Expedition Mapping Part 2

How to Build an Expedition Map

Organizational strategy is often complex and vision statements can be broad and a bit foggy. We recommend identifying a handful of specific strategies as part a larger, inspiring vision. Expedition maps are not built at the level of a broad vision, but at the level of the more specific strategies. Many organizations require 3-7 expedition maps, one for each statement of strategy. An example might be Tesla Motors. While Telsa may seek to disrupt the electric car market, there are a number of key strategies they must successfully navigate. Expedition maps would not be built around the auto market disruption, but on the more specific strategies such as building the best batteries or reducing plant emissions.

In turn, each expedition map has a small set of components. There is great flexibility in adding other components that may be required to best map out the journey for any strategy.

current state: a description of the conditions that currently exist; this is your starting point, include necessary data and analytics about where you are today

end state: a colorful, inspiring description of what the future may be like when the strategy is successfully realized; as the destination, this is the final future state on the map

time horizon: the period of time over which you expect to pursue and reach the destination

future states: vivid descriptions of the way stations, points along the way plotted over time

time segments: how the time horizon is divided into manageable parts, whether they be weeks, months, quarters, or years

accelerators: forces, either internal or external, that serve to enhance or speed up strategy and activities

decelerators: forces or obstacles that serve to resist or slow down your progress

actions & behaviors: what you do in each time segment, how people act

financial resources: human and financial capital necessary for the actions, behaviors, materials, and other costs

new capacities: things you need to do that you cannot now, whether it be individual skills, group capabilities, new technologies, or organizational capacities

organizational practices: new requirements or modifications to existing structures and processes or RRPP (rules, regulations, policies, and procedures)

The image below is a depiction of how all of these components are graphically represented on a single page.

Our experience suggests, that for optimal insight and engagement, expedition maps are built through highly engaged, collective, participative processes. While express expedition maps can be built over a few days with leadership teams or in retreat formats, more effective and complete mapping can take weeks or even months. Regardless of the length of time required, the building of expedition maps passes through nine clear steps.

Step 1: focus strategically – choose to build maps with a clear focus on specific strategic actions, but be careful about getting too granular.

Step 2: set markers in time - establish the eventual planning horizon (the hopeful deadline for the end state and the timeline (often with quarters and years as time segments).

Step 3: tell the story – plot the emerging strategy over time and develop narratives for the current, future, and end states – storytelling is a useful tool in this process.

Step 4: understand the forces – explore, research, and annotate potential accelerators/decelerators, forces the act on your strategy from internal and external sources.

Step 5: prepare to act – identify the actions, behaviors, materials, people, and processes that will be required to move from one future state to the next for each time segment.

Step 6: build capacity – once the actions are known, identify the financial resources and organizational capacities necessary for success.

Step 7: seek alignment – tie all of the activities and resources to organizational practices and processes and created alignment across functions and up and down levels.

Step 8: take action – executing the actions and managing the resources is the key engine for realizing strategy.

Step 9: track progress – the expedition maps are built to be updated, filling in actual success in the places where future states were once described and adding the measure of progress as they are realized. The map becomes a living document.

We suggest building early versions of expedition maps in a graphical or even pictorial format, often on large sheets of newsprint or whiteboard walls, and iterating them over multiple collaborative sessions to refine and complete them. Once the early versions are satisfactory, we move the maps into your favorite software package to expand the detail. You could use spreadsheet or slideshow software, but we suggest avoiding word processing software as these programs do not allow for flexible use of graphics and are not designed to handle the volumes of data and information required to complete the maps, often best associated in rows or columns.

We have found particular success in later-stage expedition map building using online, collaborative software like Google Sheets or similar products. These packages have several advantages and allow for live group editing, history versioning, asynchronous collaboration, user control and permissions, and portability.

In the final segment, we will give a number of applications for expedition mapping and provide a link to the full article.