27.02.2021
Two years ago, we at The Company Journey Guides set off again into the future. Courageously, committed and with a lot of esprit. A retrospective on the first year, at the end of January 2020, showed a differentiated picture of how the alignment had succeeded and illuminated how we had actually made a few rookie mistakes ourselves. At that time, it could be read how we want to work on this in a next sprint. And then came Corona. So the TCJG Future Journey 2.0 came to a standstill. And is currently undergoing its relaunch as TCJG Future Journey 3.0.
Start 2.0
A quick look at blogs and the documentary shows – two years ago, we set out on our TCJG Future Journey 2.0. A good four years after the founding of TCJG, the Future Journey 1.0, that was simply the next step. A look, a direction into the future. A strategic redesign.
Things got off to a good start, and the first stage was met with a great deal of joy and energy. We had formulated the purpose together with the team right at the beginning and a north star quickly pointed the way. The next step, defining our ideas in a governance and thus formulating the foundations of our culture, also worked out very well. Not to forget the co-creation of our new website as a carrier of our future orientation.
Stumbling stones along the way
So far so good. And just as we started, the first distractions came. Everyday life took hold again and displaced the co-creative space and the euphoria. First delays occurred, our common journey temporarily moved out of focus. And already the spirit began to weaken. That happens quickly, and a year quickly comes to an end without any important next steps having been taken. In the retro at the end of January 2020, there was talk of this and also of how this could be captured in a next sprint. They were still just stumbling stones.
That was it for 2.0
A little over a year ago, at the end of February, we were just about to hold a restart workshop for our TCJG Future Journey 2.0. And then events came thick and fast. First, a TCJG founding member and co-managing director spontaneously decided to take on a new challenge. And away he went. And two weeks later, Corona was there. The first week after the lock-down was marked by cancellations. The order books for the next months, which were quite full, were emptied within three days.
And that was it for 2.0. Now it was more a matter of squaring the circle. From now on, think everything in virtual terms. Within a very short time, we had to massively expand our own digital competence. Redesign concepts, create new designs. First attempts. You can do it. Quickly become bolder.
Within four weeks, something like a new, completely new everyday life had set in.
In no man’s land between today and tomorrow
In a completely different form, this is how a TCJG realignment came about. Unplanned, chaotic, disturbing and at the same time close and connecting in the team. We shared daily in each other’s fate, we listened to each other, we wrapped up understanding for each other. We met in “kitchens”, “bedrooms” and next to the “cuckoo clocks”. Live reports from Bergamo have shaped our day, as well as the narrowness of a mountain village without guests in Austria.
There was no thought of the future. We simply thought from today to tomorrow. There were some days when we wondered if and how things would continue. And there were also days when we thought we wouldn’t be able to do it as well as we usually do. Especially since in the middle of the year, planned, a long-term and experienced guide started to work independently. And we have also somehow compensated for this and from May still two new colleagues virtually taken on board.
In July, we started with 40 virtual sessions, not counting the virtual coaching sessions.
In the fall, the presence sessions were supposed to start again. And indeed, we managed 15 external days in empty hotels and conference centers before the next lock-down light and then lock-down in full version was announced.
A safe bench for us was that we have been working a lot in the development of learning architectures, designs and concepts for years. This has stabilized us well again.
What a roller coaster ride, back to the future.
Unexpectedly with a good operational end in 2020 and exciting new prospects in 2021.
TCJG Future Journey 3.0
Alright, if that’s the case, then let’s take a look at our future again. But this will no longer be a 2.0. This is now the TCJG Future Journey 3.0, which we are thinking about and developing from the future.
We already know how to design the Future Journey. What’s new is that the journeys are now being recreated more frequently and at shorter intervals. Strategy in sprints, so to speak.
Familiar and new faces and people have come together and are transforming what was into what will be. How exciting is that. An understanding that there is no going back to what was. And a bunch of vague and also more concrete ideas about what might come.
New skills enrich the TCJG team and fuel a change of perspective.
It’s the end of February again. Time for a TCJG vision workshop. We are planning it for March. Still in lock-down. So be it. We know and can do how virtual vision workshops work by now.
Turning back to the future is really exciting. The TCJG Future Journey 3.0 has begun.
We will continue to report on the next stage of the it.