Putting on our 3D Glasses: New Lenses for the New Normal of our Agility Challenge

Agility is a three dimensional challenge of leadership and management. It always has been and always will be.  Mastering these three dimensions of our agility challenge comes so naturally to us In the Driving Seats of our cars.

Think about it – In the Driving Seat of our cars, we are able to be strategic and operational, a leader and a manager, long term oriented and short term oriented, all at the same time! With hardly giving it a second thought.  At the same time as changing the channel on the radio, making a cell phone call (hands free of course), talking to a passenger and thinking about life!  Usually arriving at our desired destination, safely, on time and ready for what’s next.  Amazing!  Think about the flow of detail complexity and dynamic complexity we are able to handle In the Driving Seat of our cars.  We are masters of our agility challenge in this three dimensional setting – it’s a whole brain, whole person, whole vehicle challenge.

So, when we park in the lot outside our office and walk inside, what happens to these natural abilities In the Driving Seat of our business? In my experience, many managers, executives, and CEOs are stuck in a two-dimensional mindset.  Our education, training, and development systems don’t help much as they tend to reduce things into 2D.  Just pick up any business book and, more than likely, it will be full of 2D flow charts, models, and frameworks. But the nature of change itself has changed.  With the increasing speed of business, pace of change and new normal of accelerating uncertainty, turbulence and volatility, our agility challenge has become much more like a real-time, unfolding, dynamic journey on a shifting landscape.  2D doesn’t suffice any more (The Secrets of Organizational Agility #2:  It’s Complicated in Three Dimensions!).  The 3^rd and longitudinal dimension of journey orientation has emerged as the primary dimension around which we must reframe our approach to mastering agility.  That is essential to translating strategy and execution into traction and avoiding wheel-spin.

To be in the same three dimensional mode of agility In the Driving Seat of our business as we are In the Driving Seat of our car, we need to put on our 3D Glasses, to:

• See the three dimensions of our agility challenge. (The Secrets of Organizational Agility #2:  it’s Complicated in Three Dimensions!).
• See the blue of detail complexity through the blue lens (which our left brain is good at) and the red of detail complexity through the red lens (which our right brain is good at) as an “AND” proposition. (The Secrets of Organizational Agility #1:  it’s an “AND” Proposition).  This allows us to tap into the power of whole-brained, integrative thinking.
• Become acutely tuned into the 3^rd and longitudinal dimension of journey orientation, calmly triaging the flow (The Secrets of Organizational Agility #3: it’s about Flow/Triage/Calm) of detail complexity and dynamic complexity, coming at us thicker and faster all the time in three dimensions.  Just like In the Driving Seat of our car.  It’s a whole person, whole team, whole organization challenge.

How we see shapes how we think, which shapes the actions we take, which shapes the results we get. If our well intended actions are still resulting in wheel$pin (3 Common Sources of Wheel$pin (which can cost us a fortune), it’s probably because we aren’t thinking about our challenge the right way, which is probably because we aren’t looking at it the right way.  We aren’t seeing it through new lenses for the new normal of our agility challenge.  In the Driving Seat of our business, leadership and management these days has become like participating in a 3D movie!  If we aren’t wearing our 3D Glasses, we will miss the acuteness of the 3^rd dimension!  Things will be going on and will be left wondering, what just happened?  See next week’s blog and find out more at www.mydrivingseat.com.

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