How to get the most from your PathFinder ePortfolio
The Mindset of a Pragmatic Inquirer
1. Begin
Mindset Begin Attentively
Overview
Key Objectives
Daily Log Tab
2. Explore
Mindset Explore Openly
Overview
Key Inquiry Points
Exercises:
Data, experiences and trends from different perspectives
• The Market
• The Organization
• Personal
• Society
• The Environment
3. Interpret
Mindset Interpret Imaginatively
Key Objectives
Exercises
• External Conversations
• Habits
• Internal Conversations
• Maps and Images
4. Decide
Mindset Decide Responsibly
Instructions
Key Objectives
5. Act
Mindset Act Courageously — The Path Ahead
Key Objectives
How to get the most from your PathFinder Lab Journal
As you begin your PathFinder Inquiry, remember that this Lab Journal is yours to use as you find it most helpful. Write in it when ideas or situations come to you. If you don’t, they will slip away. Date all entries so you can keep track of how your inquiry is developing over time. Many find that writing in the morning or late at night works best when they can stop and reflect.
Keep notes on an ongoing basis.
Be open to surprises, capture vague impressions, feelings and memories — as well as hard data — and look for patterns and connections over time. Be willing to test your hypotheses and entertain new explanations and ideas in which you don’t now believe.
Remember that most cases of insight have involved moments of intuition that were non-linear and unexpected!
Don’t worry about grammar, structure, etc. Think of your Lab Journal as a sketchbook or notebook full of scribbles, disjointed thoughts, ideas, etc. Out of your many entries will emerge a pattern. You can move around to the various sections as ideas and information come to you. Some sections will be more useful than others, but attempt to put entries in them all before you are done.
The Importance of Different Mindsets
You will note at the top of each major tab a section entitled “Mindset” which describes the psychological stance that we suggest you take for each step of the Inquiry. These instructions are helpful especially since each one of us has a particular strength in thinking and making decisions. We have found one of the great benefits of Pragmatic Inquiry is that, by going through the individual steps, you will access and practice different intellectual and psychological mindsets for more successful results.
Since each step in the Pragmatic Inquiry of Begin, Explore, Interpret and Decide and Act appeals to and utilizes different emotional stances (echoing Myers- Briggs Archetypes, for example), this goes a long way to explaining why we hear over and over: “PathFinder Pragmatic Inquiry looks easy, but it’s not.”
Lastly, many find that the most valuable step comes after you review your work and then “Begin Again” with an even better question, issue, need or idea...a better .
“Learning — [is] a continuous process of reconstruction of experience.”
John Dewey
The Mindset of a Pragmatic Inquirer
Research indicates five mindsets—a different one for each step in your inquiry — are found in the most successful leaders. They are able to move between and
combine the opposite mindsets of thoughtful/reflective and action-oriented. This follows the spirit and practice of Pragmatic Inquiry, and confirms the findings of Jim Collins’ “Level 5 Leadership” (referenced before) which he characterizes as
“Humility and Fierce Resolve.”
Note that the 5 tabs are color coded to remind you of the different steps in the inquiry.
Also, the different colors are to suggest different frames of mind that each step seems to require.
Begin Attentively (Gray to suggest uncertainty.) — take the stance of a questioner and be open to admitting you don’t know all the answers and need to learn.
Explore Openly (Green to represent “feet on the ground.”) — be concrete, get facts. Engage many diverse points of view and opinions. “Diverge.”
Interpret Imaginatively (Blue to represent inspiration and “blue sky.”) — be creative, intuitive, open to hunches. “Converge.”
Decide Responsibly (Yellow to represent the sun, the ancient symbol of knowledge.) Weigh the evidence, make judgements, and come to an answer.
Act Courageously (Red to represent the heart, the symbol of courage) — ignite your values to drive your decision.
Begin Again (Saffron to represent wisdom) You now are ready to ask better questions and test better ideas.