The maturity of your organization markedly affects your ability to create a Quest Effect.  Let’s consider an organizational life-cycle model with three phases: start-up, expansion and maturity.  As the organization matures, the opportunity to quest diminishes.  By the time an organization enters maturity, the desire to pursue a quest is often overwhelmed by the need for stability and risk avoidance.  As this happens, the risk of moving into a period of decline intensifies.

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Recently Dean Hanniball posted a comment asking, “Since so much of any Quest is about getting started I’d be curious about your thoughts on bold leadership.” 

In my experience, bold leadership and the quest are inextricably intertwined.  Bold leaders are much more likely to pursue the quest and, conversely, the quest asks much of leaders, particularly boldness. Bold leaders possess three key qualities:

1. They are attracted to adventure, not to relentlessly seek safety
2. They are not restricted by convention
3. They seek out the new and daring; they take risks

Only bold leaders initiate quests.  The initiatory action is sounding the Call to Adventure.  That Call to Adventure interrupts that status quo and asks the organization to head into unexplored territory.  The explorer, Ernest Shackleton’s, famous classified ad in the London Times comes to mind:

Wanted: People to undertake hazardous journey — small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful; honor and recognition in case of success.

An estimated 5,000 people showed up on a London dock to sign up for his adventure.

Or, think of JFK’s famous address:

I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.

JFK’s call changed the course of a nation.  That is what bold leaders do.

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I want to share some ideas that I was exploring while preparing a dinner presentation for the American Society for Quality (ASQ).  -RB

The sought-after prize of a corporate quest is a breakthrough.

Breakthroughs are the foundation of business vitality. Leaps in performance begin with breakthroughs. Breakthroughs evolve into new business models and fundamentally redefine the competitive landscape. Breakthroughs drive renewal; companies live or die by them. Yet we rarely think of breakthrough as a process onto itself.

In fact, I think it’s surprising — given the immense importance of breakthrough — that so little has been established about the process and nature of breakthrough itself.  I know that leaders are fascinated by the idea of breakthrough, but tend to think of it as a descriptor (e.g. breakthrough change, breakthrough innovation) rather than a distinct outcome and process.  The idea of breakthrough, when used as an adjective, lacks delineated principles and processes.  It’s an idea without content.  No wonder breakthroughs often appear to be as much the result of happenstance as inspired intent.

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In myth, the quest heals a wasteland.  The wasteland is commonly a loss of fertility, vigor or vitality.  For example, in the myths of the Quest for the Holy Grail, there were crop failures and famine, the decay from within of King Arthur’s Camelot, and the physical wasting of the Fisher King due to an un-healing wound.   In the legends, achieving the Grail healed those wastelands and restored the vitality of the realm.

The question is, “Do real quests heal real wastelands?”  I believe the answer is clearly “yes”.  Consider our current situation: the greatest wasteland we face today is global climate change.  It threatens the future of mankind and the stability of fundamental earth systems.   While the situation is grave, heroes are emerging and quests are underway to heal the wasteland.

Take for example the story of Ron Ace.  For three years Greg Gordon, a reporter with McClatchy Newspapers, has followed Ron Ace’s quest to cool the earth by evaporating sea water over the continents in the Northern Hemisphere.  Ace’s idea just might lead to a breakthrough — one with the power to heal the global-warming wasteland.

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Apparently, top leaders at Microsoft have called the organization to the quest.  Over the last few years, they have set up at least seventy internal “quests” in pursuit of strategic breakthroughs.  Information has surfaced from several sources including, the Associated Press, veteran Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley, Julie Lerman (reporting in End Bracket), and several employee blogs.  However, executives themselves appear reluctant to say much to the public about the quests.

I’ve read that these quests have been championed by Gates, Ballmer and the senior vice presidents.  According to Foley, in her book Microsoft 2.0, executives have called for quests in areas that they deem important to Microsoft’s future. Information on each quest is maintained in an internal wiki where employee contributions are also captured. 

The purpose of the quests can seem a bit vague.  Ballmer said that the quests are intended to make Microsoft less dependent solely on the visions of high-placed leaders.  Other executives have described the quests as a long-term planning tool.  My guess is that Gates has a grander vision. 

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Peter Block once said that the fundamental choice faced by an organization is between safety and adventure. Safety is about the risk-avoiding, stability-seeking, business-as-usual drives of the typical mature enterprise. Adventure, in contrast, is about the Quest the journey of exploration, discovery, innovation and breakthrough.

Alex Taylor’s brilliant article in December’s Fortune Magazine about the demise of General Motors appears to be a case in point. Taylor provides a haunting description of the cost of seeking safety in times of adversity.

Referring to GM CEO, Rick Wagner, and his associates, Taylor writes:

“But in working for the largest company in the industry for so long, they became comfortable, insular, self-referential and too wedded to the status quo traits that persist even now, when GM is on the precipice. They prefer stability over conflict, continuity over disorder, and GM’s way over anybody else’s. They believe that … tomorrow will be a better day despite four decades of evidence to the contrary.”

Taylor is describing leadership that has clearly chosen safety over adventure. Unwilling or unable to explore uncharted territory, stagnation and decline are the inevitable outcome. The fact that GM leaders are “smart, sincere, diligent,” as characterized by Taylor, is not enough. They needed to leave the comfort of home base and choose the path of adventure decades ago.

The path of adventure is the Quest; could it provide the means to game-changing discoveries and renewed vitality for a restructured GM? While the Quest may appear risky to GM, it seems that its leaders made the truly lethal move by assiduously avoiding it. I suspect that members of Congress, in calling for new leadership at GM, hope to avoid this peril in the future

Welcome to the Quest Effect web site and blog! I’m delighted that you visited. I want this site to address the interests of change leaders and possibility thinkers in business, organizations and institutions. If I left you out, please stick around – if you’re interested in the topic, then you are most welcome.

I created this site because I’m inspired by the idea of the Quest in business. I’m convinced that the Quest is the most powerful (and least understood) driver of breakthrough and transformation. I define the Quest is a journey of exploration and discovery in pursuit of a breakthrough that, when mastered, will have the power to renew and transform an organization.  You may know the Quest by other names such as Journey, Adventure or Exploration.

My mission is to encourage leaders to pursue the quest while resisting the siren song of safety, stability and equilibrium. I hope that, through the materials on this site, that I will encourage you to tap the power of the quest in your own organization.

I’m a management consultant, leadership coach, and presenter.  I’ve applied the principles of the Quest Effect for over a decade as I’ve guided dozens organizations on the Quest. I work with leaders and innovation teams in all types of organizations, from insurance companies to international airports, from hospitals to cruise lines. I’m also the author of the upcoming book, The Quest Effect, due out in early 2009.

Please check back for future posts. I’ll be blogging about the power of the Quest in business. I plan to share guidance for change leaders, stories about breakthrough Quests, rants on organizations’ failure to pursue the Quest, resources for launching your own Quest, interviews with provocative thinkers, wicked questions, and so on. I would be honored by your posted comments.

My commitment to you is that, if you continue to visit questeffect.com, you will never think about deep change, innovation and transformation in the same way again.

I plan to post at least weekly, so please check back often – or, better yet, subscribe with an RSS feed.

Let the Quest Begin!

Respectfully, Randall Benson

Quest Effect^® is a registered trademark of Randall Benson