CEOs Swimming in an Uncertain Future
So, what do I do after a vigorous swim on a beautiful California day?
Why, naturally, I do what I did yesterday…I made a refreshing drink and opened my latest copy of Rotman Management magazine (University of Toronto) to learn what the smarty pants thought leaders are saying about the future.
The first article I read was by Margaret Heffernan, professor at the University of Bath School of Management in Bath, England (in honor of England, there was gin involved in the drink making).
Heffernan’s insights were direct and simple enough for me to understand:
The Holy Grail of business in the 20th Century was Efficiency…which is no longer adequate in our complex, unpredictable times.· In this time of high uncertainty and complexity, we need to focus on Optionality…staying flexible, exploring options for when things change (which they will) and developing innovative options for responding that keep us from slipping back into the false comfort of the status quo.
Here is a challenge of getting to Optionality — the old yearly pattern of organization, Think-Plan-Execute, assumes too much predictability in a world that is anything but predictable. The past’s most relied upon pattern for future shaping becomes an obstacle to be overcome.
In working with CEOs today, I find that yearly planning cycles need to be disrupted periodically with complete breakaway thinking.
The old pattern of “think, plan, execute” needs to be disrupted by injecting a creative process of wicked question creation, deep exploration of the zeitgeist, discovery of many options, and development of scenarios of options-mixing to fulfill a new vision of Future Shaping.
Often our client CEOs fly to our nearby city and take a windy road, with breathtaking views, to our home on the California Coast to take part in what we call CEO Days…days for optionality creation and future shaping.
This is a time for them to break from their all-too-familiar office environments and the isolating demands of needing to have everything thought out for both staff and board.
They need the time to freely hold forth with creative, indefensible, wild ideas that explore imaginative new options for the future.
It never fails. Within a couple of days of co-creation and option exploration, game-changing ideas emerge.
A few of the many outputs of CEO Days —
Completely new business models are framed that elevate future potential
A totally new business division is conceived
Old legacy businesses are rethought and redesigned
New start-ups envisioned
Category-changing brand-building platforms are architected
Innovation centers and culture-wide creativity ethos re-imagined
Value Creation is reinvented to reflect the new, future-shaping options
Of course, a CEO Days session is not the end; it is the beginning.
A similar breakaway process needs to follow, involving all leadership and expanded across the enterprise, so that ideas are challenged, enriched, and expanded through collaborative processes of creative new “Optionality” scenario explorations.
Remember — As the saying goes, “No one calls their own baby ugly”.
In other words, if people in the organization help give birth to the new option and plans, they will embrace their beauty. So, invite their contribution in helping create and grow the future-shaping new ideas.
Caution — It will not be enough to come up with breakaway, outstanding ideas. Inevitably, a new language and a new set of competencies will be needed.
The future-shaping competencies (and attendant new mental models and language) that are most needed for Future Shaping in an uncertain world are:
Creative Innovation (emphasis on Creative)
Storytelling (compelling and distinct)
Zooming Out/In (for seeing the future patterns and handling Complexity)
Full Potential Development (often, we aim too low in what can and should be developed)
Learn more about these competencies in our book FUTURE SHAPING: 15 Keys to Standout Success, and in our overview video on our YouTube channel, Future Shaping by Beam.
“The central job of leadership — making decisions — has not changed.” — M. Heffernan
The ability to make good choices and good decisions depends upon the options you have.
When options are limited, or only relevant to the past, or not flexible enough for a new era, then the decision-making is compromised…and then leaders wonder why decisions and execution fall flat.
Great future shaping is only as great as the options that are created.
“Optionality” can be as refreshing and stimulating as a dip in the pool and a cool drink at the end of a sunny afternoon.
Written by: Dan Beam
Illustrated by: Drew Beam
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