnand practice new skills of observation andperception, much like an anthropologistmight when in the field.


While these field trips are the heart of theprocess, cognitive scientists tell us that it’sequally important to build in some “whitespace” time to reflect and reframe keyconcepts. Much attention is also given tocreating the conditions for serendipitousdiscovery to emerge. These “ah-hahs” can’tbe premeditated, controlled or planned for,but if the pedagogical context is right, theyalmost always do.

To leverage the immersive experience, it’salso paramount to structure in someworkshop time. The goal: to synthesize andharvest the insights while they are still fresh.Also, people’s bandwidth can only take in somuch. By this time, participants are usuallyawash and overwhelmed with sensorydata—some of it confusing, contradictory,and irrelevant. So during the workshop, akey task is to help participants make sense ofwhat they are seeing and hearing, usually vis-à-vis a shared framework. This acts as aform of mental “scaffolding” which becomesa platform bridging the insights andexperiences to the strategic issues of thecompany. As another bonus, thisframework frequently lives long after thelearning journey, and gets embedded intothe strategic tools of the organization.Conventional field trips, which are lessstructured and transactional (e.g. in & out,see & leave), neglect this step, leaving manyinsights unprocessed, tacit and thus un-actionable.

So learning journeys almost always generatetangible products and deliverables. Not tobe overlooked, however, are the manyintangible benefits they generate—whilehard to measure, equally as important.Learning journeys can really transform teamsand people at a much deeper level. A goodlearning journey is challenging andprovocative, stretching people beyond theircomfort zone.

They are also fun, stimulating, andregenerative. A greater sense of personalmastery often emerges; and at the end, theytend to release much positive energy,develop a renewed sense of purpose, and acollective will to try new things. Participantsoften describe the “magic” of theexperience, and the power of sharedlearning experience.

“A mind that isstretched to a new ideanever returns to itsoriginal dimension”

- Oliver Wendell Holmes


While creating these networks is now much-copied, what made these people remarkablewas not their professional accomplishmentsper se but their ability to think laterally, tosee patterns and outdated assumptions, toask penetrating and cross-cutting questions,and to get people to “reperceive”possibilities.

Why learning journeysnow?

A flood of recent research and evidencefrom many disciplines is now helping usunderstand, both in theory and practice, whylearning journeys are so effective in today’sbusiness climate. Below is a brief overviewof these findings:

Exploring the Future forStrategic Insights: “The future isalready here; it’s just unevenly distributed,”wrote the science fiction writer WilliamGibson. Learning journeys, then, aspire tofind those laboratories of the future, thosedense nodes of activity and experimentationwhere the future is peaking through into thepresent. While the future is hard to predict,not yet codified in books or visible incurrent events, it is concentrated in peopleand places. Indeed, these expeditions aredesigned to seek out and learn from thefuture-makers (the pioneers and innovators)and future-seers (thinkers, artists, elders, andheretics)— those rare individuals who can“look” further ahead than the rest of us, orenable us to think differently. Thesethinkers and doers are frequently not the“usual suspects” because when it comes tofuture-oriented problems traditional expertsare often more hindrance than help.Learning from the fringe, people whodiverge from the status quo, is one of thesecrets in the art of the Long View.

At GBN, we had this resource in a networkof visionary thinkers and doers, which wasalso an outgrowth of a similar network atRoyal Dutch Shell. These people included awide range of world-class artists, scientistsand business leaders (William Gibson, thequoted author, being one of them.)

“The future is alreadyhere; it’s just unevenly

distributed”- William Gibson,

Science fiction writer

Since truly strategic insights are novel, thiskind of sensing and exploration is anexcellent way to find differentiation.Learning journeys can unpack an uncertaintyor reframe the rules of the game before thecompetition does. Aristotle Onassis, the lateshipping tycoon, had it right when he said,“the secret of business is to know somethingthat nobody else knows.”

By contrast, most strategies are formed bygathering best practices, industry analyses,market research, and general intelligence.Since much of this is public knowledge, andsince experts and insiders tend to “herd”around the conventional wisdom—especiallyduring times of uncertainty—it’s notsurprisingly that we see a great deal ofstrategy convergence and homogeneity inmost industries, rather than divergence. Aswe often say to executives, if you read it inThe Economist, it’s too late!


Discovery-based planning foradaptive-problems: When thestrategic landscape is uncertain, like it is inmany industries, traditional planningtechniques and tools are not sufficient andmay even be harmful, as Christensen’s workhas demonstrated.

Another categorical issue that acerbatesmatters is that most people confuse technicalproblems with adaptive problems, and thususe the wrong kind of problem-solvingprocesses. Technical problems are familiar:they are when the problem, the solution,and who works on the solutions are welldefined.

For instance, if you break a leg both theproblem and the solution—i.e. going to thedoctor to get it immobilized—is clear. Evenwhen the solution isn’t clear, so long as theexperts are obvious, technical solutions areusually possible. However, most strategicproblems operate in a cloud of uncertainty.Invariably, the problem and solution isunclear, and who solves the problem maynot be clear. So to do work on adaptiveproblems effectively requires a different kindof approach. This approach may include“co-creating” solutions with new customers,involving broader base of stakeholders. Itmay also include engaging a different kind ofexpert, and using tools like learningjourneys.

Unilever recently used a bold and broad-based learning journey process to revitalizeits overall strategic positioning. Thecompany did this by asking its top 200emerging young leaders to scour the worldfor leading-edge insights about how theworld was changing, and what customerswould want, need, and desire in the future.Each group was given a discretionary budgetwith some general guidelines and support.After 18 months, the insights from all thegroups were pooled, distilled and analyzed,the synthesis of which became thefoundation for Unilever’s new strategicdirection.

Learning journeys also help overcome theinnovator’s dilemma, a theory that ClaytonChristensen uses to explain why many greatcompanies fail to anticipate and respond todisruptive innovations. He concludes thatkey processes and metrics within companiesare to blame. For instance, traditionalmarket research tools, while useful formainstream customers, give misleadinginformation about the potential of futuremarkets. A summary of this dilemma is inFigure 3 below.


Kees van der Heijden wrote, “uncertainty hasthe effect of moving the key to success fromthe ‘optimal strategy’ to the ‘most skillfulstrategy process’.” This process should takean emergent strategic approach using a discovery-based or assumption-based planning method(Figure 4 above). As McGrath and MacMillianwrite, “unearthing implicit assumptionspermits a company to test their validity beforecommitting irreversibly to a venture.”

For companies looking to emerging marketsfor future growth, especially countries likeIndia, Brazil and China, there is another layerof assumptions about “poor” markets as well.These are firmly rooted in our commercial,cultural, and value systems, which is why thesekinds of assumptions are particularly hard todislodge, especially without the power ofdirect experience. Given the importance ofthese markets as a future customer base, andthe potential threat of new entrants comingfrom the bottom-up, I encourage mostlearning journey programs to visit at least oneor two “poor” places.

Business gurus C.K. Prahalad and Stuart Harthave coined this as “the Base of the Pyramid”challenge, which I have written about as well.Without going into this in detail, a quick scanof these in the Appendix is enough to get asense of what assumptions multinationals mayneed to challenge if they are going to succeedin these markets.

Avoiding Blindspots: Cognitiveresearchers are dispelling all sorts of mythsabout how we reason and make sense of theworld. For instance, the old Cartesian divisionbetween “objective” and “subjective” reality isnot how we think in practice. These worldsare much more integrated and intertwined;how we perceive the world is conditioned andfiltered by many layers of assumptions. Andthese assumptions, if not properly understoodand surfaced, may blindside us and prevent usfrom seeing key changes in the landscape—orwhat Peter Schwartz, my former boss at GBN,calls “inevitable surprises.


So learning to anticipate the future anddevelop wise strategies is not just aninformational problem: it’s also a “mentalmodel” problem. Recent research byWatkins and Bazerman also supports thisconclusion, and adds a few more otherreasons why we fail to anticipate keychanges around us. (Figure 5) This mayseem easy to correct, but it isn’t. Mostmanagers today have been trained andeducated with a Cartesian worldview—alegacy system that will take a while toupdate.

Learning theory tells us that we can’t usuallyget to these assumptions directly.So instead, what works well is a pedagogicaltechnique called outside-in thinking. This issimply a process where one starts from thebroader contextual environment and worksinwards through the other layers ofassumptions —e.g. industry dynamics—untilwe reach our own individual assumptionsabout the world and how this may impacthow we perceive the business. (Figure 6).

Learning journeys trigger this processbecause participants are forced tounderstand the shifting context as part ofthe learning experience. Learning journeysalso surface assumptions through theinteraction with prototype ideas, productsand things. As Michael Schrage explains, thephysicality of prototypes brings to thesurface key choices, assumptions andtradeoffs because “they make thinkingexplicit” and are “often more articulate thanpeople”. He continues, “[prototypes] helppeople think through what they want,especially customers, who often don’t knowwhat they want.” Prototypes spark themost fruitful strategic conversations becausethey: “they reveal gaps in what people claimthey want to accomplish and what they areactually prepared to do in practice.”

"Time and timeagain, we discoverthat the signals werethere all along—wejust didn't recognizethem until it was toolate."

- Wayne Burkan


Reperceiving Risks: Current riskassessment tools, like our market researchmethods, are being eclipsed by how theworld is changing. As The Economist’s“Survey on Risk” puts it, “managers need tobe prepared for a range of risks that wereunthinkable not long ago.” They concludethat the existing tools for risk managementare flawed—that “perhaps the biggestproblem of all is the illusion of certainty thatVAR [Value at Risk] creates.” A better wayto manage uncertainty is through some ofthe techniques we have already mentioned,scenario thinking and assumption-basedplanning.

The work of Noble Prize winner DanielKahneman is also reframing how we thinkabout risk. He and his late colleague AmosTversky found that when emotions, like fearand uncertainty, enter the equation thisdistorts our perception of risk andintroduces errors into how we makedecisions. “What actually happens with fearis that probability doesn’t matter verymuch,” says Kahneman in a recent interview.Significant threats in business produce“response rigidities.” Like a deer frozen inthe highlights of an on-coming truck,managers tend to shut down and cease beingflexible. They often move into command-and-control and “technical problem” solvingmode, which we’ve already shown is not thebest way to handle uncertain situations.


Tapping into Multiple Intelligences &Creativity: The work on risk complementsthe research by Howard Gardner and DanielGoldeman on “multiple intelligences.” Theirstudies show that high performers are notnecessarily the smartest, but rather, theysucceed because of their emotionalintelligence. Moreover, we now know thatintuition, creativity and innovative thinkingsprings from the “non-rational” parts of ourbrain, thus challenging the primacy placed onjust analytical reasoning. Because they are soexperiential, learning journeys engage andamplify all of these intelligences, and thus helpparticipants tap more readily into theircreative resource—resources which are oftenunderdeveloped in most corporate settings.

Nurturing Adaptive LeadershipCapabilities: Adaptive problem solving, andovercoming the innovator’s dilemma requiresa different set of skills and capabilities. Whilethis is a big topic and the subject of the besttreatments on leadership, for brevity’s sakeFigure 7 distills the difference. Learningjourneys are an excellent vehicle for teachingthese skills because the process models whatadaptive leaders must do when uncertainproblems confront them.

Wherever we may be, in downtownManhattan, Helsinki or Bangalore, learningjourneys always take surprising twists andturns. Having to navigate through strangeplaces tends to bring into the open many ofour strengths and weaknesses when itcomes to adaptive leadership skills. As aresult, these kinds of structured experientialprocesses are becoming mandatory for manyleading-edge executive education programswithin companies.


Creating Traction for Action:Collective sense-making is the best form ofaction. After an intense experience makingsense of the world together participantscreate long-lasting bonds that transcendorganizational boundaries. Their ability towork together is vastly enhanced, thetraction for action much greater becausepeople have created a shared picture of howthe future business environment is unfolding.

Putting it all Together,Getting Started

Learning journeys are clearly not a panaceaor nor a quick fix to many of the pressingproblems facing companies today. They dohave downsides: they don’t scale easily, andthey take time and commitment to do well.This is an investment in time and money thatmany business executives have troublejustifying. Such field trips appear frivolous,an expensive luxury, and not about the“real” or “hard” problems that needattention. Some of these criticisms are notentirely wrong, and many learning journeyscan be a waste of time if not designed wellor executed properly. It’s also important tokeep in mind that the learning journeymethodology is still young. Whileorganizations like GBN have had acommunity of practice focused on thesetechniques for a number of years,mainstream organizations are just nowstarting to experiment with thesepedagogical tools. So notwithstanding theirdrawbacks and the nascent state of the craft,the enduring benefit of learning journeys isthe adaptive advantage they instill in theprocesses and people of an organization.And clearly, when disruptions are in theoffing—and this is a certainty— this kind ofcapability is priceless.

“The onlysustainablecompetitive

advantage is youability to learnfaster than the

competitor”- Arie de Geus,

The Living Company


References & Resources:

Nicole-Anne Boyer. “Reperceiving Business from the Bottom Up: A Primer on theBase of the Pyramid Opportunity” (2003 http://www.adaptive-edge/BOPpaper.pdf)

Clayton Christensen. The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause GreatFirms to Fail (1997); and with Michael Raynor, The Innovator’s Solution (2003)

“A Survey of Risk,” The Economist (January 22, 2004) “When the many know best,” The Economist (May 27, 2004) Howard Gardner. Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other

People’s Mind (2004) GBN Global Business Network, http://www.gbn.com Rita Gunther McGrath and Ian MacMillan. “Discovery-Driven Planning,” Harvard

Business Review (July-August 1995) Ronald Heifetz. Leadership Without Easy Answers (1994) Art Kleiner. The Age of Heretics: Heroes, Outlaws and Forerunners of Corporate Change

(1988) Henry Mintzberg. Managers Not MBAs: A Hard Look at the Soft Practice of Managing

and Management Development. (2004) Morgan McGall. High Flyers: Developing the Next Generation of Leaders (Harvard

Business School Press, 1998) Richard Normann. Reframing Business: When the Map Changes the Landscape (2001) C.K. Prahalad and Hart. “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid,” Strategy +

Business (First Quarter 2002) Peter Schwartz. Inevitable Surprises: Thinking Ahead in a Time of Turbulence (2003) Michael Schrage. Serious Play: How the World’s Best Companies Stimulate Innovation

(2000) Michael Schrage. “Daniel Kahneman: The Thought Leader Interview,” Strategy +

Business (Issue 33) Kees van der Heijden, Scenarios: The Art of Strategic Conversation (1996) Michael D. Watkins and Max H. Bazerman. “Predictable Surprises: The Disasters

You Should Have Seen Coming,” Harvard Business Review (May 1, 2003)

About the Author: Nicole-Anne Boyer helps organizations develop their adaptivecapabilities through cutting-edge foresight processes and futures thinking. Nicole learnedthis “Art of the Long View” from some of the best in the field whilst she was a scenariopractitioner at GBN Global Business Network http://www.gbn.com in San Francisco, anetwork and think-tank known for pioneering new ideas and tools for the future.Through her new company, Adaptive Edge, http://www.adaptive-edge.com and throughaffiliations at INSEAD and Kings College London, Nicole is currently working withcompanies to develop executive development learning journeys, and for strategy or“value innovation”— especially new “disruptive” business models for emerging markets.She is based in Paris, France, but with has “nodes” on four different continents. She canbe contacted at [email protected].


Appendix: Assumptions Checklist

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