Scouting Parties
The Scouting Party involves a short exploratory initiative by one or more Affiliates of the Innovation Expedition into a new geographic area, a new economic sector, a new knowledge domain or a specific big picture issue in which the Expedition has not previously been significantly involved.
The initial goal of a Scouting Party is to serve as a key action-oriented R&D arm and to expand the Expedition's global search for innovative individuals, ideas, projects and products relating to the challenge of driving improved performance by unleashing innovation.

The larger strategic intention of a Scouting Party is to:

  • Identify new areas in which IE Inc. should undertake major Expeditions (collaborative projects) and consider establishing a new operational node.
  • Engage with individuals and organizations that could be alliance partners in a major Expedition and which might eventually become IE Affiliates.
  • Serve as an on-the-job learning and leadership development experience for IE Affiliates adn possibly some of their most significant clients.
Each Scouting Party is organized to engage with a group of influential innovators in order to gain new insights into a particular significant complex challenge or opportunity for the Innovation Expedition to consider. Some Scouting Parties are very informal, involve only a few Affiliate Explorers, are carried out mainly electronically and last only a few days.
Others last for a number of weeks, engage a substantial group from the IE Network as well as external participants, and involve both electronic interactions (for advance planning) and a physical visit for face-to-face interactions.
The participants in these more formal scouting parties involve a group of people who share interest in a challenging issue and who commit to a collaborative, exploratory effort to capture some key learning on the topic and to identify potential longer-term Expeditions (projects) that might arise from the Scouting Party.