Quest [noun]: a search for an alternative option that meets cognitive criteria.

As soon as we step outside the relentless busywork — resisting the Curse of Efficiency and the Delusion of Progress — we can begin to realise and appreciate that our current (default) business model and modus operandi may not be relevant in future contexts.

When you first stop and think about it, this realisation is quite scary. It's an uncomfortable notion to consider — and so many don't. They instead look back to past successes to find validation within their experience, and comfort within existing paradigms of work.

But, for those who can move beyond the initial fear of an uncertain future, the second phase is likely to feel daunting. The sheer scale of the infinite complexity inherent within our uncertain future is intimidating, to say the least. As a consequence, leaders crave a direct and familiar approach to tackle this complexity. They attempt to reduce uncertainty.

What this tends to look like is an ‘ideas funnel', with ideas being fed into one side and innovation coming out the other. This can seem like a simple contraption that makes logical sense, and it's certainly a tool that gives everyone a sense that something is being done. Indeed, in its worst incarnation, some enterprises even come up with ‘give us your best idea' competitions. #facepalm

Such a simplistic approach comes at a cost. By seeking to reduce uncertainty — instead of questing within it — we end up reducing the very things that allow us to pioneer and unlock game-changing strategic innovation: creativity, serendipity, imagination, diversity, experimentation and learning. Reducing uncertainty forces us to rely on simple opportunistic and incremental improvements to the current business model. This approach does not lead to the generation of new or unprecedented progress and growth. Also, such approaches are usually the result of governance systems in which senior decision-makers are the arbitrators of innovation,^[1] rather than the champions who enable collective and ongoing strategic innovation.

The third feeling when confronted with the complexity of an uncertain future is frustration.^[2] If you're a leader of a large organisation, this is very understandable. As we saw in chapter 3, organisations can mature to the point where they become behemoths (in terms of size and/or bureaucracy and arrogance). The pace of change becomes glacial, and everyone is focused on the wrong things. No-one is working together, and no-one is thinking about the future.

And so the big fear for CEOs of large organisations today is that they are simply going to preside over the slow decline and decay of a once-great enterprise. Their legacy, they fear, will simply be a footnote on a Wikipedia page that describes their leadership impact as the stewardship of the enterprise into irrelevance.^[3]

So — let's not be that leader.

The only escape is to think differently, and lean into the uncomfortable complexity and paradox inherent within the infinite possibilities of an uncertain future.

The chapters in this part present such an approach. Where part I brought you the why behind leading a quest, part II hones in on the what — namely, Quest-Augmented Strategy.

This framework guides an enterprise through the contextual activities and pioneering leadership required to explore, identify, validate and pursue new value, and secure enduring relevance.