Stop Talking. Finish Thinking. Move

It’s been 3 years and 30 posts since I started writing The Nomadic Leader.    

The purpose of this blog lies in this conviction: the ability to impact a family, organization, business or social structure depends on the ability of the leader to not only conceptualize an outcome, but the flexibility to pivot/move when needed.

In my original blog (http://nomadicleader.blogspot.ca/2009/09/nomadic-leader-inaugural-blog-sept-2009.html ) I expanded on the life of the traditional nomad as a base for describing the Nomadic Leader.  Read it for a review, but one thing bears repeating here (Now, of all things I get to quote myself!):

‘For various reasons traditional nomads sought new territory; better grazing, more fertile land, peace, etc.   The “contemporary nomadism” I endorse for leaders is a response to the ever-shifting opportunities and challenges presented by a world that is increasingly defined by the global highways that carry people, ideas, beliefs, traditions and commerce.  Those who lead any type of organization must therefore be somewhat ‘nomadic’ in their thinking; able to view the landscape, respond to multiple cultures, see the potential threats and opportunities, be ready to move when the need arises.  Fixed thinking and strategies, while they provide security for a while, will relegate a leader and his or her organization to the sidelines’.

The Nomadic Leader I envision IS NOT about change for the sake of change. 

In fact I think a lot of ‘change’ today is faked.  What I mean is that it has become so mainstream and trendy that true change is rarely accomplished.  Our nomenclature of ‘trending’, ‘change management’, ‘innovation’, ‘reorganization’  and even ‘boiling the frog’ (the case for incremental change), is often used in order to make a persons’ leadership visibly legitimate.  We change the website but the product/story is the same.  In some ways these elements of change have become the new strategy statements.  The mere act of describing the change we need is often enough to lull others (and ourselves) into thinking true and meaningful change is actually occurring.

The Nomadic Leader I envision IS about connecting personal or organization purpose to their context. 

Nomadic Leaders recognize that PURPOSE drives them to look around and make whatever adjustments & changes are necessary to get to their desired outcome.  Contemporary Nomadic Leaders may not have to move their 'flock' to a new pasture across the country, but they do have to move thinking, assumptions and strategy to new places in order to accomplish their purpose.

I know this is a time when many of you are thinking about 3 things:

Ø  The kind of person you will be as a leader

Ø  What you are going to accomplish

Ø  The strategies you will use to get to your goals.

September (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) has a way of helping us think about starting again.  It’s a hopeful time.  “Maybe this time around we can really get this done”.

My challenge to you is develop a nomadic mindset and orientation. MOVE.  If you are (like I am right now) inspired to make a bold claim of possibility in the face of some status quo you currently inhabit, that implies MOVEMENT. 

Stop talking.  Finish thinking (for now). Move. 

 ‘We reminded ourselves that movement was the law of strategy and we started moving’.

(T.E. Lawrence; Seven Pillars of Wisdom)

I close with this poem – and find it curious and insightful how there is a parallel between nomadic leadership and the immigrant experience. In some ways we are all on the move.

Either you will

go through this door

or you will not go through.

If you go through

there is always the risk

of remembering your name.

Things look at you doubly

and you must look back

and let them happen.

If you do not go through

it is possible

to live worthily

to maintain your attitudes

to hold your position

to die bravely.

but much will blind you,

much will evade you,

at what cost who knows?

The door itself

makes no promises.

It is only a door.

Adrienne Rich – “Prospective Immigrants Please Note”

To the nomadic leaders out there – are you moving?  Moving toward your purpose is the first challenge.  The greater challenge is moving again when the context calls for it.  That’s the nature and necessity which characterizes nomadic leaders.

Harv Matchullis

Visiontracks

harvey@visiontracks.ca

www.visiontracks.ca