Section of Guernica by Pablo Picasso (1937) | Photo courtesy of Mark Berry via Flickr

By Thornton May
Futurist, Senior Advisor with GP, Executive Director & Dean - IT Leadership Academy

Adam Smith’s “division of labor” is one of the earliest and most important innovations in early capitalism. By dividing the manufacture of pins into eighteen distinct tasks [essentially creating a pin factory] a capitalist could increase productivity 240 times. The early industrial age manifestation of this concept was to divide those who think [i.e., plan] and those who do. Over time “thinkers” [i.e., managers] began to extract ever increasing percentages of the productivity gains. In some circles the value of “doing” [i.e., action] became an afterthought.

In 2014 I set up the hypothesis that “every organization, every executive, every individual and now with the Internet of Things [IoT], every object is on a digital journey.” Working with the CIO communities at the Olin Innovation Lab, the Ohio State University, the University of Kentucky and the Value Studio we determined that ~ 57% of the survey population had articulated a “digital endpoint”.  They know where they are heading. The “thinkers” had thought. However knowing is not enough. Having an end point is an important first step. Crafting a portfolio of actions that gets you there is critically important as well.

I have used the various media platforms available to me to repeatedly argue [see: http://goo.gl/N8GS9 ; http://goo.gl/En3bgV ; http://goo.gl/bxrb30] that futurists and strategic planners need to lessen their obsession with the fetish objects which are “predictions” and “trends” and focus more on the current period behaviors [i.e., actions] that make reaching the stated digital end point possible.

We futurists love using lessons from history. The Spanish Civil War is a lesson-rich period which has all but disappeared from the collective memory of society. In that conflict [17 July 1936 – 1 April 1939: 2 years, 8 months, 2 weeks and 1 day] the archetypal thinkers [i.e., the artistic community] mobilized to make sure that the world knew about the horrors of modern warfare.

• The greatest war art of the 20th century was not created in response to either world war, but the civil war that tore apart Spain when General Franco led a far-right revolt against the democratically elected Spanish republic. When German planes sent by Hitler bombed Guernica on Franco’s behalf, Picasso unleashed an unparalleled torrent of images. [http://goo.gl/Fd0gV]

One of those powerful works was Weeping Woman [1937]. Perhaps the most famous was Guernica.

• Guernica is a mural, 11 feet 6 inches high and 25 feet 8 inches wide, which commemorates the aerial bombardment—and obliteration—of the ancient Basque town of 5,000 inhabitants by German and Italian squadrons on April 26, 1937. [http://goo.gl/HNeZSe]

Despite such powerful visual calls to action, the action that resulted was too little too late.

Business scholars frequently parse leaders into two camps – transformational leaders [big vision/advocates of bold change] and transactional leaders [leaders more focused on keeping the train on the tracks]. In his excellent new book Presidential Leadership and the Creation of the American Century Kennedy School of Government dean, Joseph S. Nye, Jr. suggests that transformational ideas and rhetoric – as inspiring as they might be – only produce positive consequences if linked to practical tactics.

In 2015, let us hope that we will be able to understand our world [i.e., have knowledge] and be able to act efficaciously to produce positive consequences in that world.

Happy New Year!