Sitting between two Generals, briefing the results of experimenting with priorities for $60B+ of investments.
I see his Deputy streaking ahead in the briefing paper.
He interrupts.
Any idea of finding solutions for systemic issues is misleading. Systemic issues lose traceability between causes and effects – so, approaching them with a solution mindset is itself a problem.
What’s needed is an intervention mindset and approach. Dame Maggie Smith once put it, “there’s no beginning and no end, only points where you enter and leave the story.” [1]
Intensive care specialist, Peter Roberts, told me “bad health policy is more dangerous to my patients than the flesh-eating bug.”
That notion struck accord for every organisation I’ve worked with.
Peter realised his qualifications were not enough to assure a culture of safety, that enables working to do no harm. So, he studied the systemic issues in health care exploring the inadequacies of dominant paradigms. [1]
Leadership and Care. On caring, Christian Madsbjerg (Sensemaking, 2017) writes:
“When you have a perspective – when you actually give a damn – you intuitively sense what’s important and what’s trivial. You can see what connects with what, and you know the data … that matter. Caring is the connective tissue that makes all things possible.
Survival precedes growth. So, what’s essential for survival? Many businesses shine with ‘incident response’. No worries. It matters less where we start, it matters more that we start to work systemically on all 7 measures.
Leadership: Engaging people as a system of sense-making and advocacy, with clear directions and controls. Now, it’s less about the person at the top.
We all live two lives. The second one begins when we realise we have only one life.