by Louise Mowbray
The power of context, why it always rules and how developing your Contextual Intelligence empowers you to adapt and thrive.
Context Rules!
The global context just changed—and context always rules! While the world’s media speculates about Trump’s impending second US presidency and its impact on the US and the world, the smart thing to do is to take a step back, get grounded, and tap into your Contextual Intelligence.
When it comes to the future, we tend to think in linear terms, however, we’re living in an exponential world. Contextual Intelligence empowers us to think exponentially and act incrementally, elevating our sensemaking and decision-making capabilities. It’s one of those crucial leadership competencies that is often unexplored, unacknowledged and underdeveloped at our peril. Nothing exists in a void and understanding how a change in context impacts us, our teams, organisations and stakeholders is often the elephant in the room for leaders.
No matter how well thought through our strategy, a change in context can derail it, causing a cascade of unexpected macro and micro changes in our businesses and our lives. It can also galvanise us to dust off a project or innovative idea that didn't see the light of day, as a new context might give it wings. And whatever we launch into flight today, will likely land in a different (yet unknown) context to the one it was conceived in.
Context is Internal and External
We often forget that context is both internal and external - it’s a snapshot of who and where we are in time and space. It explains the setting and circumstances of an event or situation and how we think about, relate and react to it.
Fortunately, exploring context is an innately human capability. We're constantly striving to understand what's at play to evaluate situations for ourselves – in the same way we are wired to be alert to potential dangers, risks and opportunities.
Our contextual awareness enables us to make sense of and navigate the complexities of our world. Without it, we are likely to misinterpret information, make poor decisions or miss out on a deeper understanding and meaning.
However, one of the most significant challenges we face today is our context is constantly shifting. Our geopolitical, technological and business landscapes are more fluid and dynamic than ever before.
This has created a prevailing context of complexity, which can be difficult to wrap our heads around, and uncertainty, which is deeply stressful and challenging to deal with. And how we make sense of these shifts and disruptions is innately personal, informed by our rich inner worlds which have been shaped by a lifetime of lived experiences.
It’s a Tricky Dynamic
This creates a tricky dynamic when it comes to leading our teams and businesses and making decent decisions. How do we know what to pay attention to? How do we make a decision when there is so much information coming at us? Why are there so many unknowns, surprises and unintended consequences? It's all too easy to feel confused, overwhelmed, unmoored and unsupported – all at once.
The Limits of Our Knowledge
Developing our Contextual Intelligence enables us to understand the limits of our knowledge and the diverse conditions inherent in ourselves, other people, cultures, societal norms and business environments in ways that are difficult to codify.
This crucial leadership competency helps us to avoid the common mistake of relying on surface-level insights, inspiring us to tap into the rich reservoir of knowledge, perspectives and wisdom inherent in different environments.
It challenges our love affair with certainty, control and predictability, empowering us to adapt to a variety of scenarios and situations. It also explains why our business practices may need radical reworking (rather than tweaking) to fit local or altered conditions.
Right now, the world is a really noisy place with endless predictions about what may or may not emerge. However, the future is a construct. It has yet to exist, and we have much more agency over what's to come than we might realise. With every choice and decision we make today, we are playing our part in fashioning the world we will live in tomorrow. The future is the here and now. How will we lead it?
If you’re interested in developing your team or organisation’s Contextual Intelligence, bookings for the Context Rules! Masterclass and Keynote are now open for 2025.
Until next time, take good care of yourself.
Best, Louise
Louise Mowbray is the founder of Mowbray By Design, the Future-Focused Conscious Leadership Consultancy. She is an executive advisor and coach, keynote speaker, futurist and facilitator. She is also the author of 'Relevant: Future-Focused Leadership’. https://mowbraybydesign.com/