Traditionally we use tasks or actions to accomplish our goals. Carrying out these tasks assumes that we have perfect knowledge. However, in a world of change and transition, the environment is typically uncertain and is characterised by confusion and contradiction. Taking action may produce unexpected outcomes, and it may be difficult to move forward with confidence or a clear sense of purpose.
What are measured ventures and why do we use them?
A venture is more unbounded and open-ended than a simple task, but is more concrete than an experiment. A venture requires innovation and exploration, and feels like an interesting and exciting step into the unknown. It is not critical enough to break the bank if it goes wrong, but is big enough to get something done while we learn more about our situation. When we have a number of options for moving forward, ventures test some of the potential routes for our journey, and uncover the best possible next steps in a given piece of work. By testing each of these routes we can learn, explore and then decide which one to take. These next steps should provide momentum and learning as well as delivering the best possible outcomes.
Learning measures can give us assurance of how well we are performing against the things that are most important to us, and can be used to assess the impact of our ventures. Learning measures often include things like business impact, reputation, personal development, and credibility. If you ask yourself "What would be the best in this matter?" and "What would be the worst in this matter?" and ask these questions over and over, you will have a range of answers. Some collection of the best will fit with some collection of the worst. You can take those and name the essential measures which these best and worst situations define.
Measured ventures enable us to move forward, particularly during transition or change. They provide an ideal starting point for most interventions; they get things moving immediately. Setting up measured ventures enables improvements in performance.
When do we use measured ventures?
We can develop measured ventures within our work with any of the maps:
- When we need more structure in our Explorations from Voice 2 in TransforMAP
- When designing our new Go! step in Implemento
- To develop a robust Success Path in Impacto
- In our work on Doings Revisited in Stucco
- When developing Ventures in EmpowerMAP