Michael Lissack Creating Your Own Coherence Landscapes
Leaders can deliberately create coherence through landscape experi- ences and metaphors in several ways:
Shared Explorations
Organize literal journeys—market visits, customer immersions, com- petitor explorations—that allow diverse team members to directly expe- rience relevant landscapes together.
Visual Mapping
Create visual representations of business landscapes that make ab- stract relationships concrete and visible. Strategy consultant Phil Rowley describes this approach:
"We create large-scale visual maps of competitive land- scapes that teams can literally walk around—plotting competitors, market segments, and strategic options as physical locations. This transforms abstract discussions into concrete conversations about where we are, where we want to go, and how we might get there."
Landscape Storytelling
Develop compelling landscape narratives that explain organizational challenges and opportunities through vivid imagery. This approach proves particularly valuable during periods of major change. When Anne Mulcahy became CEO of Xerox during its near-bankruptcy in 2000, she employed powerful landscape imagery to create coherence around the turnaround effort:
"We're standing at the edge of a cliff. Behind us is a forest fire destroying everything we've built. Ahead of us is a
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