ABSTRACT
The complex, unpredictable, and paradoxical nature of the global strategy environment in which traditional transaction-oriented, linear, controlling executives now fi nd themselves requires that they pursue a broader range of, and more agile, thinking in order to make sustainable and innovative strategy. A board member of a British investment bank with whom I was working coined the terms surf and dive after we had been collaborating on strategicthinking issues for several days. The surf domain is a metaphor for surfi ngthe kind of learning that happens on the surface. Surf learning is easy to understand, has answers, is instrumental, transactional, and is relatively safe. We can make sense of things through transacting with information and events, creating a series of responses, and taking new actions.
