t The Strategic Leader Network (SLN)

Is your organization's conception of change a relay race or soccer?

 In a relay race the baton is passed in a sequential, linear, structured way. In a soccer match, the ball is passed up the field in a non sequential, nonlinear order.

Blind Spots and Fenderbenders

Jennifer Freeland - Guest Blogger -

 The back cover page of the New York Times Magazine, April 4, 2010, displayed an advertisement for the Acura MDX Advance. Normally, I wouldn’t pay any attention to a car ad because I’m not in the market.  This ad was different. The small black dot on the upper left center of the page looked out of place. I wondered why it was there.

In my book, The Strategic Leader: New Tactics for a Globalizing World, I present the tactic of Running for Daylight.  Basically it means to know where the goal line is, preplan, run in place for a while, and when an opening occurs pounce on it vigorously. In the book, I identified the tactic by observing that the same people were always first to receive the incentives being offered by the organization.  Basically they knew what was happening, where they were going, and were ready with a plan when the door opened. 

A clear majority of us live in a quicksilver world – a world of fluidity – sometimes fickleness - where sudden and unpredictable change can and does occur. In a quicksilver world, things are uncertain. This uncertainty creates a web of tensions that challenge us to meet new demands in the face of local constraints.  It’s a world where there is no clear path toward success.What is known is that a quicksilver world rewards leaders who are creative rather than compliant, practice from analytic and integrative mindsets, use a multi-dimensional set of leader actions, connect their organizations to major environmental themes, and connect with the minds and spirit of followers.