Getting Lost in the Labyrinth

"The more you let yourself be distracted from where you are going, the more you are the person that you are. It's not so much like getting lost as it is like getting found."

William Stafford

The importance of getting lost on a Journey:

On a change journey it is impossible avoid mistakes. This is the chance in a change journey: You can find the right way by getting lost. Getting lost gives you understanding the right route. So understanding the fact (or a feeling) that we are lost can be gift on our journey.

First of all it is of course essential to realize that you are lost. How do you know that you are getting lost in your journey? You might be able find that our by asking yourself a couple of questions:

• Is something that we are doing unnecessary?
• Did we understand each other? Or did we reach a false consensus?
• Did we forget something?
• Did we go to fast? Or into the wrong direction?
• Is there a lack of energy or an excess of negative feelings?
• Is there a lack of dialogue or an excess of pretence?
• Are there too many different and contradicting opinions, are people confused?
• Are there any doubtful signals from outside world that show us the world cannot connect with us properly?
• Does everybody know of an excess of hidden agendas but nobody talks about them?

Getting lost can be a prompt for one of the following messages:

Rest or stop for a while!

• Find new perspective!
• Get new brains, new skills or new information!
• Face the reality and find a new direction!
• Make an intervention!
• Solve a persistent conflict!

Here is a process for what to do when you "got lost":

Step 1: Identify signals that shows that you are being lost.

Step 2: Organize a meeting to open up.

Step 3: Time for confessions (express feelings, face the truth, apologize if required, talk straight forward)

Step 4: Finde a new route, get started again with new energy

Questions for Deeper Exploration

• Is there something that we are doing which is unnecessary?
• Did we forget something?
• Do we have the right pace and the right direction?
• Do people speak up when they believe that we are lost?