The foundations on which we make strategic choices have changed. To navigate a world of competing demands, we need to find the courage to surface tensions and shape conversations early, become great hybrid thinkers and re-imagine the role of strategy. We must learn to make great choices in an era of paradoxes.
We are at a frontier. We are in a crisis load; climate, ethical and political crises emerge, and they mutate. As a result, we encounter multidimensional challenges that change all the time. Problems that we can no longer turn away from.
Being a leader in the era of paradoxes
Societies are looking to us as business leaders to face up to these worthwhile problems. Yet, these challenges are of a different nature than “classic” business problems. They are paradoxical, persistent and interconnected – and they call for a new way of solving problems.
As leaders, we need to find comfort in the discomfort of uncertainty and not knowing all the answers. We need to turn frustration into ambition. And turn tension into creativity.
These problems belong to us, as do the choices that will help us overcome them. Choices are made by everyone. Every day. So it is our responsibility not to reduce ourselves to “mine or yours”, “this or that” and “either/or”. We must expand our minds to acknowledge the both/and.