In the absence of a great dream pettiness prevails. Shred visions foster risk taking, courage and innovation. Keeping the end in mind creates the confidence to make decisions even in moments of crisis.

Small changes can produce big results - but the areas of highest leverage are often the least obvious.

The gap between vision and current reality is also a source of energy. If there were no gap, there would be no need for any action to move towards the vision. We call this gap creative tension.

Governments, especially democratic ones, are short-term and nationalistic.

Over the long run, superior performance depends on superior learning.

By using the systems archetypes we can learn how to “structure” the details into a coherent picture of the forces at play.

When teams are truly learning, not only are they producing extraordinary results, but the individual members are growing more rapidly than could have occurred otherwise.