Change Leadership: Enabling Change

Leadership development doesn't work because it fails to address the totality of who and what we are as human beings. It fails to recognize the profound depths of our inner worlds and the power and responsibility that go with what we think and feel. It fails to respect the causal nature of the mind, whilst mistakenly looking for the levers of change in the outer world of effects. And in its analysis and reduction of the objective brain, it overlooks the realities of the subjective mind.

- Chris Pearce, Why Leadership Development Is Still Stuck In the Dark Ages, Forbes, November 19, 2018

LEADERSHIP IMPERATIVE: As organizations continue to transition from bureaucratic and transactional groups to organic networks, aka eco-systems, and as supply chain logistics networks morph into global value chains , the necessity for individuals to become contextually intelligent increases. Organizations that evaluate performance based on the ability to navigate complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity will ultimately prove to be the most effective. Contextual intelligence is not a bigger version of the usual way we generate knowledge and intelligence. It does not involve more data, more information, more knowledge, or even more intelligence. It is not about what we need in order to make decisions, but it is about how we make decisions in context. THE INTELLIGENCE CHALLENGE: Contextually intelligent leaders need to be able to diagnose the multi-dimensional complexity of contextual factors inherent in a situation, such as global supply chains, aka GVCs. They must adjust behavior, both intentionally and intuitively, to make decisions in context. They must be able to handle all the external, internal, interpersonal and intrapersonal factors that contribute to the uniqueness of each situation and circumstance. They must transform data into useful information, convert information into knowledge, and assimilate that knowledge into practice. And they must extract wisdom from different experiences.

Strategic planning is an oxymoron.

As experienced practitioners and professionals, we are competent planners. We study, analyze, plan, execute, evaluate and adjust. Planning is how we effectively manage processes, standardize operations, implement procedures, and project KPIs. But is planning enough in the 21^st Century? Strategy demands Strategic Intent, which is a “never-ending dynamic and circular process” based on the purposeful interpretation and reinterpretation of on-going events, requiring our ability to interpret circumstances as they unfold, and using instinct, political savvy, curiosity, flexibility and imagination. Strategic Intent is an essential element to contextual leadership. This ability is an individual’s skill and is not an organizational phenomenon.