What do we mean by this, and what’s the difference between these modes? If you’re driving on a motorway, you tend to know your destination, and you travel as fast as you can within the speed limit to get there. The goal is efficiency, getting from A to B with minimal deviation. That’s highway mode.
In a safari park, you don’t drive 100 km/h. You move at a speed suited to the environment. You have a clear intention about what you want to see, but you don’t know exactly where the best sightings will be, and you’re open to serendipity. You have a map for guidance. Everyone in the vehicle watches for signals: a dust cloud on the horizon, vultures circling in the distance, what the weather is doing.
The tempo shifts. Sometimes you stop for twenty minutes because something extraordinary is happening in front of you. Sometimes you move faster because the herd has moved on. Safari mode doesn’t mean you go slow all the time. It means the group shares situational awareness constantly and makes decisions together, in real time. Intentional, yet adapting to what you’re learning from the environment.
Neither mode is categorically the best. On a motorway, safari mode would be baffling and frustrating. On safari, highway mode would mean missing everything that mattered and putting your vehicle at risk on an unsealed road. The question is which mode fits your actual terrain.
What I see often is teams holding themselves to a highway plan and pace when the terrain clearly doesn’t support it. They may feel like they’re failing when they’re really just using the wrong operating mode.
For a deeper dive into Safari mode – read my previous article Safari Mode: Managing the Tempo of Exploration
Safari Mode: Managing the Tempo of Exploration
So how does AGLX help teams get into safari mode?
Our role is to act as the guide. The work happens with your team in the room and is designed to build their capability, not just produce another document. Over time, it becomes a natural part of how the team operates, embedded in the meetings and conversations already happening.
In practice:
We help your team build a shared picture of the environment you’re in. Where is the path clear enough to use highway mode and get on with it? Where do you need to explore before you commit? And where do you need to be open to let the answer emerge over time?
- We run exercises where teams develop shared situational awareness, noticing what’s shifting and how we communicate that with each other. Are we all seeing the same thing, or just assuming we are?
- We build the ability to sense and respond within your existing meeting rhythm, connected to your strategic direction. In your regular meetings, the question becomes: what has changed in our environment, what hasn’t, and what does that mean for where we’re putting our effort?
- We work on signal recognition together. What would we see that signals an opportunity or risk is emerging? Naming these in advance lets you notice them early and build the capacity to deal with them.
- We help you recognise whether you’re going at the right pace. Are you moving too fast for what you actually know, or too slow while an opportunity closes? There are signals for both, and a team that watches for them can adjust before it overcommits resources or wastes time.
If this resonates with you and you’re not sure whether your team knows how to choose the right mode, we’d be happy to talk it through.