Wise leaders govern the dance
Wise leaders govern the dance
"I govern the dance, not the dance partners," said Mark Rutte (Minister President of the Netherlands, and top candidate to become the secretary general of the NATO). The discovery of intertemporality, a concept that many understand only through trial and error, forms an essential insight for leadership. It is a source of much frustration, overestimation, and failed attempts at change.
Intertemporal leaders master the art of recognizing, responding to, and temporarily harmonizing the different rhythms and time orientations of interwoven systems and their actors. This requires a high degree of systems intelligence.
As changes increasingly intersect systems, the importance of attention to intertemporality grows. Consider, for example, transitions in ecosystem networks. The time horizon for nature restoration is easily 50 years, farmers often think in terms of a generation (20 years) about their farm, the business world has strategic plans of 3 to 5 years, and political policymakers are chased by opposition and media with a stable horizon of at most one year (although sometimes it's more like a week). In an ideal world, these horizons are reversed, with policies that last for decades, allowing farmers and businesses to invest with certainty, and nature to thrive in a week's time. But, of course, that's not how it works. The intertemporal issue is also reflected today in the mismatch between the rapid pace of warfare and the slow political decision-making in Europe, as seen in the context of Ukraine. If you, as a leader, want to achieve something in complex dossiers such as nitrogen or war, you should therefore take intertemporality into account.
Intertemporality is also crucial within organizations and a lack of insight can lead to painful consequences. At the top of the organization, classical connections are made between society, industry, and the value chain. This leads to a new desired long-term vision. Given the experienced speed of change in the outside world, a certain timeframe is given to reach the new point on the horizon. The middle management classically responds that the plan is too ambitious in terms of time because the concrete and necessary short-term practices do not align with it. The primary processes might be quickly modified in abstraction, but the internal cultural change required does not happen nearly as fast. Moreover, they report that the previous change feels like it was just yesterday for some employees. Searching in the tension between speed and support, between ambition and feasibility, the middle management then often loyally gets to work. But within the new project, various actors from different departments collide due to their different time rhythms. Change, especially in the form of friction and frustration, is the eventual result.
The solution to this complex challenge is not simple. One starting approach is timetabling, mapping out terms, cycles, and deadlines to identify discrepancies. But wise leaders realize that intertemporality is more than just recognizing these rational mismatches. They recognize that time itself also does its work. That time is not a neutral commodity. That intuition and creativity to find new answers to complex questions cannot be captured in time. That it must be given space.
These leaders adopt a designing attitude: they ensure that actions are taken, from which they learn as much as possible through short feedback loops with as many stakeholders as possible to slightly adjust the system each time. This leads to collective systems intelligence, which synchronizes, among other things, the rhythms and time orientations of all actors within and outside the organization. Collective systems intelligence leads to a deeper understanding of, and more effective interaction with, the complexity of intertemporality.
As we navigate through the complex fabric of time and change, the art of intertemporal leadership thus reveals itself as a crucial competency for the future. It's not just about recognizing the diverse rhythms within and outside our organizations, but also about the ability to bring these into temporary harmony. The leaders of tomorrow are those who can lead this dance of time, who have the courage to build a future that takes all times into account. Let us, as leaders, take the time to cultivate our intertemporal mastery, to better navigate through time and change.
Jesse Segers is a Honorary professor at the University of Exeter, a partner at Ginkgo Consulting, and a board member at ODNE. As a leadership expert, advisor, director, and executive coach, he develops institutes and leaders. He is the co-author of reference works in Belgium and the Netherlands on leadership, including 'Leading from the Middle' (2020) and the recent 'About Leadership. 19 Insights' (2022). In Q2 2024, a new book by him, in collaboration with Marguerithe de Man, 'Mastery of Time: A Guide for Change Agents' will be released.