# Introduction {% embed url="" %} Presentation given to the Systems Innovation Geneva Hub {% endembed %} ## Sailing Complexity: The Explorer’s Metaphor An introduction to sensemaking and complexity management for designers, managers, and decision-makers. ![](https://284402553-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-MT6UxeiaGaUpHnD5fGe%2F-MTKdwbrC5S7P2OyUmeW%2F-MTKf7GdofP1rp023dCj%2Fthe-explorers-metaphor-cover.png?alt=media\&token=25570149-0e1b-4c5d-afb5-e2433a636f8e) ### An invitation to be explorers, not just problem-solvers We tend to see design and innovation as problem-solving spaces. This engineering and sometimes mechanistic approach is not bad in itself but brings a lot of limitations, one major being to quickly frame whatever challenge into a narrow, finite, solution. When facing uncertainty, designers, innovators, and changemakers might feel unempowered. We look for recipes and pre-packaged generalist solutions — “the answer”, that sells an illusion of certainty through the economy of speed — to help us **disambiguate our very specific contexts**. > Problem-solvers look for answers. Explorers look for better questions. Instead, exploration makes the invisible visible. This multi-layered understanding will add more potential to our *portfolio of possibilities*. > Problem-solvers reduce options. Explorers enable possibilities. New challenges are invitations to become *curious explorers*, in a world where everything is believed to be known, predictable, and ordinary. ### Reclaim a space for curious exploration ![](https://284402553-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-MT6UxeiaGaUpHnD5fGe%2F-MT6XW-fg11OUKMCw3fe%2F-MT6sBInod0o3QuIX9OL%2Fthe-explorers-metaphor-topography-with-compass.png?alt=media\&token=7d943738-01cb-44a3-a135-b29605408bb2) ***The explorer’s framework*** is a set of ideas & concepts for practitioners to help approach challenges and problems in ways that add layers (rather than subtract), enable possibilities (rather than reduce), diversify points of views, and enable a portfolio of strategies & actions to tackle (complex) challenges (rather than single-point solutions). *Exploration* is not to be opposed to *conception* — it is a useful tension*.* Exploration should be pursued as a parallel ongoing journey with no clear end. It is the philosophy & ethics of the curious humble learner. ![](https://284402553-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-MT6UxeiaGaUpHnD5fGe%2F-Mf8jSJRYisp8o9ZXRJi%2F-Mf8lLi8rX5feAtjZ2_5%2F655338c996b7fc0b1c0a7e8df5c29c7d.jpg?alt=media\&token=7e4ecfdb-a194-4721-8d2f-327e0fd3962d)