In this podcast LID Radio’s Miro Iliev asks David Trafford and Peter Boggis what motivated them to write Beyond Default and they explore some of the ideas in the book, including the main challenges that leaders face when trying to change their organisation’s trajectory to one that leads to an improved future.
ML: Before we get into the meat, themes and ideas in the book, I would really like to ask you what inspired you to start writing and become authors?
DT: Thank you for inviting us to do this podcast. Peter and I never intended to actually write a book, we’ve been working together for over 25 years and during that period of time we’ve written many articles and research reports, and always valued the importance of thought leadership in our consulting work. It was only when we were approached by LID, who’d actually seen some of our website, that we thought this may be a good idea to try and bring all these disparate ideas into a collective whole in the form of a book. So, we set to writing it and here we are now.
ML: Great, and as we’re on the book what really sticks out for me is actually the title, which is very interesting. Can you perhaps tell us about the idea when you came up with it?
PB: So the idea behind this is the realisation David and I had some time ago that all organisations, whether they are multinational corporations, family businesses, not-for-profit enterprises, countries and even societies are on a trajectory to what we call their default future, which is the place they will end up if they take no action other than that currently planned. And we believe it’s the fundamental role and accountability of leaders of organisations to confront that default future, for which they are accountable, and if they consider it to be unacceptable then they need to take action, as leaders, to put their organisation on to a different trajectory to an improved future.