Peter DeLisle, PhD, on Leadership in Uncertainty and Complexity

Agile Digital Business

What do leaders need to be doing and thinking about in times of uncertainty and complexity? Pete DeLisle, PhD, chats with me on this subject in Episode 32 of Agile Digital Business.

In a time when areas around our world have gone from simple to complex, almost simultaneously, Pete's reflections and insights are thought-provoking.

Below are the show notes and time codes to help you navigate quickly back to a section you would like to listen to for a second or third time.

0:00 A preview of one of the many insights from Pete.

:37 Introducing Pete DeLisle

1:17 Welcome to Episode 32 of Agile Digital Business; reflection on my pivot in Season 3 to bring you topics and interviews that will help you as you make adjustments to the changing needs of your customers, clients and students.

3:32 Sponsorship note - Teach. Inspire. Connect. - Online group coaching in uses of Facebook Lives and other forms of social media marketing and engagement. Current groups are running for church pastors of small to medium-size congregations and for small business owners, multi-level marketers and entrepreneurs.

6:23 Conversation begins with Pete DeLisle

8:40 "What we're encountering is massive, unpredicted or unrecognized change. Sadly, the old solutions don't work." - Pete DeLisle

10:37 Reference to vu ja de and George Carlin, "We've never been here before and it doesn't look at all familiar."

11:09 George Carlin was also informed by Yogi Berra, "We're lost but making good time."

11:27 "The old models don't work." Pete DeLisle

11:42 "The human factors are just as important as what we're trying to accomplish in our business." Pete DeLisle

13:10 More background about Yogi Berra and the New York Yankees

15:29 Intellectual honesty - you're honest about being honest. An effective leader is willing to be vulnerable. Example: "I don't have a clue what's going on here, but we'll figure it out."

16:16 On the idea of resiliency: "The underlying value is human compassion ... thinking what's going on with human beings and the full complexity of it." - Pete DeLisle

17:20 Pete discusses the task vs relationship diagram. "When you're working on one, you're not working on the other." Example: If the task is under control, you got to worry about relationship-related issues; and taking care of your folks.

20:30 We talk about a personal example of how elder care or concern for our families can cause distractions in the work day during a world crisis.

23:29 Story from the 1960s about Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett.

26:43 He mentions that the touch screen display was invented at a division at HP during the downtime.

29:40 "There are only experts on what has been. There are no experts on what will be." - a quote shared by Pete DeLisle

34:07 Concept of absorptive capacity - the ability of an organization to see or predict emerging trends in advance of others.

36:50 Pete gives an example about BASF and the strategic plan that is one sentence long: "We want to be in business 100 years from now."

38:34 Mid-conversation break where I announce the Part 2 interview with Pete DeLisle on the topic of foresight. I also mention my interview with John Lee Dumas. His episode is coming up here in Season 3.

39:34 "Agility is the ability to be responsive in expert fashion to rapidly-changing situations."

44:20 Invitation to continue the conversation in another episode of the show.

45:44 If you would like to send a suggestion for a topic for Pete to cover, please send an email to agiledigitalbusiness @ gmail dot com. You can also send a voice mail through the Speakpipe widget on my website: https://vickiemaris.com/contact

46:25 Thank you to Pete DeLisle

46:44 Reminder that you can find resources that I mention on the podcast by searching on these hashtags, #teachinspireconnect or #agiledigitalbiz

47:35 Please join me to "go online" and teach, inspire and connect!

Vickie Maris

4:00 Biography of Peter A. DeLisle, PhD