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John Edward Huth is the Donner Professor of Science at Harvard University and author of The Lost Art of Finding Your Way. Julia Moulden is a Toronto-based career-transition consultant and the author of three books including, Ripe: Rich, Rewarding Work After 50.

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Why did Jose Mourinho, one of the world’s top soccer coaches, lose his touch? The self-taught legend had identified an innovative approach to the game that earned him the reputation as one of the greatest managers of all-time.

But as the game and players changed – and as other coaches tried new techniques – he clung to his trademark moves and started to slide. And late last year, he was fired by Manchester United.

What might this brilliant manager have done differently? Learned to think like a navigator.

In modern times, GPS may have triumphed over Christopher Columbus, but our need for metaphorical way-finding has never been greater.

Especially in the workplace. Industries are being profoundly reshaped, changing or eliminating jobs and creating new ones. McKinsey Global Institute estimates that in the next decade as many as 375 million workers (14 per cent of the global work force) will need to switch not just jobs but entire occupations.

As we struggle to get our bearings and find our way across this unfamiliar terrain, navigation is a useful tool – and not just for visualizing a path. We’ve discovered that whether in the wilds or the workplace, a navigator’s mental processes are the same.

Successful navigators are keen observers. They begin with what they’ve learned (familiar shoreline, position of stars), incorporate what they experience in the moment (clouds, wind, waves) and use this data to create the mental map they need for orientation.

London’s cab drivers are expert navigators both literally and figuratively.

Being a London cabbie requires passing one of the most rigorous tests in the world. Drivers must commit to memory 25,000 streets as well as everything that lines the roadways – all the places a taxi passenger might ask to be taken. And because London is always changing, cabbies must continually burnish their knowledge.

Like other experienced navigators, they regularly call on new sources of information, compare this fresh data with the map that’s in their heads and recalibrate. Failure to do so means they run the risk of what’s known as “bending the map.” That is, make it conform to what they want to believe versus what is actually true.

In holding fast to his narrow view of the game, Mr. Mourinho bent the map.

The good news is that human beings are wired to navigate. Neuroscientists such as Eleanor Maguire of University College London are unravelling the parts of the brain that help us create and update our mental maps. The hippocampus is particularly important, and the more we use it, the greater its capacity: In London’s cabbies, it is significantly larger than in the rest of us.

The hippocampus also lights up when we think about what’s ahead. While observation helps us figure out where we are and fluid thinking helps widen our view, scenario planning – creating stories about how things might unfold – extends our map into the future. And this is true whether the decision at hand is relatively narrow or much broader, such as intending to alter the course of history.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg could teach a master class in career navigation. She is famous for having a clear destination (the end of gender discrimination), considering possible routes (challenging injustices so deeply ingrained as to be invisible) and knowing that success was most likely if she waited for the right case to come along.

And it did. Instead of showing how a woman was discriminated against, she chose a man who had been denied a tax benefit routinely given to women. The ruling stated that the relevant Statute “made a special discrimination based on sex alone, which cannot stand.”

But Justice Ginsburg’s way-finding prowess is even more evident in her openness to other points of view. A resolute liberal, she has often spoken about the impact of her conservative colleague, Antonin Scalia, “When I wrote for the Court and received a Scalia dissent, the opinion ultimately released was notably better than my initial circulation.”

It’s important to note that way-finding is not exclusively technical. The mental processes required for successful navigation – especially in the most challenging situations – include an emotional component. And we see inquisitiveness – which Justice Ginsburg modelled so effectively – as the root emotional intelligence from which other capabilities emerge.

In our view, London’s cabbies have curiosity to spare. Which is good, because they’ll need it: They face massive disruption from GPS, Uber and driverless cars. The smart money says these expert navigators have what it takes to invent new futures for themselves.

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