Leapfrog Leaders: Accelerating Systems Leadership Skills

We need leaders who can execute at the Strategic, Operational, and Tactical (SOT) levels. But, research shows it takes time for skills to develop at all three levels—too much time. Why does it take too much time? First, because expertise is borne of experience. An expert’s intuition requires time on task— mistake-making, in-the-trenches, experiential learning that cannot be replaced by any amount of formal training, and this happens over time. Second, the cognitive skills required at one level of SOT appear different from those required at another level of SOT. For example, tactical thinking is seen as a different set of skills than those needed for strategic thinking. In this paper, we propose that while number 1 above is a necessary condition, number 2 above is not. Leaders can be taught to “leapfrog” from a tactical understanding, to an operational understanding, to a strategic one, not only by spending time in those new areas of leadership, but by learning new structural thinking approaches informed by Systems Thinking (DSRP) and Systems Leadership (VMCL). These structural approaches to thinking offer the underlying principles of both systems thinking and systems leadership. Once understood, they are easily applied across strategic, operational and tactical contexts as well as problem solving. This paper offers an overview of three things necessary for this application: (1) the four underlying Structures (DSRP) of systems thinking; (2) the powerful dynamics among them; and (3) the four inherent functions of all organizations that guide systems leadership (VMCL). We review individual thinking and leadership skills that can enhance one’s ability to think complexly when faced with complex phenomena and that can significantly reduce learning and preparation time in developing leaders. We propose that these three skills allow the organizational leader to benefit from far transfer by applying complex cognitive algorithms that they possess at one level (one that is experientially well known to them) to other levels of scale (those that are less experientially known to them). We describe these thinking skills and then apply them to two real-world case examples: (1) military leadership and (2) corporate leadership.