Mode Four: Generative Leadership

Abstract

The move from mode three to mode four leadership is, unlike the previous transitions, not linear, instead the transition to mode four is a seismic shift in thinking, beliefs, and behaviors, a true paradigm shift. Mode four leaders see, analyze, and solve problems in ways that frequently cause others problems, as they often “break the rules” of the other three modes and yet can move easily to any of these, using their thinking approaches when necessary, and, if required, they can create new solutions fashioned from elements of each of the other modes. Additionally, mode four leaders are the most flexible and innovative of all leaders. They are like learning machines with the ability to create and evaluate new ideas, integrating them into current schemes of thinking, and can let go of knowledge that does not suit the current conditions. This ability to readily forgo previous learning that is not working in a current context or world sets the generative leader apart from all other leaders, who will hold onto obsolete learning in spite of clear evidence that even the knowledge of the past must die along with the old world that created it. In transition from mode three to four, leaders often start the transition out of three by trying any new leadership fad that offers solutions to their problems. Those who have the largest and most objective¹ capacity to learn will make the transition, those with a limited or more subjective capacity to learn and unlearn rapidly are unlikely to move into mode four.

The search for static security — in the law and elsewhere — is misguided. The fact is … security can only be achieved through constant change, through discarding old ideas that have outlived their usefulness and adapting to current facts.

William Orville Douglas, U.S. Supreme Court associate justice, 1935–75, professor of law at Yale