The Ice Warrior Has a Detailed Plan
When you are about to step into the unknown, it's a good thing to plan ahead.
Polar explorer Jim McNeill is a great advocate of thorough planning. He walks across the wastes of the Arctic for a living, running the Ice Warrior project -- an initiative to monitor climatic change in the ice and the plants and animals it supports.
McNeill is accompanied on these expeditions by volunteers who pay £12,000 each to trek through the ice wastes at minus 40°C, sometimes marvelling at the Polar landscape and just as often trudging through blinding snow, dragging 300lb sleds behind them. They will also be on the look-out for Polar bears, whose numbers are part of their job to monitor.
McNeill will use this project as the springboard to reach the Northern Pole of Inaccessibility -- the point furthest away from any landmasses in the Arctic Ocean. It's never been done before. The trip will cover 750miles, travelling at between three and 20 miles a day, depending on the conditions and the terrain.
Speaking at the Charlotte St Hotel in London this week, McNeill explained that he is a compulsive planner and this is not such a bad thing in an environment where anything can happen.
Ice Warrior expeditions have been known get snowed in just a few miles out of base camp and it's not unusual for parties to be stranded in storms for days at a time. All these eventualities have to be factored into McNeill's planning and preparations. It's crucial, considering everything you might need to survive the elements has to be carried with you about your person or dragged behind you on a sled.
McNeill has already attempted to reach the centre of the Arctic Ocean in 2006. This attempt ended after, due to unseasonal conditions, he slipped into the water, which is so cold it would only take around 20 minutes to kill him. He pulled himself out of the water, but it was plain the conditions, brought on by climate change, were too dangerous to continue.
This time he is taking with him a sled that will also act as a boat, a useful piece of equipment, as huge cracks in the ice cap have started to appear.
Considering what's at stake, it's clear good planning is paramount. McNeill uses a piece of software called MindManager which maps out his planning processes clearly. The user interface looks like a tree, with every aspect of the trip linked to each other. Initially, the diagram looks simplistic, but each box can be expanded, to a sub section, which can be expanded again and again, so that the plan actually handles a myriad of minute details within it.
McNeill explained he didn't have to learn any sort of thinking methodology to be able to operate the software - it is designed to mirror the brain's cognitive processes. He said he uses it constantly to plan his life.
As business leaders, you probably won't be exploring the ice wastes of the top of the world (even though McNeill has lead one or two on an expedition there), but there's a lot of uncertainty about even on Wall St and the City of London. The next 12 months will be stepping into the unknown in the commercial landscape. So, like McNeill, make sure you have a good, clear plan.