{"id":1219,"date":"2021-04-07T11:32:09","date_gmt":"2021-04-07T09:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/?p=1219"},"modified":"2021-04-07T17:16:11","modified_gmt":"2021-04-07T15:16:11","slug":"explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/","title":{"rendered":"Explore \u2013 Exploit. What we can learn from the Polynesian Migration"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

A useful analogy for the ambidextrous organisation and the importance of switching between various modus operandi<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

\"\"<\/p>\r\n

von Dr. Bernhard Sterchi<\/a><\/p>\r\n

The German Sociologist Gerhard Schulze uses a wonderful analogy when he describes societies\u2019 capabilities to deal with crisis, and I want to adapt the picture to organisations facing complexity. Most of us may not have heard of the Polynesian Migration. Within a time-span of about 800 years preceding 1300 AD, the Southern Pacific area was populated, starting in South-East Asia, and ending up in places as far away as Hawaii, the Easter Islands and New Zealand.<\/p>\r\n

The spread from island to island happened in individual steps \u2013 sometimes more frequent, sometimes less \u2013 across the centuries. For our purpose it is useful to note that during this period, society had something like two states of existence: State A consisted of\u00a0 the exploitation of existing resources on a given island: Societies lived together in buildings, they took food from land and sea, the basic events of life happened, such as birth, death and several rites of passage in between. For all this to work, there was a division of labour with appropriate tasks, roles and rules.<\/p>\r\n

\"\" \u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Then, with the population growing on a given island, at some point the density came to be felt as pressure, and society switched into a state B: Young men took their ships on exploration to ever further areas of the Sea, some of them never came back. Those who made it back home, evaluated what islands they found as potential destinations, maybe comparing alternatives. There might have been wars with other settlers. Then the population on the island split up in those who stayed, and those who left, a process which might have started as early as the beginning of state B – we may imagine an ongoing debate between “we must go and seek” vs. “it is useless to go and seek”.<\/p>\r\n

For those who eventually left, a dangerous journey began, in open boats across the long distances of the Pacific, towards a tiny target difficult to spot. Once arrived, they had to build and organise in temporary arrangements, until at last they could switch back into a new state A.<\/p>\r\n

Now it is obvious that for these two states of exploitation and exploration, rules, priorities and criteria\u00a0 for decisions were fundamentally different, as were the kind of people who excelled at the task.<\/p>\r\n

If we take these two states as analogy for an organisation, the exploitation state A consists of \u00a0administering operational business, taking the daily decisions, dealing with incidents, and incrementally improving the status quo. State B, the exploration,\u00a0\u00a0would be the reorganisation, the development of a new strategy or business model, and innovation or skunk-work projects. People spend all their time in workshops… Here\u2019s why I believe that it is important to remember this analogy today: The more complex and dynamic your environment, the more it is the capability of an organisation to master state B, and to switch between the two states, that defines its competitive advantage.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A useful analogy for the ambidextrous organisation and the importance of switching between various modus operandi von Dr. Bernhard Sterchi The German Sociologist Gerhard Schulze uses a wonderful analogy when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77,21],"tags":[69,70,71,72],"class_list":["post-1219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership-governance-en","category-uncategorized","tag-fuehrung-en","tag-leadership-en","tag-modus-operandi-en","tag-organisation-en"],"yoast_head":"\nExplore \u2013 Exploit. What we can learn from the Polynesian Migration - MESG<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"MESG = Management Experts St. Gallen. Dies steht f\u00fcr einen Verbund von unabh\u00e4ngigen, erfolgreichen Beratern, Trainern und Coaches f\u00fcr Management-Themen.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Explore \u2013 Exploit. What we can learn from the Polynesian Migration - MESG\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"MESG = Management Experts St. Gallen. Dies steht f\u00fcr einen Verbund von unabh\u00e4ngigen, erfolgreichen Beratern, Trainern und Coaches f\u00fcr Management-Themen.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"MESG\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-04-07T09:32:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-04-07T15:16:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/boat-1577323-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1674\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sebastian Marshall\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sebastian Marshall\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sebastian Marshall\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/#\/schema\/person\/52df93ede3ae11d2ecb6b6b770da5084\"},\"headline\":\"Explore \u2013 Exploit. What we can learn from the Polynesian Migration\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-07T09:32:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-04-07T15:16:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/\"},\"wordCount\":514,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/boat-1577323-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"F\u00fchrung\",\"Leadership\",\"Modus operandi\",\"Organisation\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Leadership & Governance\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/\",\"name\":\"Explore \u2013 Exploit. What we can learn from the Polynesian Migration - MESG\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/boat-1577323-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-07T09:32:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-04-07T15:16:11+00:00\",\"description\":\"MESG = Management Experts St. Gallen. Dies steht f\u00fcr einen Verbund von unabh\u00e4ngigen, erfolgreichen Beratern, Trainern und Coaches f\u00fcr Management-Themen.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/boat-1577323-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/boat-1577323-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1674},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Startseite\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Explore \u2013 Exploit. What we can learn from the Polynesian Migration\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/\",\"name\":\"MESG\",\"description\":\"Management Experts St. Gallen\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Management Experts St. Gallen GmbH\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/mesg-logo-500.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/mesg-logo-500.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":275,\"caption\":\"Management Experts St. Gallen GmbH\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/mesg-management-experts-st-gallen\/?viewAsMember=true\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/#\/schema\/person\/52df93ede3ae11d2ecb6b6b770da5084\",\"name\":\"Sebastian Marshall\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/author\/sebastianmesg\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Explore \u2013 Exploit. What we can learn from the Polynesian Migration - MESG","description":"MESG = Management Experts St. Gallen. Dies steht f\u00fcr einen Verbund von unabh\u00e4ngigen, erfolgreichen Beratern, Trainern und Coaches f\u00fcr Management-Themen.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Explore \u2013 Exploit. What we can learn from the Polynesian Migration - MESG","og_description":"MESG = Management Experts St. Gallen. Dies steht f\u00fcr einen Verbund von unabh\u00e4ngigen, erfolgreichen Beratern, Trainern und Coaches f\u00fcr Management-Themen.","og_url":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/","og_site_name":"MESG","article_published_time":"2021-04-07T09:32:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-04-07T15:16:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1674,"url":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/boat-1577323-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sebastian Marshall","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sebastian Marshall","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/"},"author":{"name":"Sebastian Marshall","@id":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/#\/schema\/person\/52df93ede3ae11d2ecb6b6b770da5084"},"headline":"Explore \u2013 Exploit. What we can learn from the Polynesian Migration","datePublished":"2021-04-07T09:32:09+00:00","dateModified":"2021-04-07T15:16:11+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/"},"wordCount":514,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/boat-1577323-scaled.jpg","keywords":["F\u00fchrung","Leadership","Modus operandi","Organisation"],"articleSection":["Leadership & Governance"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/","url":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/","name":"Explore \u2013 Exploit. What we can learn from the Polynesian Migration - MESG","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/boat-1577323-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2021-04-07T09:32:09+00:00","dateModified":"2021-04-07T15:16:11+00:00","description":"MESG = Management Experts St. Gallen. Dies steht f\u00fcr einen Verbund von unabh\u00e4ngigen, erfolgreichen Beratern, Trainern und Coaches f\u00fcr Management-Themen.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/boat-1577323-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/boat-1577323-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1674},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/explore-exploit-what-we-can-learn-from-the-polynesian-migration\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Startseite","item":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Explore \u2013 Exploit. What we can learn from the Polynesian Migration"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/#website","url":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/","name":"MESG","description":"Management Experts St. Gallen","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/#organization","name":"Management Experts St. Gallen GmbH","url":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/mesg-logo-500.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/mesg-logo-500.png","width":500,"height":275,"caption":"Management Experts St. Gallen GmbH"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/mesg-management-experts-st-gallen\/?viewAsMember=true"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/#\/schema\/person\/52df93ede3ae11d2ecb6b6b770da5084","name":"Sebastian Marshall","url":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/author\/sebastianmesg\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1219"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2244,"href":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219\/revisions\/2244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}