For years now, whenever I’ve visited my father, I’ve taken him on a “mystery trip” into the countryside. He’s lived in the beautiful county of Shropshire, England, since just after World War II, and he knows its highways and byways pretty well. My father isn’t a risk taker, and so when he feels he’s in an unfamiliar place on our trips, he’ll ask me to take a right or left turn to get back to the main road. I don’t follow his instructions, of course. If he says, “Right,” I’ll take a left, and vice versa. If he says, “Straight on,” I’ll go right or left or even turn around. My aim isn’t to torture him, but to get lost and discover some new places together. I never rent a car with a GPS or take a map; that would defeat the purpose of “getting lost.” I don’t know how my father would fare in Nicaragua where—so I’ve read—only major boulevards and highways have names, and only some buildings have numbers. Finding your way around in Nicaragua is by reference points, e.g., “Two blocks from the lake, then go three blocks north, one to the east, and you’ll see a red wall next to where I live.”
Experimentation, Adaptability, and Continuous Improvements
Some years ago, I closed a leadership workshop with a transparency (remember those?) that simply said, “Get Lost!” There were a few audible gasps from participants, but they trusted me enough to let me continue and explain myself. Here’s the gist of what I said:
Some of the problems we face as leaders are simply complicated and the problem-space relatively stable. They can be defined with some clarity, and solved with existing knowledge and know-how. We might have to be creative in how we re-jiggle our algorithms or re-calibrate our processes, procedures, and formulas, but there is a right solution to be found, resulting in a predictable outcome. In this case, a leader can plan for change.
There are other problems that are not easily definable; we might not even recognize them as problems until late in the game. These are complex problems. The problem-space might be very fuzzy, and continuously changing. Existing knowledge and know-how is inadequate, and instead of there being a right solution to be discovered, there can only be ongoing experimentation, improvisation, and adaptation resulting in continuous improvements (at least improvements for right now). Raising different children comes to mind.
In our multidimensional and wildly erratic business environment—forever challenged with disruptive technologies and events—the reality we face is complex problems in increasing numbers. This challenges any conception we might have of leaders being the ones we look to for right answers. In the context of complex problems, we can only expect leaders to cultivate the conditions in which experimentation, adaptability, and continuous improvements become possible.
The ability to create and maintain these conditions begins in the mindset of the leader, and his or her ability to cope with getting and feeling lost. It rests on an attitude that not-knowing is OK, but that together we can navigate our way to a better place. It requires a willingness and even desire to extend boundaries into unknown territory while keeping a sense of balance and a confidence that we can make this work. I say “we” because collaboration is essential for managing complex problems.
If leaders never go beyond what they know, they will always be hoping that what has worked in the past will work again. This easy but flawed option can result from the panic caused by the unrelenting pressure to “do something” even if it is inappropriate. It also can result from a lack of curiosity, intellectual laziness, or too much respect given to parental advice such as “follow the path or you might get lost.” It might arise from the misguided view that there is a right solution if only we do the right calculations, plan the right way, or determine and implement the right controls.
Little Mr. Don’t Know
As a child, I came to be known as “Little Mr. Don’t Know.” When I was asked a question to which I didn’t know the answer, I wouldn’t lie or make something up. Those seemed to me to be far riskier options. Unfortunately, many leaders are afraid to say, “I don’t know.” They cause themselves and others huge amounts of frustration and trouble by not having the confidence and willingness to simply say, “I don’t know.’’ Protecting the ego, not wanting to appear weak, avoiding embarrassment, maintaining a certain persona, arrogance, gaining power or prestige, vanity—all tragic faults known throughout the ages (just consider Shakespeare’s tragedies) that keep us from acknowledging and embracing the unknown.
Getting lost is fundamental to great leadership at a time when success is so dependent on creative and critical thinking to tackle complex problems. To know where we are going and how to get there are luxuries of the complicated, rather than the complex, world. Animals typically have a more precise sense of direction than ours; they can travel for thousands of miles to a pre-determined destination. What we have is a much more flexible navigational ability, but when we only take the well-trodden paths and fear getting lost (even for a short while), we lose the essential purpose of leadership—to create the future in the face of the unknown; not to take people to a pre-determined future (that is supervision, not leadership).
Leadership in our environment often is going to be a challenging mystery trip whether we like it or not.
Are you a leader willing and able to accept:
- That reality presents us with increasingly complex problems with no “right” solution?
- That sometimes the only way forward is to embrace constant adaptation, improvisation, and experimentation?
- That getting lost entails living with uncertainty and ambiguity
- That you don’t always need to have the answer?
Terence Brake is the director of Learning & Innovation, TMA World (http://www.tmaworld.com/training-solutions/), which provides blended learning solutions for developing talent with borderless working capabilities. Brake specializes in the globalization process and organizational design, cross-cultural management, global leadership, transnational teamwork, and the borderless workplace. He has designed, developed, and delivered training programmes for numerous Fortune 500 clients in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Brake is the author of six books on international management, including “Where in the World Is My Team?” (Wiley, 2009) and e-book “The Borderless Workplace.”
