...at the Edges of Knowledge.”In our current volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) business environment, business leaders are coming to terms with the new reality. Much of what they knew about how to stay relevant to stakeholders three to five years ago has been rendered mute under today’s conditions. Both external and internal stakeholders now have much different expectations to the level where leaders are realizing a renewed sense of the importance and focus on culture, purpose, and effective communications as crucial to their sustainable success.Inherent in this process are the two key elements of the title quote. The first is the level of continuous learning embraced by 21st Century leaders as they strive for purposeful relevance. We’ve written about leadership learning over the years, most recently earlier this year which you can see here. The second is the importance of knowledge in the leader’s learning process to inform what really...

With a theme of adaptability in this month’s post, it is only fitting to review this author’s latest book. I’ve reviewed Dr. Max McKeown’s books before and his latest does not disappoint. “The Innovator’s Book – Rules for Rebels, Mavericks and Innovators” is unique in that is does not at all read like your typical business book. Yet it is the kind of book that with few words gets one thinking about how they are thinking about and implementing their strategies for sustainable success.My favorite page in the entire book is titled “What you know can hurt you” When I read it, it struck me how tritely we use phrases like “continuous learning” and “we need to innovate” without really understand what we are asking ourselves to do. With that, I listed most of the page below to give an idea of how the book is set up to generate new...

...or a Learn-It-All?Earlier this year, we introduced what has turned into an ongoing discussion of one of the key skills of effective 21st Century Leaders. Critical Thinking, or the lack thereof, seems to routinely creep into the conversation because we constantly run into evidence it still needs to be reinforced in the leadership development conversation. While we’ve given examples in previous posts, one that continues to pop up goes something like:Me: What are you trying to achieve?Them: I don't want to do this and/or I don't like to do thatMe: OK, so what do you want to do?Them: I don't know.Of course, the real conversation goes much longer than the example above, but you get the idea. More thought on what they don;t want that what they do. Another different, but related, conversation goes something like:Me: I think this is the course of action we should take.Them: I disagree. I don't...

…do not forget your main goal is to fly the plane.”When I was learning to become a licensed pilot in Alaska as a teenager, part of the process is learning what to do when something goes wrong with the plane. Only instead of talking about what we would do in a given situation, you actually had to demonstrate what you would do in any given emergency situation and show the flight instructor you could do the right thing. That way, when you are faced with the reality of trouble, you know exactly what to do. Practicing how to recover from stalls (when the plane won't stay in the air) and emergency landings are a normal part of learning to fly. No matter what the challenge, one thing a pilot can never forget while troubleshooting the problem; keep flying the airplane!So too, does a leader when faced with challenges and issues in...