Our recent event, ‘How to get your team to think more strategically’ was incredibly popular. Why? Leaders recognise the need to increase their team’s ability to consider the bigger picture.
But hoping they will just suddenly ‘get it’ is an exercise in futility.
We don’t just ‘get it’. We just don’t suddenly ‘see’ what’s going on. To see with new eyes, sometimes we need to be shown.
Look far. The horizon holds secrets for our future leadership.
“Where do you see yourself in 10 years?”
How the hell should I know, I thought. I’m 32 years old. I cannot fathom who or what I will be at 42!
“You should have a plan that looks at the next 10 years.”
I stared at him blankly.
It would be good if I got past the next month, let alone 10 inconceivable years!
I am sure leaders act with good intentions: “Get them to think long-term.”
But how exactly?
When we are younger, we have much shorter time horizons. Our needs are in three to six month blocks: getting through this next bit of work, that project, this report. Make sure we have enough money to pay the rent and buy groceries.
Ten years? Too hard.
If we want our teams to think in longer term horizons, we need to show them how.
We do this first by exploring the past.
Work with your team members to get a sense of time and change. I recommend Dr Rick Chromey’s book, GenTech to help with this. Here is an excerpt from his book about some of the changes from 2011-2019:
2011: Snapchat debuts. Space Shuttle Discovery docks for the last time and is retired. IBM’s “Watson” wins on Jeopardy! Microsoft debuts Office 365. FaceTime and Spotify debut. Kindle Fire and Touch announced. “Siri” comes to smartphones.
2012: Windows 8 released (designed for tablets and touchscreens). Instagram debuts. Kodak files for bankruptcy. Google Play debuts. Nook e-reader released. Adobe moves to the cloud. Fitbit Zip debuts. Lyft taxi service starts.
2013: Sony releases PlayStation 4 while Microsoft releases Xbox One. Edward Snowden leaks information about NSA’s secret Internet and cell phone data gathering program.
2014: Google purchases Nest (home automation company). Facebook buys WhatsApp. Amazon releases Fire Phone. Apple Pay debuts.
2015: Apple releases iWatch. Hoverboards and Amazon Echo debut. Sling TV and YouTube Red are launched. HBO and Showtime move to streaming. Tesla introduces semi-automatic driverless cars. A drone completes first government-approved medical delivery. Radio Shack files for bankruptcy. Google announces the powerful TensorFlow open source AI system. Jeff Bezos launches Blue Origin rocket.
2016: Nanotechnologists build miniature machines out of molecules. World’s first shipment delivered by self-driving truck. Bones grown in the lab are transplanted into humans. Facebook Live and VR headsets debut. Uber announces self-driving cars. UK scientists genetically modify human embryos. Apple factory replaces 60,000 employees with robots. Netflix has more subscribers than any other cable company.
2017: Norway is the first country to move from FM radio to digital broadcasting technology. Twitter expands from 140-to 280-character limit. Amazon merges with Whole Foods for home grocery delivery. Bitcoin hits the mainstream. High-Dynamic Range televisions debut.
2018: Apple introduces Apple HomePod smart speaker. 3-D metal printing debuts. Artificial embryos grown by UK researchers from stem cells. Toronto builds the world's first “smart neighbourhood” called Quayside. Elon Musk sends a Tesla Roadster into space. Fortnite video game is a cultural phenomenon.
2019: Samsung debuts folding smartphones. Elon Musk launches an unmanned SpaceX. Plant-based meat like “Beyond Beef” and “Impossible Burgers” are sold in stores and restaurants.
When we itemise and scope a timeline of change, it helps us to see the river of development around us.
Then, encourage your team members to play with one of the items as a trend flowing into the future.
Like, space tourism. If Bezos took seven years to go from rocket launch to flying tourists, what might happen in the next seven years? How will this affect people’s concept of travel? Of tourism?
Imagination with guided structure is the key to helping our teams see things differently.
What trends can you work backwards in time to see their origin? What trends could you explore with your team?
Go deep. In leadership, we need to treat the cause not just the symptom.
We are quick to label issues. It’s how our brains work. We see something, and our brain links it to things we’ve seen before so we can make a fast assessment. Often, we are just treating the surface issue.
We need to dive deep and look at systemic causes.
I was working with a leadership team recently whose symptoms included very poor behaviours: yelling at each other, accusing one another of bias, poor attendance.
Why?
At first it looked like a personality problem. I have written extensively about this in my fourth book, People Stuff. When I investigated this issue, it turns out that the team is under enormous pressure with high risks to reputation and negative consequences for their stakeholders.
They were experiencing amygdala reactions to survival threats as well as compassion fatigue. Knowing this changed my whole approach to how I might support them to work through the challenges (and still address the poor behaviour).
Where do you need to dig a little deeper to find out what is really going on?
Be wide. Our circle of concern needs to expand with compassion.
I remember when I was at Outward Bound, my course coordinator did an exercise with us before a program started. One hundred or so fifteen-year-olds were arriving the next day for a 10-day outdoor leadership program. He wanted us to think about the big picture.
So, he asked us to imagine meeting our life partner. We fall deeply in love. We move in together and start a life together.
(I admit, at this point I was wondering where the hell my supervisor was going with this story. After all, we had prep work to do! Pack our bags, organise food, a huge list of things to get done before the start of the course …)
He continued: we have a child together. We spend endless nights soothing, feeding, changing this bundle of joy, so dependent on us. Over the years we nurse grazed knees, comfort them when nightmares come on, teach them how to ride a bike, share quiet moments reading a book, laughing and enjoying special moments over holidays and birthdays. At long last, they’re growing up. Almost an adult, and yet still a child. They are off on a grand adventure into the wilderness - with strangers. Our baby is going into the wild with strangers. And then they arrive and meet their Outward Bound instructor.
The story hit me right then, right there.
The kids arriving the next day were other people’s most precious thing in the whole world. Those kids became more than just surly, rambunctious teenagers. They became cherished humans, loved and cared for by other humans.
My sphere of concern expanded greatly. I started to think differently about how the actions of others filter through and affect me each day: from the admin staff at Outward Bound who worked to get clients through to the participants arriving for a wilderness adventure.
I started to see that I was an interconnected part of a bigger system. And it expanded my compassion and understanding.
How might you tell a story to help your team’s sense of compassion and empathy? What is the ripple effect of your work? Of other’s work on you and your team?
Hoping our team members will wake up more strategic need no longer be a prayer in the dark. Show them how to look far, go deep, and be wide.
Live well, lead well.
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Related Articles:
A simple framework for leadership reflection
Perspective: an essential leadership principle
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About the author, Canberra leadership expert Zoë Routh:
Zoë Routh is a leadership futurist, podcaster, and multiple award-winning author. She works with leaders and teams to navigate future horizons.
She has worked with individuals and teams internationally and in Australia since 1987. From wild Canadian rivers to the Australian Outback, and the Boardroom jungles, Zoë is an adventurist! She facilitates strategy and culture sessions with audacious teams.
Zoë's fourth leadership book, People Stuff - Beyond Personality Problems: An advanced handbook for leadership, won the Book of the Year at the Australian Business Book Awards in 2020. Her fifth book is a near future science fiction dystopian novel, The Olympus Project.
Zoë is the producer of the Zoë Routh Leadership Podcast, dedicated to asking “What if…?” and sharing Big Ideas on the Future of Leadership.
Zoë is an outdoor adventurist and enjoys telemark skiing, has run six marathons, is a one-time belly-dancer, has survived cancer, and loves hiking in the high country. She is married to a gorgeous Aussie and is a self-confessed dark chocolate addict.