The road to Bathurst is opening up, with less than five weeks to go!
The rear-view mirror has been checked. The headlights are on. Now it is time to take a curious look at the navigation system as we explore the third Drive Your Career capability: Future Mapping.
A GPS does not show every possible route at once. What appears can depend upon the settings we have selected. The same may be true when we imagine our futures.
Our assumptions, expectations and ideas about what is “realistic” or “probable” can quietly influence which possibilities make it onto the map. Some routes may be prioritised, others may be pushed into the background and a few might never appear on the screen at all.
The possibilities may not be missing. Our current settings may simply be filtering them out.
When the map becomes too predictable
When people are asked to imagine their future, they often begin with what they already know.
This is understandable. Familiar routes can feel safer, more practical and easier to explain. Previous experience, qualifications, responsibilities and other people’s expectations may all influence what seems possible. Before long, however, the future map can become populated by variations of the same familiar destination.
Future Mapping is not about dismissing practical considerations or pretending every imaginable possibility is equally achievable. It creates room to become curious before deciding what is realistic, sensible or worth pursuing.
It also does not require an immediate commitment to one route. Exploring a possibility is not the same as promising to follow it. Sometimes we need permission to zoom out, change the settings or let the navigation system recalculate before we can see what else might be available.
After all, it would be a rather unhelpful navigation system if it only ever showed us the road we were already travelling.
Navigation Settings
This week’s downloadable activity, Navigation Settings, is a creative opportunity to experiment with how different possibilities may come into view when we change the way we explore the future.
You can explore the activity through words, images or sketches, allowing different possibilities to emerge without needing to select one final destination. The downloadable contains the prompts and visual space for you to begin exploring your map.
What if the possibilities are not missing? What if your current navigation settings are filtering them out?
Download the full Navigation Settings activity here:
You may discover an unexpected direction, a possibility that deserves further exploration or an assumption that has been quietly influencing your map. You do not need to decide where every route leads. For now, simply notice what appears.
A little team curiosity spark
Have you ever considered what designing a suspension system might reveal about how prepared a team is for its future?
I will leave that question on the drawing board rather than unpacking the metaphor here. It is one of the automotive-inspired ideas I use to help teams become curious about how they prepare for movement, uncertainty and changing conditions. Reach out if you would like to explore this idea further or discuss how my automotive-inspired approach could help your team gain clarity and get unstuck.
What else could appear on the map?
Possibility thinking is not about abandoning everything practical. It is about ensuring that assumptions and expectations have not decided the route before curiosity has been given an opportunity to explore it.
A map becomes more useful when we can see that more than one route may be available. We can then consider which possibilities deserve closer attention, which may require further information and which are not right for us.
What might appear if you changed your navigation settings?
Next, we will move from exploring possible routes to considering direction and choice through the fourth Drive Your Career capability: Shifting Gears.
Reach out directly to chat more about my Drive Your Career: Shift Gears with Hope and Purpose approach and how it can support you or your team to get curious, gain clarity and get unstuck.
Jenn Barfield - Holistic Clarity Coaching 