In the Victorian England of romance novels, every year a new set of hopefuls [both men and women] would be “introduced to society” at a series of balls and cotillions. While the dancers changed every year, the dance steps, the dance floors and the dance halls didn’t. [See: Sheila Adina, Lady of Devices, A Steampunk Adventure Novel]. Historically, the same kind of dynamic has held sway regarding new comers to the executive suite. Every ten years or so, a new C-level executive would fill the seat of a departing predecessor. In the modern economy, the stately pace of executive change has given way to a frenzy of enterprise musical chairs going on.... Read more

The master narrative being test written in many board rooms today features a new digital world. This new world presents modern executives with challenges not entirely dissimilar to those described in Dean Acheson’s autobiography Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department. Truman’s Secretary of State and his colleagues were confronted with a post-War world very few understood and which was new to everyone. That world required new maps, new mental models, new skills, new institutions and new roles.... Read more