Visioning: Leadership Skills of the Future
Posted by a Featured Contributor on Thu, Jan 17, 2013
Occasionally, there is a new leadership concept introduced that is too simple and powerful to be true.
Visioning is one of those leadership concepts.
Visioning is a systems thinking leadership approach that enables and empowers leaders to make better decisions, solve problems and improve relationships with others.
An important question that must be asked by all leaders when making a decision is “what future reality will I create with the decision and choices I make from this point forward.”
Looking to the Past
Visioning is looking to the past to see how our current reality was constructed from our best thinking.
Just as today’s choices create tomorrow, yesterday’s choices helped create the reality we live in today. If we are to create a better future we must learn from these choices and improve upon them.
We have to look into the past and ask ourselves:
- Where did our systems come from?
- How did they evolve? What was their purpose?
- What was the thinking of the time? Why do they fall short?
- Most of all, how can we improve upon them and the thinking that created them?
Global Reality
Visioning is the new concept to help leaders answers those questions.
The world that we live in today is experiencing change at an unprecedented rate, with unprecedented volatility due to the increasingly connected state of our global reality. Visioning provides leaders with insights into why this is happening and what we need to do to survive it.
This is not a look at the future where change will be a nice thing to have if we can afford it; it will be a place where we either change with the increasingly volatile and rapid world that is sweeping us along, or drown in the ripples that we have created and we are continuing to create in our inadaptable, stable and dangerously inflexible systems and thinking.
Survival Tool
Visioning is where the great convergence of spiraling life cycles is creating change at ever-increasing speed and volatility.
Change is no longer a luxury to muse over, but a survival tool that will weed out the fittest and most adaptable from the unwilling or unable to change.
Current systems are designed for stability, control and predictability. Systems of the future will demand flexibility and adaptability. Visioning enables leaders to make decisions that will allow their organizations to adapt to any environment.
Guiding Principles
Within the Visioning concept are six principles of adaptable systems. Leaders or Visioners use these principles to help their organizations survive the rate and volatility of change and also to provide resilience that will serve them well for some time. The six guiding principles are:
- Self Organize
- Recombine
- Sense and Respond
- Learn and Adapt
- Seed, Select & Amplify
- Destabilize
The Future is Your Own Creation
Visioning enables leaders to realize that the future really is their own creation, personally, professionally and relationally.
In these three areas they can change their organizations and change the lives of their employees. Visioning is where all improvement can be made personally and collectively. Choosing realties that are better than the ones we currently have is what Visioning enable leaders to do.
Our current thinking made the reality we experience around the world today. Our future reality will be created by the thinking of tomorrow and Visioning is a concept that can shape the future.
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About the Author, Dr. Terry Jackson
Terry is Managing Partner for WEpiphany. Developing People is Terry's purpose and passion. Terry brings 25 years of experience working for organizations and is also a certified Executive and Business Coach, and Sales Trainer. Other posts by Terry »
