Wide Horizon Thinking
Truly Strategic Leadership
Leaders at any level, in any field or endeavour, universally recognise the importance of vision.
In fact, so much is said and written about vision today that it is in danger of becoming nothing more than a buzz-word.
In some quarters, vision has become an industry in its own right; entire bookstores tell us how to set goals and targets for achievement.
The most successful and effective leaders, though, see vision as much more than a buzz-word, or something 'sexy' to juice up a seminar.
As leaders, vision keeps us alive. It keeps us focused and disciplined, enabling us to say that most difficult of words, 'no', to things that will distract us from our core purpose.
Without vision, we are in danger of losing our grip on what is essential for us, becoming emergency-driven responders rather than purpose-motivated leaders.
Sadly, vision is all too often replaced by things that seem easier to control. For example, a reliance on bureaucracy - the building of intricate systems of administration, which are easier to develop than a real heart-felt, inner conviction.
A surprisingly high number of leaders - and even more mangers - who do have a clear vision, do not go on to develop a clear and workable strategy.
If your vision is to become something that adds pragmatic value to people’s lives, your purposes must be married to concrete plans.
Some who have developed strategies, with clearly defined project targets, time-lines and accountability structures, have done so with too narrow a focus.
At its core, strategic thinking envisions a preferred future and devises practical steps to carry people there. In its focus, it is both long-term and what I like to call ‘wide-horizon’.
The long-term aspect of strategic thinking is well documented. Lasting influence in any sector or industry is the result of a focus on achieving long-term results which add proven, pragmatic value.
In The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell cites the work of Methodist founder John Wesley as an example of high-level networking skill and vision. Wesley was a far-sighted visionary, but he was also a clever strategist.
Not content with ‘marketing’ his message in public meetings, Wesley brought his most enthusiastic respondents into small clusters of no more than 12 members.
Wesley recognised that the immediate, exhilarating buzz of mass religious events would never sustain his project goals, either in terms of individual change or social reformation.
His small groups met on a weekly basis to provide mutual encouragement and accountability, but they also planned projects to regenerate the social and moral cultures around them.
It was this long-term, methodical thinking that led to the tag ‘Methodist’.
In a sense, the heart of all strategic thinking is ‘methodism’ with a small ‘m’. It looks for methods that will bring change over the long-haul.
Strategic thinkers like Mr. Wesley are the last to adopt Nike’s infamous ideology: ‘Just Do It’. A thing worth doing is worth planning out, at length, before you do it.
But strategic leaders not only think long-term; they also think and plan ‘wide-horizon’. That is, they include at the core of their planning a commitment to build for the good of their community and their world.
These days, we’ve pushed corporate social responsibility into a little box and conveniently tagged it with its own acronym CSR. Talking about ‘CSR’ is a lot less discomforting than talking about ‘social responsibility’.
Boxing up social responsibility in this way has allowed us to pretend that our responsibility to the wider community operates only at the edges of strategy.
Truly strategic thinkers recognize that the opposite is true. At the core of all successful strategy should be a question like this one: ‘What kind of city do we want to be operating in ten years from now – and what can we do now to set that in motion?’
It starts within your industry. What kind of business practice do you as a company want to see become the norm? What types of customer relations would you like to see in place in your industry?
Then, looking beyond that, what type of environment do you want for children in your city? What would you like to see in terms of services for the young, the old or the marginalised? What types of civic leadership would you like to see setting the cultural tone of the city?
These are not simply abstract questions for social philosophers; they are the province of corporate and business leaders, who have the resources and skills to solve social problems and improve the quality of life for all.
In the nineteenth century, social reform helped to drive the huge growth in British industry and commerce. In fact, many leading business people subscribed to ideas embodied in what was often called the ‘civic gospel’.
This was the forerunner to Kennedy’s idea that we shouldn’t ask what our nation can do for us, before we ask what we can do for the nation.
In contrast to this, Keynes famously said that the only moral responsibility of a company is to make a profit for its shareholders.
Actually, a ‘company’, in the original sense of the word, is a group of friends or colleagues who are held together by common interests or causes. Nothing brings people together like a worthy cause, particularly one that improves their lot and that of others around them.
I don’t use the word ‘cause’ here in the narrow sense of a charitable endeavour. I mean any idea that promotes better living and more noble priorities.
The bottom line is only ever the bottom line. If your business is only about business, you’ll quickly find that your ability to build a company – a community of people who share a common cause – is diminished.
This is especially true in the age of digital media, in which the proliferation of mass communication has given rise to a passion for mass collaboration. The digital age is turning viewers into participants and passive consumers into activists.
Now more than ever, CSR must become more than an acronym for something conveniently placed at the periphery or our strategies.
To succeed in leadership we will need a vision of a preferred, wide-horizon future and strategies to help promote that.
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