Reader,

Here’s the draft introduction to a forthcoming book which is still untitled.

Leadership When the World Will Not Sit Still

Many leaders today have come to an unsettling realization: the word in which they are leading no longer behaves in ways for which their experience prepared them.

Problems do not stay solved. Decisions trigger consequences far from where they were made. Actions intended to stabilize the organization often introduce new forms of instability. Stakeholders disagree not only on solutions, but on what the problem actually is.

This is not a temporary disruption. It is the signature of our turbulent, highly uncertain environment. And ever since AI “hit the scene,” our world has become even more so.

Back in 1973, a couple of respected researchers coined the term “wicked” to describe this environment.

Wicked

Wicked worlds are not simply complex or fast-moving. They are environments where cause and effect are unclear, where interventions change the system itself, and where learning arrives late, distorted, or contested. In such worlds, leaders are not rewarded for being right so much as punished for being slow, rigid, or blind to change.

Artificial intelligence intensifies these conditions. AI compresses time, amplifies interdependence, and accelerates consequences. It makes weak signals easier to surface, but also easier to misinterpret.

AI can generate answers faster than leaders can assess their meaning. And, in doing so, it exposes a deeper leadership challenge: many of our strategic thinking habits were formed in worlds that were not wicked.

What’s changed?

For decades, leadership practice rested on a set of quiet assumptions.

We assumed that problems could be clearly defined. We assumed that planning could precede action and that expertise aged slowly. We assumed that feedback would arrive in time to correct course.

Those assumptions are now liabilities.

In a wicked world, clarity is provisional and stability is local and temporary. Expertise decays fast. And feedback often arrives only after commitments have hardened.

Leaders still have authority. They still have accountability. But they no longer have the luxury of operating as if the system will wait for them to catch up.

This is why so many leaders today feel simultaneously busy and behind.

Their unease does not come from incompetence. It comes from a mismatch between how leadership work is structured and how the world now behaves.

Traditional leadership models emphasize prediction, control, and optimization. Wicked worlds punish all three.

Are we doomed to fail? No. We can navigate this wicked world, but we’ll need to modify our thinking.

What leaders need instead is not better answers, but better orientation, greater readiness and a disciplined way to stay engaged with change as it unfolds.

That is the role of the Sense–Response Cycle.

The Sense-Response Cycle (SRC) was the foundation of my 2006 book, The Prepared Mind of a Leader. It digs into four fundamental responsibilities of any leader. They need to sense changes, make sense of these changes, decide on a course of action, and then act and learn. I’m updating it for today’s reality.

The SRC is not a planning model. It’s a thinking system. It’s an integrated, repeatable way leaders sense emerging change, make sense of complex interactions, decide under uncertainty, and adapt before circumstances force them to.

It does not promise foresight. It promises the ability to remain oriented and responsible when certainty is unavailable.

In a wicked world, leadership failure rarely looks dramatic at first. It often looks like normal operations continuing a little too long. Metrics remain stable and decisions feel reasonable. But unintended consequences abound. By the time the problem is undeniable, the cost of response is high.

The objective of using the SRC is to shorten that lag.

It helps leaders notice what is changing at the edges of their mental radar screen before it becomes unavoidable at the center. It treats uncertainty not as an enemy to be eliminated, but as a condition to be navigated.

This shift is especially important in AI-shaped environments. AI accelerates execution and lowers the cost of action, but it does not improve judgment. In fact, it often erodes it by encouraging leaders to accept coherent outputs without fully interrogating their assumptions or implications. To quote a friend of mine, AI is like an intern who will lie to you, with confidence.

The SRC restores judgment to its proper place. It recognizes that leaders should be paid for the quality of the thinking that produces timely, responsible action.

That thinking must now operate continuously, not episodically. It cannot be gained through annual planning “retreats.” It must be embedded in everyday routines, conversations, and decisions.

This book is written for leaders who sense that their environment has crossed a threshold, even if their organization has not yet named it.

It is for those who feel the weight of accountability in systems they do not fully control. It is for leaders who recognize that being surprised is no longer an acceptable explanation and that staying relevant requires a different way of thinking.

The chapters that follow do not offer recipes for solving wicked problems. Wicked problems cannot be solved. They can only be engaged, navigated, and responded to over time. What this book offers instead is a disciplined way to think and lead within that reality.

In a wicked world, leadership is not about mastering the environment. It’s about navigating it.

Want a tool to help you navigate the wicked world?

I’ve drafted a “job aid” to help you better see the clues on your horizon. It will be in the book, but you can grab it now if you want. You can get the Sense-Response Radar Template HERE. Doing so will put you on a list for “pieces and parts” as they’re developed.

I hope you have a great week.

Cheers,

Bill