Embrace Imagination to Escape Incrementalism

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Leaders often get trapped in distractive environments and focus excessively on efficiency, falling into the Jevons paradox, which narrows their thinking and stifles creativity. A lack of engagement with imaginative literature, like science fiction, hinders their capacity for innovative thoughts. Smaller leadership cohorts can foster genuine exploration, avoiding superficial participation in quest-like initiatives that fail to address ambiguity. It is essential to differentiate between meaningful progress and the delusion of progress, where default thinking obstructs significant advancements, perpetuating a cycle of incrementalism.

We talk a lot about the importance of emergence—of being more comfortable with being uncomfortable. However, it’s hard to practice what you preach… especially for a podcast with a tight schedule. Normally, when one of two hosts is out of commission, you don’t record. But when this recently happened to us, we asked “How might we?” and took a big ol’ step into the unknown.

We’re glad we did, because this week’s guest is Dr. Jason Fox, a self-proclaimed wizard-philosopher, best-selling author, and senior leadership advisor to Fortune 500 companies around the world. In classic wizard-philosopher fashion, he and Sam throw out the script for a far-reaching conversation about the importance of rituals, the roles we play when we’re at work, and how embracing uncertainty is where the magic truly happens.

Learn more about Jason: