DEVELOPING ANTICIPATORY PROWESS

"... Like just about every other leadership capability, anticipatory prowess is a skill that can be developed and strengthened. You do it by:

~ listening to the mavericks and the complainers (without unnecessarily energizing them);

~ being insatiably curious and asking "horizon" questions;

~ harvesting the knowledge of departing intellectual capital;

~ probing the minds of key users and influencers;

~ always testing, challenging and experimenting with your "antennae" raised."

~ Jim Murray, CEO of Optimal Solutions International, a company that specializes in helping organizations reach their full potential;

[Here's the link to the original article, 'Understanding Risk: A Core Competency of Leaders', by Jim Murray, from which the above statement has been extracted by me.]

What Jim talks about resonates very well with what innovation strategist Wayne Burkan has advocated in the latter's book, 'Wide Angle Vision: Beat Your Competition by Focusing on Fringe Competitors, Lost Customers, and Rogue Employees', during the mid-nineties.

A WISE QUOTE FOR MONDAY MORNING

"... In particular, we must regrind our lenses to monitor the periphery, that is, the edges, of our business. At these edges lie our richest opportuntiies for value creation & our strongest protection against value destruction...

If we adjust our lenses accordingly, then we will begin to see something remarkable: The edges will reshape & eventually transform the core..."

~ business strategist John Hagel III & scientist John Seely Brown, writing in their wonderful book, 'The Only Sustainable Edge: Why Business Strategy Depends on Productive Friction & Dynamic Specialization';

[I like the authors' battle cry: "Embrace the edge or Perish"!

From my understanding: "The edge" refers to the edge of the enterprise; boundaries of matured markets as well as industries; geographic edges of emerging economies; demographic edges between generations (old & new); & the edges of special domains of knowledge;

The "core" has two meanings: At one level, it refers to the inside of the enterprise - the core capabilities that determine our business success. At a global scale, it refers to the developed economies.

On both levels, the emerging patterns on the edges will force us - & help us - to rethink & reconfigure our core activities;

By the way, the two authors have a new book, 'The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion', which I have yet to procure & read.

Nonetheless, readers can also pop into their 'Edge Perspectives' website to download some interesting e-books, which explore some of the edge-themes in the foregoing book.

For me, as far as innovations from reading & observation are concerned, both futurists Joel Arthur Barker & Peter Schwartz, as far back as the nineties, had often referred to the significance of "the fringe", while innovation strategist Wayne Burkan took a different spin when he talked about fringe competitors, disgruntled or lost customers & rogue employees;

Interestingly, today, Joel Arthur Barker revels about "innovation at the verge".]

THE POWER OF SOFT FOCUS

If you have enjoyed watching the legendary Bruce Lee, whose fists shook the world during the 70's, in the movies, you would probably recall one of his last movies, 'Enter the Dragon' - the one just before the 'Game of Death'.

In the opening segment of the movie, Bruce Lee was seen working with a young martial arts student, who just didn't seem to get the essence of a particular move, when asked repeatedly to kick our hero.

Bruce instructed him to do it with "feeling" or rather "emotional content", but the student still had trouble getting beyond the technique to the spirit of the move.

So, Bruce provided him with what I thought was a very beautiful illustration:

"It's like a finger pointing away to the moon", while stretching out his arm & pointing towards the sky."

At the same time, the student began to stare at Bruce's finger, & Bruce gave a quick smack on top of the seemingly bewildered student's head, saying:

"Don't look at the finger, or you'll miss all of that heavenly glory."

[Amusingly, if you had paid attention to the movie: After the lesson, the student bowed, but Bruce smacked him again, & warned him that he should not take his eyes off his opponent, even when bowing.

The student bowed one last time, but this time he kept his eyes on Bruce. Bruce said: "That's better." The student then walked away with a grin.]

What Bruce Lee had demonstrated in the movie was essentially the power of soft focus.

'Soft focus' comes about when we are gazing at what's around us, or what's ahead of us, in the far horizon, rather than staring at what's directly in front of us.

That's to say, one is totally aware of what's happening around oneself, immediate as well as beyond, when in 'soft focus'.

I would even add that, with 'soft focus', one even has this gut-feel/intuitive sense of one's surroundings, immediate as well as beyond.

Especially as a martial artist, 'soft focus' is critical to personal success.

In fact, legendary Japanese combat strategist of the 16th century, Miyamoto Musashi, excelled in it too.

In today's rapidly-changing world at accelerating pace & with increasing complexity, I believe that 'soft focus' is a prerequisite for personal as well as professional success.

It's akin to wide-angle vision, as illustrated beautifully by innovation strategist Wayne Burkan in his now classic book bearing the same name, which I had already reviewed in an earlier post.

He calls it 'splatter vision'.

He explains, from the business world perspective:

"In reality, you are unfocusing your eyes, maximising your peripheral vision, sustaining a soft focus, increasing your view of the landscape with an almost 180 degree-field-of-vision, in order to avoid becoming so focused that you expect your challenge to come from a specific direction!"

I fully agree with Wayne Burkan that 'soft focus' is a useful & powerful anticipation tool, with which you can apply to constantly scan the entire business landscape in sweeping motions in order to avoid missing "unexpected gaps", which could be potential threats &/or hidden opportunities.