October 2014

The map and the territory

All Case Study

“In a complex environment leaders need to learn to move  towards the same goal”

Objectives and project procedure

  • Strengthening leadership skills and enabling the team to face important challenges and to manage complex issues.
  • Improving personal adaptability and flexibility towards new situations.

During the orienteering workshop participants alternate in the role of leader in order to experience their capacity to develop strategies  by making best use of available resources;

translating  cartographical  assumptions into a vision by creating a roadmap for reaching the goal;

being a role model of what is expected of others; being able to  illustrate a shared mission, so that to be followed;  directly experiencing the difference between the map and the territory.

“A leader  must have the flexibility to change direction in case he/she should perceive that the previous one is wrong.”

Experiential  training in the nature offers us many ideas to work for the empowerment of the needed skills to manage these kinds of complexities.

In particular, the metaphor of the orienteering activity allows both leaders and the whole team  to directly experiencing an effective strategy to reach the final goal, giving evidence of how  the characteristics of a path as shown on the map differ from a real territory when you are in it.