If you want to find the way – get lost

Master myth scholar Joseph Campbell outlined the hero’s journey – the voyage that hero’s take to find new lands and discover themselves in entirely new and richer ways.  Myths, according to Campbell, have a lot to teach those who want to create meaning and success in the world.

As a guide to CEOs and Boards I recently found myself watching the well told myth of  Moana 2.  A key lesson there for me was the reminder that – to be a wayfinder, to do heroic feats and bring others along with us,  we have to be prepared to get lost.

This message comes from Matangi (Crazy Bat Woman) who sings the song “Get Lost” to help Moana do the heroic act of raising a lost island from the bottom of the sea and reuniting the people of the oceans.

“Get lost, cut loose, and lose your way
There ain’t no fun in holdin’ back, babe
You gotta enjoy the thrill of livin’ dangerously
You’ve got a long, long way to go
Keep playin’ safe, you’ll never know
The rules are ours to break
Come on, babe
It’s time to get lost

Take a look around
Not right and left, but up and down
‘Cause on the edge, it’s all about
Living bold and free
Expand your mind to see
And put your trust in me

Because you’ve got potential to travel the distance
I’ve been existential and lost to existence
And there is no map to your destination
No explanation to solve this equation”
What great advice to give leaders in today’s rapidly changing times.  Everything – and I mean everything – is changing.  Peter Zeihan in his book The End of the World is Just the Beginning: mapping the collapse of globalization  (2022) outlines the multitude of ways that the world is becoming more challenging. With a new president coming to power in the USA, unrest in key parts of the world , (including the Middle east), the rising power of AI and social media., increasing legitimization of Crypto currency (with unknown implications for international monetary stability) and potential break down of current world trading conditions (should wide spread tariffs be introduced), leaders can only guess at what lies ahead.  We can go into fear (freeze, fight or flight) or we can live bold and free, expand our mind and see and trust the process of life.

Otto Scharmer  author of Theory U (2007), 2nd edition 2016) and co-author of  Leading from the Emerging Future (2013) has identified key leverage points for systemic change. His course – u-lab  (run out of MITx) has engaged over 250,000 participants from 186 countries on transformational learning and change initiatives.

His Theory U model – suggests that to create the future we have to open our mind, heart and will and let go of many of our old ways of seeing and acting in the world.  At the bottom on the Theory U curve is “presencing” –  a place of emptiness where we, having let go of our old certainties,  open up to new (as yet unseen) possibilities.  Based on open systems theory – the place of presencing is where we meet ourselves in entirely new ways.   Knowing then that “there is no map to your destination; No explanation to solve this equation”  we open up to new ways of seeing and operating, which we then prototype with our key stakeholders and bring a emerging future into existence through performance.

I have had the great privilege of working with 3 leaders who had the courage to operate this way.  One took an industrial site characterized by demarcation, industrial unrest, staff turnover, industrial asthma and a shocking environmental legacy through (over a period of 18 months)  to being the world bench mark culture in their industry.  A second leader with whom I had the privilege of working turned around 3 huge industrial corporations creating $20+billion in shareholder value.  A current client, a woman, is expanding a consumer goods company across Asia creating billions of dollars in value while creating an inclusive and humane culture.

These courageous leaders have no difficulty in letting go of the old and creating the new.  To do so they are prepared to look closely at their prejudices, habits and shortcomings and expand into unknown territory.

There is always a place in the middle when we feel lost and uncertain as we head into an unknown future, yet :- “There ain’t no fun in holdin’ back, babe
You gotta enjoy the thrill of livin’ dangerously  so Come on, babe
It’s time to get lost.”.

Written by Margot Cairnes.
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