Adaptive Leadership: The Heifetz Collection (3 Items)

3

Get on the Balcony

Few practical ideas are more obvious or more critical than the need

to get perspective in the midst of action. Any military officer, for

example, knows the importance of maintaining the capacity for

reflection, even in the “fog of war.” Great athletes can at once play

the game and observe it as a whole—as Walt Whitman described it,

“being both in and out of the game.” Jesuits call it “contemplation in

action.” Hindus and Buddhists call it “karma yoga,” or mindfulness.

We call this skill “getting off the dance floor and going to the bal-

cony,” an image that captures the mental activity of stepping back in

the midst of action and asking ...