InterdisciplinaryBoDs

 The evolution towards synthetic BoDs is likely to occur in the era of information abundance and technology advance, it requires interdisciplinary leadership to manage this integration effectively.

The digital world is hyper-connected and interdependent, a synthetic mind has the advantage to see it as a “whole.”  It is future-oriented, holistic, and focuses on long-term problem-solving, without ignorance of emergent trends. At the boardroom, directorship is about setting directions and inspiring changes; embracing diverse views to establish a great business landscape. Here are the board directors' synthetic views and interdisciplinary leadership in the context of emerging trends in corporate governance:

Synthetic viewpoint: Corporate boards oversee strategies, as seasoned executives, the BoD’s synthetic view of corporate knowledge, insight, capability, action, and results from a historical lens allows them to understand their business strength, evaluate the level of capability/capacity coherence, and maturity, highlight important lessons-learned, recognize possible conflicts that could approach from where they have been.

Synthetic leadership: Every synthesis is built upon the results of a preceding analysis. Besides analysis, it is important to understand the organization piece by piece. Synthetic leadership puts things up or combines components or elements to form a connected whole. Not only do they scrutinize their business capability via traditional categories, but more importantly, they also have a unique vision to integrate seemingly loose components into the new things - capability, patterns, assets, whatever to build core competency for enabling dynamic strategy execution.

Synthetic problem-solving: Many of today’s problems are over-complex and interdependent, which means, besides breaking down, at the senior leadership level such as BoDs, you need to leverage synthesis, combine or integrate different pieces of answers to ensure cohesive and premium solutions to larger problems with less side effect. Solutions are also made from a much broader and encompassing view that is not possible in linear or analytical thinking only. 

The evolution towards synthetic BoDs is likely to occur in the era of information abundance and technology advance, it requires interdisciplinary leadership to manage this integration effectively. An effective board needs to practice synthetic leadership, enable and direct management towards good outcomes, advocate synthetic problem-solving, and ensure the business is on the right track to reach well-defined business goals and maximize its digital potential.

Posted in: Board Room,Leadership Master