Great question and great metaphor that Cath Duncan has written extensively about on Productive Flourishing.
About Tour Guides
Tour Guides take people to places they know well, places that have already been mapped out by many pioneers and experts. The best Tour Guides know the territory well because they’ve personally been there before and navigated the territory themselves, getting the opportunity to learn first-hand what works, what the highlights are and what’s worth focusing on. Great Tour Guides have taken time to research other people’s experiences and reports of the territory as well, and to develop a clear favored route to take people through the territory with a “must-see-and-do” list to ensure that they cover all the highlights.
About Expedition Leaders
Expedition leaders take people to new, uncharted territory and places that are full of unpredictability, uncertainty, change and mystery – places that demand heuristic problem-solving. The Best Expedition Leaders have done, and continue to do, loads of research and learning in respect of the territory they’re navigating, so they’re also experienced Tour Guides.
But because of the nature of the territory, they still have just as many questions as answers and no matter how much they’ve figured out for themselves, they know that the real value is in enabling others to navigate the territory and invent new routes for themselves. Expedition Leaders teach what they’re busy learning because they know they’ll probably be busy learning in that territory for the rest of their lives. They’re comfortable with holding the responsibility of leadership even though they don’t have all the answers and still make plenty of mistakes applying what they know.
What’s cool about this
She also adds that each role comes with a distinct problem-solving method.
The Tour Guide solves problems using algorithms. That is, using step-by-step methods.
The Expedition Leader, on the other hand, solves problems using heuristics. That is, a basic set of evaluative rules that tell you “if X happens, do Y. If Z happens, do J.” and so forth.
Which of the two do your customers want you to be?
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