The Next Next Common Sense
them identify and prioritize specific technical improvements that signifi- cantly enhanced the overall ecosystem.
3. Be Conscious of Framing
Remember that viewing landscapes is an act of framing. Like the artist or photographer, the business leader must choose which elements to include within the frame and which to leave outside. Be deliberate about your framing choices:
• What timeframe does your landscape represent? • What geographic scope does it encompass?
• Which stakeholders are included, and which are left out? • What metrics determine the "elevation" of different features?
Different frames reveal different insights. A competitive landscape framed around current market share provides different insights than one framed around innovation capacity or customer loyalty. The most valuable approaches often involve deliberately shifting between different frames to develop a more comprehensive understanding.
4. Recognize Mediums of Transmission
Identify the mediums in your environment—the transmitters or car- riers of information or emotion. Like the oils of a painting or the phone wire of a telephone call, the vehicle that transports information has an existence that will affect the perception of the information itself. Travel on landscapes and transformation of landscapes both require mediums—tools or vehicles. People, too, can be mediums for the ex- change of information. Speaking of the members of one's network in this way conveys a sense both of how important each member is and of what actions each member can take. It's important to realize that we often see through mediums (in- deed, that is why they are mediums) but that they play vital roles on the
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