Wayfinding in Complexity: Threads from an Emerging (and Remembered) Field
When Mushfiqa Jamaluddin recently shared this co-authored book chapter with me, I was delighted. It’s the kind of piece I would have loved to reference while developing the Waysfinding framework back in 2019.
What struck me immediately were the resonances between their exploration of Wayfinding Futures and the Waysfinding approach I’ve been developing over the past years. While we’ve arrived at a similar place from slightly different paths, there’s a shared sense of something deeper unfolding — a call to cultivate the capacity to move through complexity with presence and integrity.
Here are a few synergies I’d like to highlight to offer another thread in the larger tapestry of this work.
Waysfinding as a Liminal Scaffolding Process.
The Waysfinding approach acts as a scaffold for those navigating new frontiers. It’s deeply personal and yet profoundly systemic — a liminal device that enables individuals and systems to maintain momentum in the face of ambiguity.
Waysfinding is not a technique. It’s a practice of becoming.
At its core are the capacities of sensing and responding. We’re not map users or map makers. We’re something else entirely — we weave relationships with the terrain as we move.
Waysfinding as a Movement.
Waysfinding is about movement and momentum; we make the path by walking. Until we move, we’re not waysfinding. This is important, as a pattern I see often is stuckness or an unwillingness to move when things are uncertain or ambiguous.
So effectively moving through unknown landscapes — finding our way — is a capability we need to reconnect with. Especially in a world where these abilities have become atrophied by our dependence on technology and maps.
We move through shifting terrain with attuned presence, trusting the landscape to reveal itself as we go. Maps may follow, but first, we walk and listen.
“Our understanding of and movement through the world is not set; it is a continuous process of interactions with each other and the world around us, and there is an urgency to revive our forgotten capabilities.” (Jamaluddin et al.)
Orienting, Direction, and Guardrails
The Waysfinder framework supports movement through three foundational elements: orienting, setting direction, and creating guardrails.
Orientation is the starting point — not just where we think we are, but where we actually are, in time, in space, in narrative. Complexity demands this honesty.
“The first critical step of wayfinding is orientation: locating oneself within a landscape to maintain one’s directionality. From a complex-process view, orienting involves recalling past journeys to position oneself within the spatio-temporal landscape of narratives.” (Jamaluddin et al.)
Direction setting is not about goals or targets. It’s about intent. A direction like “becoming more inclusive” opens possibilities; a KPI might close them too soon.
Guardrails are essential. Not to constrain freedom, but to create a held space where exploration feels safe. In the Waysfinding approach, I distinguish between:
- Hard constraints (externally imposed or innate limitations)
- Flexible boundaries (self-chosen enablers of coherence)
This notion of creating a contained option field for exploration resonates with the paper’s discussion of heuristics and ecological rationality — what Gigerenzer calls “a rationality that fits reality.” Naming the constraints of a system often surfaces both real limitations and limiting beliefs.
The STAR Movement Mechanism
In 2021, I shared an early articulation of the Waysfinder focused mainly on the constraint scaffolding described above. Since then, the work has continued to evolve.
One of these developments is STAR, a mechanism focused specifically on enabling sustained movement. The acronym takes inspiration from the ancient star compass used by Polynesian navigators.
Rather than mapping our route in advance, STAR invites us to move and then:
- Sense — Broad, deep sensing using all our faculties — physical, intuitive, narrative, temporal.
- Tune In — Attuning to what matters, discerning signal from noise, listening through the body and the heart.
- Awareness — Noticing what emerges from the tuning, where clarity or knowing arises.
- Respond — Taking a step, however small, in coherence with that awareness.
And then it begins again.
STAR echoes Tim Ingold’s insight: “We know as we go, not before we go.” It reminds us that wayfinding is not about pre-emptive certainty, it’s about attuned participation.
Embodied, Emergent Knowing
One of the most powerful synergies between our approaches lies in the embodied, emergent nature of knowing. Whether it’s choosing where to live or which strategic path to follow, wayfinding requires a deep trust in the felt sense. Rationality has its place — but in complex, living systems, we are often better served by satisficing than by optimizing.
“The wayfinder-futurist, by engaging in an ongoing, contextual practice, discovers their ability to embrace and engage with the complexity and liminality of a situation, rather than seeking to manage away uncertainty.” (Jamaluddin et al.)
Waysfinding is inherently explorative… Even if we end up finding our way back to the beginning, we do so changed.
T.S. Eliot said it best:
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
In Closing
I’m heartened by the increasing emergence of work in this space. It affirms something I’ve sensed for a while: we are in a moment of remembering.
The Waysfinding approach is one articulation of that remembering, anchored in complexity, attuned to aliveness, and devoted to helping people find their way through the unknown.
