Where to Now?

The greatest for leadership in this decade is adapting to the new paradigm of Connectedness. Business and societal success is based upon cooperation, collaboration. and cross-functional networking. The days internal competition between divisions, functions, geographical locations is outdated.

The great challenge for the Western paradigm of thinking is "what about the power of individualism?" The traditional operation of everyone for herself or himself? The simple answer is "will it work to remain profitable in today's global market?" I think the answer is a resounding "NO!"

The shift to Connectedness does not mean the elimination of individualism since a chain is no stronger than its weakest link. Nor is it proposed to be an excuse for poor individual performance. But it is the realization that pitted competition is intrinsincally toxic. It breeds, separation, hoarding of information, and polarization. These elements ultimately undermine people, performance, and high-performance culture. All of which are the keys to success in today's business world.

The challenge is "how do we balance individualism and cooperation?" The answer is of course diversity in thinking. The creation of a culture that compatibly embraces both. Diversity in thinking involves the full range of human reality from culture and background to worldviews; all believed to be the truth, if not reality!

Obviously, the first major step in this challenge is a transformation of the culture from a survival-driven context (competition, scarcity, win/lose) to a creative-adaptive context (cooperation, abundance, and win/win). This is a battle within the human individual and collective Mind. This is where progressive leadership will focus its efforts. Rather than coming up with 2010 Leadership Models with characteristics derived from past dead leaders (primarily devoted to destruction and war) we need to focus on creating a "Context for Sanity and Preservation of the Human Species."

Up to this point, we have not demonstrated that we collectively have that capacity. Business dominates so much of what a society is like and the state of the world, I believe that segment of society is where the greatest responsibility lies. Not only in making extraordinary profits and then creating foundations to give back for tax breaks; giving the illusion of makinf a difference and caring for the world. The real test of today's leaders is to be a difference by becoming a "Transformer" not a "Change Agent!"