Inquiry-Driven Leadership at Work and in Life | Testing a Newsletter Prototype

It’s a joy to be writing to friends again after an intense period of work in winter 2022. Roger Lehman and I have just met the deadline to launch our new online course:?Managing the Human Side of Digital Disruption. In it, we present a framework to explain why “digital transformation” (and other large-scale changes in work and life) can take such a toll on people—and how to manage the transition more happily for all concerned.??MIT is now accepting applications for the April 6 inaugural cohort. See the details?here .

As much work as it is to develop a new course—not to mention a new framework at its heart—it is hard to beat as a learning experience. Our theory is that navigating a major transition is a challenge on three levels simultaneously, as individuals struggle with taking on new roles, learning new skills, and managing a mix of emotions—and that these three dimensions all complicate each other. Doing the research to develop and describe this complex mix took us deep into three whole worlds of social psychological literature. Yet we also feel our education has just begun. It may be an even bigger learning adventure when we put this material in front of a group of smart managers next month.?

The book I just finished reading is over sixty years old but somehow one I’ve never read before: Edmund Hillary’s?High Adventure: The True Story of the First Ascent of Everest, published in 1955.

It’s a gripping account of the 1953 climb that made Hillary and Tenzing Norgay famous. I’ll share just one short passage here, in which he describes his thoughts on the night before their final summit:?

As I lay there breathing slowly and deeply on our tiny supply of oxygen, my mind automatically drifted to the next day. There were so many questions to answer. Would we be able to climb on three litres a minute and, even at this, would we have enough endurance? Was the weather going to be fine? And, anyway, if we did get to the South Summit, would we be able to make a route along the summit ridge—the ridge about which Evans and Bourdillon had painted such a gloomy picture? I didn’t know any of the answers and told myself there was only one way to find out. Everything outside was still and quiet, and lying in the darkness inside the tent, warm and comfortable from the food and drink we’d consumed, it was difficult to realise where we were—camped on a narrow ledge far higher than anyone had ever camped before.

It was a reminder for me that, much as I urge people to fill their lives with more questions, and advocate them as positive, mind-opening prompts, it is also true that our greatest worries in life tend to assert themselves in the form of nagging, unanswerable questions. Hillary’s response—“there was only one way to find out”—was also a reminder that, when we have a strong sense of purpose (and plenty of courage), we don’t let those questions stop us. When David Breashears invited me to accompany him on a trip to Everest in 2015, I asked him what leading multiple expeditions to the top of the mountain had taught him about leadership. One of the gems he shared was “Plans don’t think.” Yes, he insisted, you have to make good plans to limit whatever risk you can—but don’t kid yourself that they will cover everything. Success in the end requires sensing and responding to changing conditions in the moment.

Ang Phula Sherpa (on the right) and I take in the spectacular beauty of the Khumbu Icefall with ever-present and powerful Pumori standing watch behind us. Bonus view: Mount Everest Base Camp in the bottom right corner | Photo: David Breashears

All this feels very relevant as we pass the two-year point since Covid-19 transformed our daily lives in ways large and small. 2020-2022 has been one long trek into the unknown with a relentless series of peaks and icefalls. And while there’s far more hope in the soul now than there was in 2020, there is plenty of uncertainty ahead, as well. If you’re looking for a setting to do some focused forward thinking and capacity building as a manager, you might be interested in two other subjects I will be teaching this spring:

Innovator’s DNA: Mastering Five Skills for Innovative Disruption ?– offered next on Apr 4–5, 2022 as a live, online course.

Questions are the Answer: A Breakthrough Approach to Creative Problem Solving, Innovation, and Change ?– offered next on Apr 28–29, 2022 as a live, online course.?

Just this week, I taught a combination of these subjects to the most amazing group of leaders that I’ve been with since teaching the international social entrepreneurship program at INSEAD.??The Legatum Institute’s?Foundry Fellowship program is a leadership development experience for entrepreneurs from around the globe who have been through the full cycle of launching and scaling an innovation-driven venture and are now at important inflection points in their journeys. Being awarded this fellowship gives them an opportunity to build on their experiences and plan their transition to a next phase of business building or next big idea.?Their brief bios can be found?here . I know I will be keeping tabs on what these dynamic innovators do in months and years to come because they?asked honest, tough questions – and we had equally honest, tough conversations. I left the teaching experience a different person, hopefully a better one.??

We finished the day by first reflecting on this profound quote by Elie Wiesel; it captured the essence of our learning journey:

In the word?question, there is a beautiful word – quest.?

I love that word.?

We are all partners in a quest.

You are my question, and I am yours . . .?

and then there is dialogue.?

The moment we have answers, there is no dialogue.?

Questions unite people, answers divide them.

Then, we watched one of the most touching videos that I’ve ever seen on the intergenerational impact of inquiry.?

Take a moment this weekend to?watch , reflect, and if you’re like me, cry at the message.??It’s a life changing experience, every time I experience it.

Journey well . . .

Hal

Compose and Wait Moment | Nahant, Massachusetts ~ March 2022

"One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar." Helen Keller

[Photo made in Nahant, Massachusetts, March 2022]