Think of this, not as data or training so much as a tall frosted glass swirling with Leadership, mixing in abundance theory, chaos, quantum leaps, mechanics, the re-emergence of human spirit in work, and of course competitive advantage and the bottom line. Spice it with a little uncertainty, even a little doubt. After all, this is not yesterday’s tried and true news. Poured gently over icy leaps of faith, then shaken, not stirred, you have a fair bit to ponder. Welcome aboard!

A while back, I started to grok (“get” for those less-in-touch leaders) some really cool-on-its-own kind of stuff about leadership in chaotic or "Strange Change" situations. I also came to know some things about leadership’s living connection with abundance and fulfillment. At the same time, I started to experience the current impact of sciences like quantum theory and chaos theory on organizational life these days; and guess what??? This is cool. They’re all converging in a really nice way, as I’ll show you.

So, here is a chain of logic for you to chew on. If you share the beliefs that:

	Vision and Creation are One Bhagavad Gita

1. Change in our organizations, our markets, our suppliers, our regulation, in fact everywhere we look is accelerating, fragmenting, and otherwise getting pretty strange. It’s called discontinuous change or chaos.

2. As change in our organizations increases and fragments, success becomes more dependant upon the “creative initiative” of all employees. This is simply because they are all faced daily with a myriad of brand new problems requiring brand new solutions - if customer satisfaction is to not suffer greatly. For example, some friends in a giant software company were grousing the other day about, “Those customers who keep buying our software are NOT at all the ones we expected to buy it. They’re coming at us from all different directions. Now we have to provide support to them and they don’t have anywhere near the levels of expertise of our target market.” Too Bad! You have penetrated whole new markets. OOPS!! Now go deal with it, from top to bottom and bottom to top.

3. “Creative initiative” only shows up in the service of our own best self interest. Creativity is stingy. It simply won’t come out to play unless passion invites it. How does passion fit with our job-in-a-box world of fragmented work and cubicles?

4. There has always been a great deal of study in hyper-successful organizations (from about the time of the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC and ever since) around the question, “What was it about that leader that got you all to REALLY GO? The response is always similar. “We were able to aspire to, and then achieve things higher and better than we even dreamed possible.” Better than our dreams. Dreams, the stuff of passion, the stuff of greatness. Leadership gains its power from the ignition of dreams. Do you know your employees dreams? Do you live yours? Lead by example.

5. Dreams are simply another way to talk about vision. Excellence in performance therefore, is gained by aligning personal and organizational vision top to bottom. (You need the personal vision served or creativity goes bye-bye, remember).

6. Vision and perspective go hand in glove. The personal challenge is to keep a clear and objective perspective (of the forest for the trees) or vision and dreams wither away. This is how we keep at the important jobs, not only the urgent ones. In the midst of such a chaotic environment, that’s a tall drink of water, therefore:

7. In arenas of chaos, holding onto a clear and broad perspective from the top to the bottom of the organization is essential to success. That’s the bottom line.

But as change gets weird, perspective dies. The forest becomes the trees at the very time when perspective and a global view are most needed. It’s the old 80 - 20 rule. Eighty percent of our people are generally operating with about a twenty percent perspective. The other twenty percent get things done.

Think about it. Perspective is now everyone’s job. So, get this. The hardest part about perspective is that it is nearly impossible to know when your perspective is diminished, or even dead. For a clue, look at your stress levels, your-joy-in-work level, your peace of mind.

What are they telling you, right now?

So, how do we regain perspective? What’s the solution? What’s the quick fix? What will bring in the numbers this quarter? What will squash the competition, delight the customer, reinvent our industry (with us at the fore front) and still leave us time for a quick power bar snack between meetings? Are you ready for this? It is the reward for reading this far, the nugget of information, the answer, the way good leaders become Great Leaders.

"Of all knowledge, the wise and good seek most to know themselves" William Shakespeare

Can I suggest a centering meditation? Maybe a day working in the garden of your thoughts? How about a walk in the woods? Take a retreat, a personal retreat. Listen to your signals. Take time out for real reflection, and I don’t mean a power lunch, I mean no less than three days. I call it a leader’s personal retreat. Just go with it. You’ll be amazed at the depth of results. You deserve it. You’ll regain perspective. Tough duty, but someone has got to do it, and there is no urgent time for it, only an important one. So schedule it. Bring no work, no cell phone or professional reading, just a pen and paper, lots of paper. Have fun. Relax. You’ll be glad you did.

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Jon was raised in the mountains of Colorado, on a stubborn pony named Hazel. He earned a bachelor of science degree in engineering from West Point where he learned that “if he ever needs an engineer, he’ll hire one.” He then served as an armor officer in the US Army, as an internal change agent during the divestiture of the Bell System and as CEO of Prewire Teleconnections in San Francisco.

After he earned an MBA from the University of Oregon, Jon co-founded the Quantum Leadership Institute and Unity Farm Retreat Center. He is the author of Planning for Prosperity and Integration, the Editor of Holy Random Leadership, is currently writing and is earning his Doctorate in the reinvention of work at Matthew Fox’s UCS. He has a private practice as a personal advisor and trainer to leaders. He works with leaders in many industries toward their highest and best integrated potential as divine human beings. He can be reached at [email protected]