(1996) The Future of Leadership: Riding the Corporate Rapids into the 21st Century. By Randall P. White, Philip Hodgson and Stuart Crainer. (ISBN: 0273622064 / 0-273-62206-4)

Book Description: Pitman Publishing, Lanham, Maryland, U.S.A., 1996. Stated First US Edition 1996, number line on copyright page reads (10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). Cloth Cyan Hardcover Boards and Spine With Silver Text. 252 pages, 6.375" x 9.5" tall, .1" thick. New copy. Never read. Not price clipped. Beautiful copy of book and dust jacket. COLLECTOR'S COPY.

Book Condition: Brand New.

Dust Jacket Condition: Brand New. NON price-clipped DJ [$25.00 US].

About This Book: IN the beginning there was chaos. Out of this chaos was born management. This necessity became art, and art was transformed into science.

Is this evolution of management myth or fact? Myth or not, $58 billion is being spent on the belief that management is a science. In the book “the future of leadership,” the authors state that the global management consultancy industry is worth $18 billion while the executive training industry is estimated at $40 billion. Based on these figures, it appears that managing is such a difficult thing to do that so many billions of dollars need to be spent to assist management in managing
“White Water Leadership.”

Randall P. White, Philip Hodgson and Stuart Crainer, authors of the book, conjure a more intimidating image of managing. Managers or leaders use to be seen as captains of large ships navigating calm economic seas. Managers of conglomerates or monopolies prevalent some 20 years ago are like these captains. Then, competition from smaller, more flexible firms forced centralized conglomerates to break up into smaller decentralized business units to be able to respond faster to market demands. The image of managers shifted to that of captains of more mobile, smaller ships treading choppy waters.

As the 21st century rolls nearer, the authors believe that managers have to be more like team leaders of rubber rafts riding the rapids where boulders block the path and the way to safe shores is unknown. The certainty of calm economic seas has turned into the uncertainty of churning white waters. With this imagery, the authors claim that effective organizations in the 21st century will be led by leaders who know how to ride the “white waters.” They termed this as “white water leadership.”

Nothing Fails like Success

White Water Leadership is based on paradigms that change the ways of management. The paradigm on success is one which a White Water Leader has to shift. As a white water leader moving down the rapids, is it better to look where you are going or be transfixed by where you have come from? With this piercing question, the authors enjoin leaders to “let go of your grip on the past as the only way to be tough, and get a better grip on the future as the only way to learn.” If a leader or an organization is successful now, it does not guarantee success tomorrow most especially in this new millennium of rapid developments. Tom Peters and Robert Waterman wrote about excellent companies in their well-known book, “in search of excellence.” White and his co-authors write that a short time later, magazines ran stories exposing the declining fortunes of these excellent companies. Success oftentimes is a handicap, disenabling the organization to see what could be done better and to prepare for future challenges. How many times have we heard the comment that “if it ain’t broke, why fix it?” from managers and leaders who resist change and innovation? Thus, the admonition “nothing fails like success” rings true.

No Single Best Way

White Water Leadership has a different paradigm on probing solving. While decision trees and analytical tools point to the best solution to a problem, the white water leader knows that there is no single best way, no quick fixes, and no instant solutions that will give an organization that distinctive competitive advantage in the future. The way of the rapids is through tortuous twists and turns. In this setting, the learning ability of a leader or an organization assumes critical importance. However, the authors caution leaders not to yield to the temptation of taking from the shelf the many management concepts that abound today. They write that “many do work, but they are not set in tablets of stone. ”

They have to be flexible, and used when needed, rather than as all-encompassing solutions; if they are to work, they have to be applied at the right time, in the right circumstances by the right people with the intention.

Multiplicity of Objectives

Just as there is no single best way, the paradigm of one single goal is no longer relevant. White water leaders realize that they are faced with a multiplicity of objectives. The authors state that talks with groups of managers reveal that a manager has, on average, seven key objectives. Compounding these are own personal objectives as well as organizational objectives. All these objectives are in a constant battle for the leader’s attention. They are often not congruent nor sequentially achieved. Just like in riding the rapids, the leaders has to keep himself steady while guiding his teammates and look a head for obstacles while monitoring the raft’s condition at the same time.

Three-Dimensional Leadership

Leadership is also viewed from a different paradigm. Planning, Leading, Organizing and Controlling or PLOC were the solid guide posts of managers yesterday. Today the PLOC functions, as taught in MBA schools and supervisory seminars, are no longer enough. Planning, especially strategic planning now comes with a caveat because predictability of the environment has become less and less certain. This makes planning a continuing activity that constantly has to renew itself for it to be sync with the environment. Organizing has moved from structured layers of organization boxes to amoeba-like globs of teams moving across organizational waters. Controlling is futile in dealing with the minutiae of the market; empowerment is now becoming the way to deal with the consumer’s peculiarities. Even the concept of leading is now at odds with its very name organizations move from leadership of not just one visionary but to a community of leaders with a shared vision. White ET. Al. write that the old models of leadership were based on PLOC but these practices were one dimensional. In the 1980s, a movement began to supplement these leadership roles with new like ones like creating a vision, setting a direction and empowering people. This second dimension brought new life to leadership but was still based on the same principles. The authors state that leadership needs to move to the third dimension which involves seeking uncertainty, leveraging learning, and learning white water leadership skills.

Five Critical Skills

The book identifies five critical skills of white water leadership which are: “difficult learning, maximizing energy, mastering inner sense, resonant simplicity and multiple focuses.” The first three skills are enablers, the key of which is learning. The remaining two skills are channels.

The authors write that only when learning is difficult, meaning it is something that takes you out of your comfort zone, and that it becomes valuable to the leader and the organization. If what you learned is easy to learn, then your competitors would probably have been able to learn it as well. Thus, learning difficult things enhances creativity and encourages innovation which may give the leader and his organization that special edge in the market.

For the authors, maximizing energy means the leader needs not only to generate his energy of the whole organization. They quoted matsushita, founder of the Japanese electronics giant, who said that Japanese recognize that business is complex and thus its continued existence depend on the day mobilization of every ounce of intelligence. How many leaders use “every ounce of intelligence” of their people? How many times have we heard people say that they resigned from a company because they felt their talents were not maximized? The energy is there waiting to be tapped which is the essence of the empowerment movement.

The authors also bat for simplicity in communication within the organization for more resonance. Communicating values is one simple but very resonant way to communicate. Though the term multiple focuses seems paradoxical, the authors claim that leaders have to focus both on the short term and long term objectives. In mastering inner sense, the authors fall back on the logic of intuitive judgment. In a situation where there are so many choices and so much data, they say that in the final analysis, what can be trusted is the inner sense.

White and his co-authors write that these skills are not earth shattering and that they are achievable, understandable and credibly powerful. It is somehow reassuring to have these words from them after shaking to confidence from the reader by presenting such a fearful scenario as the rapids. The imagery of the rapids was exploited by the authors to the hilt. The book jacket even shows the authors carrying a miniature raft. When the reader overcomes his fear of the white waters, then he can appreciate the substance of the book. Perhaps it night help to think of the white waters as splash mountain instead.

The future leadership: riding the corporate rapids into the 21st century
By Randall p. white, Philip hodgson & Stuart crainer pitman publishing,
Maryland, USA

Source: Regina Galang Reyes. First published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer July 14, 1997 1996