Rediscovering the Leadership Edge of American Enterprise: The Power of Wonder

Innovation is the heartbeat of American enterprise, yet leaders often overlook a crucial investment: the epistemic emotion of wonder. This 'discovery emotion' fuels the agility that drives progress. Without it, modern leadership imperatives— transcendent qualities like gratitude, self-awareness, and compassion— struggle to take root. These deeply human elements require intention and investment to flourish.

Wonder helps leaders productively navigate the tension between logic and emotion. Harnessed through cultural practices and rituals, investing in a wonder-full culture positively shapes work environments, enhances team creative performance, and improves enterprise return on investment.

Leading an organization into the future of work demands creativity and flexibility across three critical fronts:

• Future-Proofed Talent: Enhancing workforce development to nurture the human creative potential of teams capable of thriving through the green (environmental), mean (cultural), and lean (technological) transformations now underway. This involves positioning the human-side performance drivers—the Creative Brain Capital of organizations—as a parallel investment strategy for optimizing technology investments.

• Co-Creative Ecosystems: Connecting and balancing cooperative innovation ecosystems of logic and emotion that deploy creativity as America's greatest competitive advantage in the person+machine future of work. These ecosystems foster collaboration and innovation, bridging the gap between human intuition and machine intelligence.

• Strategic Foresight: Leadership success means cultivating the ability to see around corners. The strategic foresight to understand where to play, how to win, and what will be needed to stay resilient is the mandate. This involves developing a keen sense of market trends, emerging technologies, and shifting cultural landscapes to make informed decisions and guide organizations through uncertainty.

With only 5% of today's required skills projected to be relevant in three years, companies must prioritize continuous learning and adaptability. As straightforward solutions become increasingly rare, leading firms advocate for hiring based on potential and learning agility, necessitating a fundamental change in workplace culture.

The bottom line is that CREATIVE TENSION will be constant. Becoming comfortable leading innovation within this tension—even seeing it as the most productive place to be rather than a problem to be solved—is the name of the game. It's time to reclaim our sense of wonder and rediscover America's leadership edge.

LEGACY OF LOGIC & EMOTION

From our dynamic conception of democracy, landing a human on the moon, and mapping the human genome to jazz greats, Hollywood icons, and culture-shifting technology— our creativity and entrepreneurial spirit are fueled by our legendary sense of wonder. It‘s what makes America special.?

But where did our legendary sense of wonder come from? It may be due to a fluke of timing.?

The American Dream was born in the cradle of symbiotic tension between the Enlightenment and Romanticism. This creative tension shaped the origin story of American enterprise as we know it today. While the Enlightenment celebrated the human ability to understand and shape the world through reason, Romanticism highlighted the mystery and beauty of the natural world and the depths of human emotion. Over time, both gained resonance through the creative tension generated by their contrasting focus areas. Together, these movements shaped American enterprise, balancing the use of reason and emotion, scientific inquiry and creative expression, the concrete and the abstract.?

As we transition to the future of work, America is being shaped again by Enlightenment and Romanticism principles. The continued push towards technological advancement, data-driven decision-making, and efficiency represents the Enlightenment side. Automation, artificial intelligence, and other technological innovations are testaments to this, showcasing our ability to understand and shape the world through reason and science.

Meanwhile, the influence of Romanticism is seen in the growing emphasis on human-centric workplaces, emotional intelligence, and creativity. Companies recognize the importance of employee well-being, work-life balance, and creating environments that foster creativity and innovation. There's also increasing awareness of the value of diverse perspectives, fostering empathy and understanding within the workplace.

LEADING WITH WONDER??

The innovation leadership challenge of today involves moving from a hierarchy mode of control and command to one of learning to manage living quantum systems. This is about understanding that systems adapt and reorganize themselves when situations change. As systems transition, seeing the bigger picture and understanding the connections and relationships between things becomes harder. So many leaders default to what they know and try harder to control everything rather than concentrating efforts on becoming prepared for anything.?

Trying to control everything is an exhaustive approach, where leaders attempt to anticipate and plan for every possible scenario. It involves extensive risk assessment, detailed contingency plans, and comprehensive resource allocation. This approach is rooted in the belief that thorough preparation will mitigate all possible risks.

Contrastingly, preparing for anything embodies a more flexible and adaptive mindset. It focuses on building resilience, agility, and the capability to respond to unforeseen events. Instead of trying to predict and prepare for every specific scenario, leaders cultivate skills and processes that enable rapid adjustment and creative problem-solving when unexpected challenges arise.

The art and science of wonder help leaders gain precision and momentum in the latter. Wonder bridges tradition and transformation, the connection between imagination and innovation.

While watching Jupiter and Venus in the night sky, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Willa Cather wrote to her long-time love Edith Lewis, "I can't but believe that all that majesty and all that beauty, those fated and unfailing appearances, and exits, are something more than mathematics and horrible temperatures. If they are not, then we are the only wonderful things — because we can wonder."

Innovation is the story we tell of the journey between where we are and where we think we want to be. Wonder is our memory of stardust in these stories. Everything Americans create is made of two things: what our earth provides and human imagination. Both emerged from stardust. Understood this way, everything that built America was an act of WONDERVATION?. It is our legacy and the future of American dreams!

In the future of work, choosing to invest in wonder as an action holds the key to profound fulfillment and a stronger return on investment (ROI). By embracing wonder as a guiding principle, businesses unlock transformative potential and foster an environment ripe for innovation and success.

Here's how it leads to a better ROI:

• Employee Engagement and Productivity: Wonder fuels higher engagement and motivation, driving productivity and efficiency, ultimately leading to a stronger ROI.
• Retention and Talent Attraction: Wonder fosters a sense of belonging and purpose, attracting and keeping top talent committed to making a meaningful impact.
• Innovation and Creativity: Wonder nurtures an environment of psychological safety, diverse thinking, and transformational risk-taking, igniting innovation and driving growth.
• Customer Loyalty and Satisfaction: Wonder-driven interactions and genuine empathy create loyal customers and positive referrals, bolstering the bottom line.
• Sustainable Long-Term Success: Wonder cultivates trust, collaboration, and continuous improvement, positioning businesses for long-term growth and financial stability.

?NEW LEADERSHIP ALGEBRA IN BUSINESS

When an unexpected technology, a line of poetry, an extraordinary customer experience, or an image like those from the James Webb Space Telescope brings a sense of wonder to us, we are experiencing the one human memory shared by every person who has ever lived—we all share the memory of being stardust.

As leaders step into the future of work, they will be well served to liberate their language from always defaulting to logic and consider what wonder, trust, beauty, and joy might be found in learning to thrive within the creative tension that happens when logic encounters the transformative potential of the poetic. Poetry is the only language big and specific enough to carry our collective memory of stardust and not wither under its enormity.?

Steve Jobs noted, “The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.” Poetry is quantum storytelling in verse, paint, song, film, or digital code.?

Poetry is our bridge between logic and emotion and a primary driver of all innovation. While the centrality of poetry to American enterprise may not be immediately apparent to all business leaders, the research prototyping has been ongoing for nearly two hundred and fifty years. It begins with the line:

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity..."

Leadership today, across each of these constitutional elements, blends the logic and emotions of human creative potential with machines, merging arts with science.

Our Constitution's synthesis of rational thinking and emotional resonance—hallmarks of Enlightenment and Romanticism—continues to shape our modern world, particularly in the private sector. For example, Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge's assertion that "Imagination is the living power and prime agent of all human perception" finds new relevance in today's technological landscape.?

Coleridge also coined the term "suspension of disbelief," a concept that encourages us to temporarily set aside skepticism to embrace new ideas. This wonder-centered principle fuels human discovery and proves surprisingly applicable in our approach to emerging technologies and innovation, allowing us to envision and create what once seemed impossible.

Artificial intelligence relies on data to learn, reason, and make decisions. While grounded in logic, these processes require a form of machine replication of our "collective imagination" to extrapolate beyond existing patterns. Here, the storyteller's unexpected and novel poetic language, questions, and metaphors prove invaluable for utilizing machine learning and AI when transformational innovation is the desired result. This co-creative process between human creativity and computational power can lead to breakthroughs that would be otherwise impossible.

AGILE IMAGINATION: THE OTHER SIDE OF AI

"The function of art is to do more than tell it like it is—? it's to imagine what is possible." - bell hooks

The relationship between artists and technology has always been dynamic, each influencing and challenging the other. As Americans grapple with the accelerating influx of technologies, navigating life will require the logic of science paired with the agility and creative problem-solving that have long been the domain of artists and poets.

The poetic mindset—emphasizing novel connections, emotional intelligence, and adaptability— is essential for business leaders as they guide their organizations through the complexities of the AI era.

America has a wonder-full history of evidence that shows when artists, scientists, and business innovators work together, truly incredible things are possible. However, philosophers like Schopenhauer have noted that every person takes the limits of their own vision to be the limits of the world. As America developed over the last hundred years in a highly specialized and siloed way, these limits became self-reinforcing and more challenging.

Today, there is evidence of a cultural shift. Scientists and business leaders increasingly collaborate with artists as core players in their innovation ecosystems. Their reward is a more agile imagination, allowing their organizations to thrive and grow through anything. Agile imagination is the other side of artificial intelligence, transforming technology into a competitive advantage.?

Whether a solo entrepreneur or a Fortune 100 corporation, reclaiming a sense of wonder is the most important form of courageous leadership for success in the future of work.

By incorporating elements such as imagination, appreciation for nature, and breaking away from traditional conventions into their approach, today's leaders, innovators, and change-makers can unlock their full human creative potential while still staying ahead of the curve regarding industry trends.

As technology becomes ubiquitous, the defining characteristic of competitive advantage in business will be how companies use technology. The ability to engage in courageous imagination is already beginning to define leadership success and shape conventional wisdom in complex, emerging markets. And on this, one thing is as true today as it was when Socrates first revealed its truth: Wisdom begins in wonder.

Things Shadows Leave Behind (Chasing Butterflies at Dawn) 
by Theo Edmonds 

Inside morning creases of sunlight and water  
is the glisten 
A convergence. 
A spontaneous act. 
An unconscious, involuntary sparkle. 
Crafted from things shadows leave behind. 
  
From inside those things 
a dirt-digger crawls cautiously upward. 
Training intention to bend toward blue, 
the creature takes note. 
  
There is a pause. 
a breath. 
a memory. 
(a loss?)
Pretending not to be hurt 
by disappearing things, 
the creature wonders in whispers. 
  
“Where are the butterflies?” 
“Where are the butterflies!?!” 
  
When creatures bend toward blue 
new things are noticed. 
Things, too, are left behind. 
  
When creatures bend toward blue, 
their effort of will 
makes new poetry possible. 
  
When creatures bend toward blue, 
creative intelligence sets intention. 
blends harmony. 
crafts reconciliation. 
  
Acts of reconciliation are sometimes needed. 
Certain memories leave dark traces. 
  
Old shadows cause a false estimation
Told as fable, they feel incapable 
of attaching to light.

They become inherited stories
 tethered to only one concern. 
Tethered to the act of teetering. 
The act of teetering on edges. 
  
It is estimated to be enough, 
until… 
 
Until a grifting flap of wind 
bends a single hair on the arm. 
Attention magnetized toward 
unexpected notions of beauty. 
A twitch. 
A unifier. 
A curious idea. 
  
Butterflies! 

Away from dark traces, 
toward a fastidious flick of horizon,
Wonder emboldens 
our creaturely bend toward blue. 
  
It is enough.
  
Wonder is enough to transform 
any grifting flap of wind 
into velocity. 
  
The creative tension of lifting found beyond the chrysalis crucible edge.
Giving purpose to wind and transformation.
Leaving old shadows behind.         

?2024 Theo Edmonds | All Rights Reserved. | Please credit the author when using.

The views expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of any organization with which the author is affiliated.

www.theoedmonds.com