< PreviousPATHFINDER TEAM SUMMARY The core mission of the PATHFINDER TEAM is to create next generation of Exponential Enterprises that are equipped to lead an existing industry or a create a new industry. SCHEDULE You have ELEVEN WEEKS to complete this phase. WEEK 1 DISCOVER STAGE REFLECT STAGE WEEK 2 WEEK 3 WEEK 4 WEEK 5 WEEK 6 WEEK 7 WEEK 8 WEEK 9 WEEK 10 WEEK 11 EXPERIENCE STAGE MINDSTORM STAGE TEST STAGE SELECT STAGE PITCH STAGE TEAR DOWN STAGE IMPROVE STAGE PROTOTYPE STAGE DEBRIEF STAGE PRESENTATION STAGE TRANSFER STAGE LAUNCH STAGE • PATHFINDER TEAMT HE CORE Mission of the PATHFINDER Team is nothing less than to disrupt and re-invent your existing company and industry, and discover and develop new industries. As a consequence if the majority of their discoveries and actions don’t make you feel uncomfortable or even beter highly uncomfortable then you’re not pushing them hard enough. As a result of these objectives the PATHFINDER Team will inevitably have the highest barriers to success and the toughest challenges to overcome, the result of which means that they will likely be the most challenging for you to manage and protect throughout the course of the program. That said though their mission and their success is absolutely crucial to the future prosperity and to the very survival of your company as you strive to lead, not follow, in the increasingly disruptive and fast paced Exponential Future. ESSENTIAL THINKING When you have your head buried in the program sometimes it’s easy to overlook things, so here are some essential things to bear in mind to help you get the most from your journey... Exponential Mindsets To maximise the chances of success the PATHFINDER Team needs to adopt what’s referred to as an Exponential Mindset where they move their thinking from being local and linear to global and exponential. Running and maintaining a traditional organisation is often more about sharpening the saw and operating as lean and as efficiently as possible, but when developing an Exponential Enterprise you’ll quickly find that many of the old rules and thinking you abide by go straight out of the window. Exponential Outputs The PATHFINDER Team’s core mission is to create one or more Exponential Enterprises that will eventually disrupt and lead one or more industries. As a result, as you step through this phase of the program you will be required to craft and produce a range of incredible outputs that you’ll learn more about in the following stages. Exponential Problem Hunters As you’ll discover and investigate in more depth during the DISCOVER STAGE there are plenty of exponential customer 111311institute.com EXPLORE MORE BOOK AN EXPERT CALLfrictions and disruptive opportunities for you to discover, or even re-discover, and solve, but in order to find them and then see them for the problems they are you need an explorers mindset. Exponential Problem Solvers All the exponential customer frictions and disruptive opportunities you discover will inevitably mean exponential problems to overcome and solve, and by running this program you and your team have been given the green light by your senior leadership team to go ahead and develop Exponential Enterprises that will make a significant impact and contribution to the future prosperity of your company and all your stakeholders. Notes: 112311institute.comMATTHEW GRIFFIN 311INSTITUTE.com “ MAKE BIG PROBLEM AND 10X THINKING YOUR NORTH STAR . ”DISCOVERE ARLIER ON, during the PREPARE PHASE, we laid the foundations of the program, explored and addressed the cultural challenges within your company, defined your company’s Exponential Purpose, and assembled your Core Team. And now you’re entering one of the program’s most exciting stages, the DISCOVER STAGE, where you and your teams get to discover and explore the myriad of new ideas and concepts that will help your company survive and prosper not just in the next decade, but if applied continuously, well into the next century as well. And if that sounds like a grand ambition, well, those are some of the same objectives shared by some of your fellow pathfinders and pioneers who you can either think of as peers to work with, or as competitors to out compete - choose whatever point of view motivates you most. This stage is one of the most critical stages of the entire program because not only is it arguably the true start of your journey but the things you discover during it will form the basis of all the activities and dialogue for the rest of the program. But, all that said though, don’t forget that discovery isn’t just a one time process, it’s a continuous one. The first challenge you will encounter during this stage will be figuring out where to spend your time, literally and figuratively, in order to maximise your returns, after all there are so many new ideas and concepts to discover that this stage itself could occupy you for several lifetimes. As a result you’ll encounter a lot of noise during this stage, so it’s absolutely imperative that you remember your Exponential Purpose and stay focused on your team’s core mission. There is also the very real danger during this stage that if you don’t dig deep enough or explore widely enough that you’ll fail to discover valuable insights that might make a huge difference to the success of your program later on, and another major challenge you will face during this stage will be trying to rid yourself of all your old ideas and preconceptions, as well as the other mental baggage you carry around in your head. After all, if you truly want to build an enduring, future fit Exponential Enterprise not only does that mean being able to see things in radically new ways with a new lens, but, as you’ll quickly discover, it also means that the rules that governed the past no longer apply to the future - and that just makes this stage all the more exciting. 115311institute.com EXPLORE MORE BOOK AN EXPERT CALLESSENTIAL THINKING When you have your head buried in the program sometimes it’s easy to overlook things, so here are some essential things to bear in mind to help you get the most from your journey... Alternative Industries The vast majority of organisations limit their research and exploration to what their competitors and peers in the space are doing, but as organisations become increasingly digital and global, and as the boundaries between many previously distinct and siloed industries continue to erode your next great idea, opportunity, or threat, is just as likely to come from another alternative industry as from your own. As a result you can likely find more ideas and inspiration by exploring these alternative industry’s R&D and Innovation Labs, and by more closely researching their investment strategies. Disruptive Startups And Upstarts Today starting a business is cheaper and easier than ever before and with net new company registrations soaring above 100 million in just the past few years there are more entrepreneurs than ever before looking for chinks in established industry value chains, and for new Exponential Problems to solve. As a consequence while there is a huge amount of noise in this space there are also many inspirational diamonds in the rough for you to discover, polish up, and make your own. Explore Far And Wide Many people often limit their search for new inspiration and new problems to solve to the confines of their own country, industry, or language, but by exploring wider and further than these artificial boundaries you and your team will be amazed at the sheer volume and variety of different problems and innovative solutions you’ll discover when you dare to look abroad, look at alternative industries, or search in alternative languages, for inspiration. Exponential Investors The global investment community is often an area that most researchers overlook, but as we continue to see the abandonment of the Shareholder Primacy rule, where companies put short term profits and shareholders first and instead focus on the long term, there Notes: 116311institute.comare an increasing number of Corporate Venture Capital funds, Global Asset Managers, and Private Equity companies that are on the hunt for the next big things and disruptive startups, all of which makes them and their portfolio companies good candidates to research. Exponential Problem Hunters There are a great number of mass market exponential problems worth solving and exploring, so take time to research the challenges the world is facing, and remember that often the world’s greatest problems are also often the world’s greatest business opportunities. Exponential Technologies As we detail in our complimentary Exponential Technologies: The Next 50 Years Codex while exponential technologies are just blank slates waiting for explorers like you to discover Exponential Problems to solve before using them to create disruptive new products and services with your aim should be to explore as many of them as possible in order to understand how you can use them to achieve maximum impact, as well as for inspiration. Friction Finders Discover and explore as many customer frictions and gaps in industry value chains as you can that affect a great number of people who will pay money to solve them. Trend Hunters As we detail in our complimentary 311 Trends Codex there are always a great number and variety of different trends you can explore and research and you’ll quickly discover that many of them influence a lot of the things you’ve already discovered. Notes: 117311institute.comLAUNCH STAGE • PATHFINDER TEAM • DISCOVER STAGE TASK SUMMARY Your task during the DISCOVER STAGE is to discover and explore as many new concepts that align with your team’s CORE MISSION and the company’s Exponential Purpose as possible. SCHEDULE You have TWO WEEKS to complete this stage. MONTUEWEDTHUFRISATSUN MONTUEWEDTHUFRISATSUN DISCOVER Start the Discovery process. Explore. Discuss objectives, communicate methods and support strategy. KICKOFF WORKSHOP Review your progress and make any necessary adjustments. REVIEW SESSION WRAP UP SESSION Debrief and review, begin preparing for the next stage. Review your progress, resolve any issues quickly. REVIEW SESSIONLAUNCH STAGE • PATHFINDER TEAM • DISCOVER STAGE GUIDANCE ACTIVITY LIST1. Conduct a Kick Off Workshop. 2. Start discovering problems to solve and new concepts. 3. Conduct the first Review Session. 4. Conduct the second Review Session. 5. Conduct a Wrap Up Session. TIPS1. Act with urgency. 2. Always keep the customers point of view at the forefront of your mind. 3. Be empathetic. 4. Be curious. 5. Be open minded at all times and eliminate all biases and preconceptions. 6. Dig deeper into the ideas and problems you discover. 7. Explore far and wide. 8. Keep a categorised record of your discoveries that you can refer back to later. 9. Leave judging your discoveries until the review sessions. 10. Listen intently to the people you talk to and ask open questions. 11. Speak up during your interview sessions. 12. Step outside your comfort zones and everyday silos. CRUCIAL MOMENTS1. Communicating and defining your objectives. 2. Finding as many new areas to explore as possible. 3. Identifying the best discoveries that will have the greatest impact. 4. Starting the discovery process quickly. RISKS1. Dominant team members drown out everyone else out. 2. Focus groups contain the wrong mix of people. 3. Participants are too timid and fail to take the initiative. 4. Your team spends too much time staying inside their traditional comfort zones and silos. DELIVERABLES1. Create a summary of your discoveries categorised by impact and total addressable market. OUTCOMEBy the end of this stage your team will have scoured the globe, literally and figuratively, to discover disruptive and valuable new concepts and problems that could disrupt your existing company or industry, and create a new Exponential Enterprise.Next >