CONSHOHOCKEN, PA--(Marketwire - Nov 1, 2012) - Insights from the inaugural DSI Strategic Leadership Forum suggest that organizations face a critical deficit in the strategic development skills among their top executives. This capability gap is creating a new level of urgency in an uncertain world. DSI, a leading future-centered consulting firm, hosted more than 15 regional business and learning leaders in Philadelphia, Thursday, October 18, 2012, for a roundtable discussion of the state of strategic thinking. The forum was the first in a series of events, in which DSI will gather executives to discuss key strategic leadership challenges and areas for development.
The roundtable discussion, which included leaders from healthcare providers, pharmaceutical, financial services, insurance and public sector industries, centered on the cross-industry challenges of strategic leadership and highlighted the ever-increasing need for this vital capability. Hot buttons included:
1. A Fuzzy Framework
Leaders pinpointed the lack of a clear framework or working vocabulary, to build and develop strategic leaders as a key challenge. This results in poorly conceived and unfocused efforts to build strategic leadership capability. Since it is hard and unnatural to target strategic leadership, most organizations still default to rewarding executional, tactical and technical achievements. Leadership development programs lack robust tools or metrics to build strategic capabilities because a coherent framework is missing.
2. Sinking Risk Thresholds
Executives also acknowledged the ever-increasing pressure to excel in an atmosphere where failure and risk are deemed unacceptable -- despite research that proves there are benefits to those who learn from mistakes. Organizations primarily reward short-term results, so long-term strategic thinking and development often fall to the wayside, creating a gap in strategic leadership capability that is harmful to growth and navigation in uncertain times.
"It's clear that there is an urgency for strategy among today's top leaders," said Steve Krupp, CEO of DSI. "As the stakes get higher, this skill will only become more important to the growth and survival of organizations, across all industries and at all levels. Fortunately, we now have proven solutions to assess and develop strategic thinkers."
To learn more about DSI's Strategic Leadership Forum visit, www.decisionstrat.com.
About DSI (http://www.decisionstrat.com)
Founded in 1990, DSI is a recognized leader in future-centered consulting. It provides adaptive planning and executive development to help some of the world's leading organizations excel. DSI has helped more than 200 organizations around the globe, including nine of the Fortune 10, through uncertainty mapping, risk mitigation, critical decision-making, change management and innovation.