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Look ahead twenty or thirty years. Does anyone expect the next twenty
years to be less tumultuous than the last twenty years? Given the changes
expected in technology, biology, medicine, social values, demography, the
environment, and international relations, what kind of world might
humanity face? No one can say for sure, but one thing is reasonably
certain: Continuing challenges will tax our collective abilities to deal
with them. Failure to rethink our enterprises will leave us little relief
from our current predicaments: rising turbulence causing rising stress;
increasing disconnection and internal competitiveness; people working
harder, rather than learning how to work smarter; and increasingly
intractable problems beyond the reach of any individual or organization.
If you are an organizational leader, someone at any level concerned deeply
about these challenges, then you face a daunting task. In effect, you are
engaged in a great venture of exploration, risk, discovery, and change,
without any comprehensive maps for guidance.
- The U.S. Army's highly innovative National Training Center uses
elaborate practice fields, simulations, and "After Action
Reviews" to build a sophisticated organizational self-awareness
involving officers and enlisted men. The success of tactical
operations in Desert Storm, Haiti, and Bosnia has been attributed to
this new approach--and so has a recognizable leap in soldiers'
capabilities and commitment.
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