My friend Chris is a wayfinder. Every time I go through the Union Station in downtown Toronto, I think of him and wish the powers that be had hired him to help people literally find their way in this newly (and it seems never ending) redesigned transit hub. Chris designs and carefully places signage so that large numbers of people can get to where they need to go as quickly and seamlessly as possible. Much frustration and anguish can be avoided with good wayfinding.
I thought wayfinding was a new profession, to satisfy the needs of modern society. However, I recently listened to a National Geographic podcast featuring Lehau Kamalu, an expert navigator in the ancient Polynesian tradition of wayfinding, where “everything is done mentally. You are tracking the wind, you’re tracking your cruise speed, you’re adjusting the sails” according to Kamalu. She’s describing navigating the vast Pacific Ocean, across thousands of miles from one tiny dot of an island to another with incredible accuracy. In this tradition of wayfinding, they use no modern navigation instruments, relying on the sun, the stars, the waves, the wind, birds, fish – everything is a fount of information about their voyage. As I learned in the podcast, this ancient tradition was almost lost, due to European colonizers dismissing the traditions of the indigenous peoples and chalking up their voyages from one island to the next as “accidental drift”. How wrong they were, as the new generation of wayfinders are demonstrating.
As I listened to the interview with Kamalu, I couldn’t help but think of the parallels with leadership. Just like the ocean, the business environment is a plethora of moving parts that can change in a heartbeat. Flat seas when there is no wind, and one must tack back and forth to get the vessel moving brought to mind the recent pandemic. Huge 25-foot swells with high winds remind me of the challenges of leading through a hurricane, which is quite common in the Caribbean, and which I personally as a leader in Jamaica had to do. Wayfinders must be intimately tuned into their environment and how it’s changing. Leaders must do the same, often with very little to navigate by, or so it seems. Like wayfinders, leaders must develop the skills of keen observation, of finding meaning and being able to interpret momentary and longer-term changes, of understanding that “uncharted waters” may not be uncharted at all. I learned in the podcast that the Polynesians knew the “pathways” of the vast Pacific and passed this knowledge down through the generations. And so, it is with leadership – what are the ancient pathways, the tried and proven ways of leading people that have existed and worked for millennia? .
As you traverse your own journey of becoming a better leader, be a wayfinder:
- Explore knowledge outside of books and courses on leadership – read about the ancient Stoics – for example, Marcus Aurelius, a Stoic and ruler of Rome who steered his empire through a pandemic 2,000 years ago; study traditional societies and how their chiefs organised and led; learn about great leaders in professions other than yours.
- Observe the wider world – yes, the daily tasks of leading your organization often have you hunkered down just trying to get through the day. Try blocking time to observe and “read” the wider environment – what’s happening in other countries, industries, demographic groups, the natural environment. Spend a day with yourself walking in nature, letting go of the modern world, and opening to the messages from the natural world, like the Polynesian wayfinders.
- Trust your team and the messages they are receiving and giving to you. They too are wayfinders. Successfully navigating canoes in the Pacific is rarely a solo act – it takes carefully selected team, working together as one, with trust in each other as the foundation.
Think of the environment you operate in as the vast Pacific Ocean and know that there are pathways, if only you tune into, listen, observe, and find the messages that are all around you.
And do listen to the NatGeo podcast here.
