Parallel Streams of Management and Leadership

There are two parallel streams, as I see it, one that is the role of management to focus on the issues of today, based on their knowledge from the past (programmed learning).  Learning from the past involves reflecting on our experiences from the past and is often described as act-observe-reflect-plan-act.  Two, the role of leadership which is inherently focused on creating a future that has yet to be realized, which often requires ‘constructive destruction’, the ability to self destruct in order to innovate and reposition successfully.  The futures thinking methodology will help organisations innovate and create preferred futures through the gift of insight - a leadership capability.

These two streams are both essential, but fundamentally different.  Stream one, the management stream, attempts to ‘control’ change within the current paradigm, whereas stream two, the leadership stream, attempts to ‘initiate’ change for the better by shifting the paradigm.