Connecting theDots This column was written during a flight between Denver and Newark, from the 35,000-foot view. I
’m on my way home from a unique media trip to Aspen and Snowmass, Colo.,where, alongwith six other
journalists and six peoplewho represent the AspenMeadows Resort—home of the Aspen Institute—I served as a kind
of test group for an abbreviated Aspen Institute Leadership Fundamentals program.Whatwas traditionally a two-week program is now offered in a version that takes a littlemore than a full day. It’s sort of a quick dip rather than a deep dive into the Institute’s philosophy,which is to “foster values-based leadership, encouraging individuals to reflect on the ideals and ideas that define a good society, and to provide a neutral and balanced venue for discussing and acting on critical issues.” (I’ll talkmore about the Institute in ourNovember issue.) This is a program for professionalswho,
while short on time, have a tall order:Theywant to lead their organizations in amoremeaningful and balancedway. But a quick dip isn’t exactly skimming the
surface. Andwhen, prior to arriving in Aspen, Aspen InstituteDirector of SeminarsToddBrey- fogle sent us ourhomework assignment, Iwon- dered if Iwas in overmy head.Heencouraged us to go over the readings—54 pages’worth—at least once, and preferably not on the plane. I pored over excerpts fromAristotle, Chekhov, Confucius,Machiavelli,Dr. MartinLuther King Jr., and novelist Chimamanda Adichie. We spent our time together discussing each
reading around a large conference table in the resort’s bright newDoerr-Hosier Center. Brey- fogle—framed against a floor-to-ceiling win- dow viewof themajestic Colorado Rockies, high above the Roaring Fork River—teased out our interpretations of themoral values found in the readings andwhat theymean to us today. At the end of the session—which featured a
hike in breathtakingly beautiful MaroonBells wilderness park—fellowparticipantMichael
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Miracle, editor of the Aspen Sojournermaga- zine, put intowordswhatwas on all of our minds:Howwerewe to take such lofty thoughts and apply themto ourworkadayworld?There could be no blanket answer, no list of items to check off, nor any set processwe could plug in. It’s essentially the same questionmeeting
planners grapplewith:Howdo you help partici- pants takewhat they’ve learned atmeetings to becomemore effective and creative in their roles? Before I boarded the plane formy trip home,
I got some insight into that question fromthe book Iwas reading—Little Bets:HowBreak- through IdeasEmerge FromSmallDiscoveries. Author Peter Sims quoted Steve Jobs froma Wiredmagazine interviewinwhich he said: “When you ask creative people howthey did something they feel a little guilty because they .... were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize newthings. And the reason theywere able to do thatwas that they’ve hadmore experi- ences or they have thoughtmore about their experiences than other people.Alot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experi- ences. So they don’t have enough dots to con- nect, and they end upwith very linear solutions without a broad perspective of the problem.” Immersion in face-to-face events remains one
of the bestways to get those kinds of experi- ences. In fact, Sims goes on a fewparagraphs lat- er to say: “Most investors sit all day in offices in London,NewYork, orBoston. In contrast, JamesChanos,who runs Kynikos Associates and famously predicted Enron’s andTyco’s fall, regularly sends analysts to attend industry trade shows to speakwith sales repsworking on the front lines to get an up-to-date pulse onmarket activities.” Taking a stepaway can indeed bring you
farther along.
LEADERSHIP FUNDAMENTALS: In 1982, tampered- with Tylenol pills killed seven people in the United States. Johnson & Johnson’s vice chairman, David E. Collins, credited his time at the Aspen Institute’s Executive Seminar as being instrumen- tal in the corpora- tion’s decision to recall Tylenol world- wide. “As the crisis unfolded, we had to identify our princi- ples and priorities, and then develop creative and com- plex solutions,” he said, which was “exactly the type of thought process that evolve[d]” from the seminar. Read how a dif-
ferent kind of crisis — a tornado that ripped through the St. Louis airport — brought out true leadership abilities in a group of individ- uals across a variety of roles (p. 63).