Braving Uncertainty: Maps for the Journey

Jim Ewing started his professional life as a rocket scientist, but it soon became evident that his real passion was for people. He saw that life is about navigating change - braving uncertainty, living well at our ‘learning edge’. He set out to develop a way to support others, “a conversational, casual, no-frills and no-waiting intervention to be a first responder for individuals and for groups when steep change and life redesign come calling”. Over time he grew a successful consulting business, working with companies and organisations innovating through change or tackling ‘wicked’ problems. He designed a family of maps to support this work - simple frameworks for transformative conversations for use with individuals, groups, communities, organisations. Here Jim introduces the maps and the thinking that lies behind each of them, plus the conversational craft that brings them all to life. For those interested in pursuing the practice further, he points in the final chapter to Executive Arts, the small circle of colleagues and fellow practitioners to whom he entrusted the further development and spread of his work.