A learning expedition (LEX) is a study trip of 1 to 8 days in which a team meets, on the ground, companies, researchers and entrepreneurs who are ahead on a subject, to bring back ideas it can apply. It also helps the team decide together what comes next.
A learning expedition is a group study trip. The team travels for a few days, visits sites and meets people who have already worked through its question: a chief executive who changed how the company is governed, a researcher, the founder of a community venue. Each meeting is prepared in advance, and the group takes time to draw out what it will use back home.
In French it is also called an expédition apprenante or a voyage d'étude. The short form LEX is common.
The term comes from education. Outward Bound, the school Kurt Hahn and Lawrence Holt founded in Wales in 1941, inspired the Expeditionary Learning network of schools in the United States, funded in 1992 and opened in 1993. Its learning expeditions are four to nine week studies of a single theme, with fieldwork. Today the term also covers company study trips.
The idea rests on experiential learning. Psychologist David Kolb described it in 1984 as a four-stage cycle: live a situation, observe it, draw an idea from it, try it out. Otto Scharmer of MIT and the Presencing Institute turned it into a practice for leaders, sensing journeys, which take participants out of their routine to see their organisation through the eyes of other stakeholders.
in:Expeditions has designed and led learning expeditions since 2015: more than 100 so far, for more than 250 clients, including companies, institutions and schools. Its journalists choose the meetings from a map of 2,500 impact initiatives.
A company runs a learning expedition when it has to decide on a subject it knows little about: a new business model, a different governance, the ecological transition of its trade, a new way of working. Seeing how others went about it, with their figures and their mistakes, saves time.
For an executive committee, it helps build a shared strategic vision, design actions and anticipate possible futures. For a CSR or innovation team, it connects the business to the major transitions. For HR, it trains and brings people together at once: the group learns side by side, away from the office.
One example: in the Basque Country, a leadership team thinking about how value is shared meets MONDRAGON, a group of industrial cooperatives where more than 71,000 people work under the rule of one member, one vote.
In the in:Expeditions catalogue, the budget for a learning expedition ranges from €700 to €4,000 per person, excluding VAT, accommodation and transport estimated, for a group of at least 10 people: from Paris (€700, 1 to 3 days) to Geneva (€4,000, 1 to 4 days). For 10 people in Paris, it therefore starts at €7,000 excluding VAT.
in:Expeditions invoices the design and facilitation of the trip. Accommodation, meals and transport are booked in your name or through a registered travel operator, on a separate quote; we recommend the places and prepare this logistics with you.
What in:Expeditions invoices:
A learning expedition lasts from 1 to 8 days. One day is enough in Paris or Marseille. Allow 2 to 4 days for Amsterdam, Berlin, Freiburg or Lisbon, 3 to 5 days for Copenhagen, Oslo or the Basque Country, 4 to 6 days for Helsinki or Istanbul, and 4 to 8 days for Dakar.
The length follows the distance and the scope of the subject. A nearby destination reached by train suits a short format. A broad subject, such as Basque cooperative industry, needs several days of meetings.
Over three days, the rhythm often looks like this. Day 1: travel, kick-off lunch, first immersion, dinner with an expert. Day 2: workshop, project visits, lunch with a local organisation, time for reflection in the evening. Day 3: field visit, final lunch, closing session where each person says what they are taking away, departure.
All three formats bring a team together away from the office. What sets them apart is their purpose.
A learning expedition takes the group out to learn from other organisations. An offsite brings the team together to work on its own issues. Team building strengthens relationships through a shared activity. The formats are often combined: visits and meetings during the day, work among participants in the evening.
| Learning expedition | Offsite | Team building | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Learn from people who are ahead on a subject, then decide | Work on the team's own issues: strategy, organisation, action plan | Build cohesion and trust |
| Format | Site visits, prepared and facilitated meetings, group reflection | Working sessions and workshops, often at a venue outside the office | A shared activity: sport, games, cooking, a creative challenge |
| Length | 1 to 8 days (in:Expeditions catalogue) | Usually 1 to 3 days | Usually half a day to a day |
| What you bring back | Real cases, contacts, a participant handbook, ideas to apply at home | Decisions and an action plan | A closer team and shared memories |
You start from a question the team has to settle, choose two to four places that have already answered it, prepare each meeting with its hosts, lead the discussions on site, then hold a return workshop to keep what you will apply. At in:Expeditions, this takes six steps:
Objectives are set with the client before departure, and each encounter is chosen to serve one of them. Those that come up most often in the in:Expeditions catalogue:
A sample programme, built on the Marseille page of our catalogue. Your own programme is designed around your goals.
| Day | Programme |
|---|---|
| Day 1 | Northern Marseille and youth employment. Arrival in the morning and a session to frame the team’s question. In the afternoon, a visit to Le Cloître, a former convent in the northern districts turned workplace, where organisations from growing sectors help young people into jobs. A discussion of their needs for skills and partners, then the journalist’s analysis at the end of the day. |
| Day 2 | A fort, a prison, a decision. In the morning, Fort Saint-Nicolas, a monument opening up as a venue for art, culture and science. Lunch at Les Beaux Mets, a bistro and work-integration project inside Les Baumettes prison. In the afternoon, a decision workshop: each participant proposes one commitment, the team keeps three and names an owner for each. |
The in:Expeditions catalogue lists 24 destinations in France and abroad, many of them reachable by train. Five examples, from the lowest budget to the highest:
A learning expedition on sustainability shows on the ground how a city, a region or a company has cut its emissions, with its figures, its choices and what they cost. It serves a CSR team, a leadership team preparing its transition plan, or a school that wants to take the subject out of the classroom.
The theme follows the team’s question: running climate policy like a budget, decarbonising heat, converting an industry, moving a whole city. Four programmes in the catalogue start from these questions:
Going abroad makes sense when the place that answers the team’s question is elsewhere: a climate budget voted every year alongside the financial budget in Oslo, an industry run as cooperatives in the Basque Country, a city aiming for climate neutrality by 2035 in Freiburg im Breisgau.
Three things change compared with a programme at home. Length: 2 to 5 days in our itineraries, so the journey is worth it. Transport, by train whenever possible: Freiburg is three hours from Paris by direct TGV, a direct train links Marseille and Barcelona, and the Eurostar puts London 2 h 17 from Paris. Indicative budget: €1,800 excl. VAT per person in Freiburg and the Ruhr, up to €4,000 excl. VAT in Geneva.
in:Expeditions invoices the design and facilitation; accommodation and transport are booked in your name or through a registered travel operator, on a separate quote. To link two or three countries, our routes last 7 to 10 days.
European study tours, 7 to 10 daysThe learning expedition to FreiburgThe learning expedition to the Basque Country
To plan it yourself, Agent A\lex, the in:Expeditions AI agent, opens in Claude, ChatGPT, Le Chat or Gemini and builds the objectives, the day-by-day programme, the meetings, low-carbon logistics and the budget with you, using the in:Expeditions method.
To hand it over, send your brief (destination, dates, number of participants, objectives) and an in:Expeditions journalist will offer you a 15 to 45 minute interview.
Design it with Agent A\lexSend your briefFor schools and universities
Budgets in the in:Expeditions catalogue apply to groups of at least 10 people. The programme then adapts to the size of the group: the Freitag workshop in Zurich, for example, hosts groups of 10 to 25.
Yes. The catalogue includes Paris, Marseille and the Côte des Légendes in Brittany. In Paris or Marseille, a single day is enough.
Business leaders, entrepreneurs, researchers, foundations and local authorities who have already made progress on the group's subject. in:Expeditions chooses them from a map of 2,500 impact initiatives and prepares each meeting.
Broadly, yes. All three describe a trip where a group learns from organisations on the ground. Learning expedition is the term French-speaking companies use, often shortened to LEX.
At in:Expeditions, journalists and expedition leaders. They introduce the group to each host, open the subjects, facilitate discussion and share their analysis at the end of each day.
A participant handbook with a page for each place and each person met, the group's notes and, after the return workshop, a list of ideas to put into practice. On request: summary sheets for each visit, a podcast or a video.
Agent A\lex