Expedition Mindset Course

Ticket sales opening soon

Overview

The Expedition Mindset Course takes attendees through Studio D's extensive process to navigate complex environments. It emphasises a collaborative team culture, adaptability, and rapid problem solving to elegantly navigate high-pressure/high-stakes situations—the skills from which can be applied to a wide range of workplace challenges.

Background

Over the past decade Studio D have successfully completed expeditions in support of the Mapping the Afghan Pamir (MAP) project. Expedition attendees have consistently shared that the mindset developed through our planning process has far broader applicability: whether it is managing problematic stakeholders, planning high-stakes meetings, assessing risks, or to motivate culturally diverse teams.

Approach

The Expedition Mindset Course is online and semi-structured, whereby attendees regularly meet on Zoom calls, and are guided through a series of planning activities. These are then reviewed and discussed by the cohort and instructor on the calls and via asynchronous channels. Over time we will build a knowledge base, that sets the expedition team/s up for success. 

We will use the summer 2025 MAP expedition as the primary case study, exposing attendees to a diverse range of real world challenges which the team on the ground will need to overcome. Attendees may also develop materials for their own expedition, in parallel to this case study. 

Note: Completing the Expedition Mindset Course is a prerequisite to be a part of the 2025 MAP Expedition. 

What is covered

Topics covered include:

• Building an optimal team culture
• The expedition mindset
• Risk assessment and calibration
• Goal alignment
• Budgeting
• Fitness, health and wellbeing
• Negotiations and conflict resolution
• Equipment and supplies
• Managing local and home relationships
• Ethics
• Post expedition debrief

Course materials

Over the duration of the course the cohort will build an expedition planning knowledge base and standard operating procedures (SOPs) available to all attendees, the lessons from which can be applied to wide range of situations.

2025 schedule

The cadence of the Zoom calls are aligned to the task load on a typical expedition planning schedule that assumes a July-onwards start date:

• March 15th - Kick off call
• April 2nd, 16th
• May 6th, 19th
• June 2nd, 16th, 28th

Start Time: 17:00 EST / 21:00 GMT / 6:00 JST

Dates based on US time zones. Times can be changed to optimally accommodate attendees’ time zones.

The course is completed by June 28th, 2025.

Additional calls can be scheduled as required to cover specific topics, and can include contacting prior expedition team members such as medics to draw on their wisdom. We log call notes, to enable those who miss calls to stay abreast of developments. 

We can accommodate applicants joining after the course start date in March. Note: there are no discounts or refunds for unattended sessions. Our standard event Policy applies.

Ideal attendees

The course is open to all attendees that are exposed to high-pressure, high-stakes situations in the workplace. 

We value attendees from diverse genders, ethnicities, lived experiences, life stages, and backgrounds.

Certified Wilderness First Responders

If you are a certified and active Wilderness First Responder please drop your details here, whereby a discount may apply. 

About your instructor

The Expedition Mindset Course is run by Jan Chipchase, Founder of Studio D. 

Over a twenty+ year career Jan has run complex projects on behalf of multinational clients across the globe. Jan will return to Afghanistan for the 2025 expedition season.

--

Photo: Charley Zheng.