The Phoenix Encounter Method: Lead Like Your Business Is on Fire!

INTRODUCTION

ARE YOU ON FIRE?

Your bird—I couldn’t do anything—he just caught fire.

—J. K. ROWLING in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as Harry describes encountering Professor Dumbledore’s phoenix called Fawkes

If you’re smelling smoke, there’s a good reason. The business landscape is going up in flames around leaders everywhere. Forces of disturbance and change that sparked small fires in the twentieth century have turned into twenty-first-century wildfires—further inflamed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Unstoppable trends appear unexpectedly, and unpleasant surprises materialize out of nowhere. These are things that keep business leaders awake at night.

Leaders of legacy firms feel especially uneasy. Already working hard to keep their businesses ...