We engage in life, business, marriage and other infinite endeavors. You participate and you do your best. If you see the journey as a finite game, after a seeming victory - there is the next battle, and the next. We should rather see our challenges as hurdles to overcome, as inherent parts of our journeys; as ways to build knowledge and mastery. As parts of the journey towards our just cause. We can't see the end of the journey, there is no clear outcome and there are no defined rules to guide us as to what it means to win.
Exploration is about finding the new. It it fuelled by our curiosity and creativity to find the new point B world that we are not yet aware of. We start in our point A world, and the journey is at least to some extent about art, creativity and the challenge to break new ground. There are many business situations where it is not possible to plan for, or to clearly articulate, a future state in a non-ambiguous way. I believe that programmes are better than projects in dealing with quite a few of them, as proper governance, guidance and sense-making is key.
A lot of collaboration in large enterprises is due to ambiguity, and for good reasons. The acceptance of ambiguity, and exploration of it, leads to new knowledge and more clarity. The new knowledge helps us move in relevant directions. Software and digital infrastructure can't be implemented until there is enough knowledge about at least the direction of the implementation journey. In my line of work as consultant and digital advisor, there is often a need to get more clarity around business ideas to enable progress. Workshops can be helpful in that search for direction.