The view from a high (or higher) vantage point has long been linked with strategic thinking and action.

While often used in a military context, there is also a long tradition of symbolically linking elevated positions with elevated thinking about much broader concerns. A selection of symbolic references to various ‘elevated perspectives’ is offered in the following list.

HOTs and LOTs

When we speak of elevating the debate or discourse, we generally refer to avoidance of emotional, combative, or undignified behaviour and speech. The ideal implied by such elevation is to adopt a respectful tone and to focus on ethical and logical propositions.

We also refer to higher-order thinking when referring to analysis, evaluation, and creativity or innovation. Most educational programs refer to the cultivation of cognitive skills. Educational taxonomies such as the Revised Bloom Taxonomy divide these skills into Lower Order Thinking Skills (LOTs), and Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTs).

Such thinking supports solving novel and complex problems, requiring greater mental effort and nuanced judgments. That’s especially the case when dealing with multiple, and sometimes competing, criteria.

The view from the balcony

This elevated thinking also underpins the perspective required when engaged in negotiations, and conflict/dispute resolution. The ‘view from the balcony’ permits consideration of the actors’ (or protagonists’) positions, interests, and needs, using the PINs model illustrated below. Rather than focusing on the posture or initial claims in stated positions, the perspective shift requires examination of the parties’ interests and needs, and identification of Win-Win outcomes.

Celebrated negotiation expert, William Ury‘s latest book Possible: How we Survive (and Thrive) in an Age of Conflict (Harper Collins, 2024) employs both a balcony and bridge metaphor. His message is distilled into this one sentence:

“The path to possible is to go to the balcony, build a golden bridge, and engage the third side – all together, all at once.” (p.302)

https://www.williamury.com/possible/

Ury positions the negotiator as neither an optimist nor a pessimist, but rather a possibilist, whose core principle is humble audacity. (p.23)

Helicopter views

The environmental scanning stage of strategic planning involves an imaginative shift to the elevated perspective offered by the ‘helicopter view’ (Drucker), the view from 30,000 feet (Covey), or other high vantage points. This ensures that the event horizon being scanned is further away than next week, next month, or even next year. Rather, we aim to scan for emerging or prospective needs/issues up to 3-5 years from now.

Higher Ground

Arguably, high places have also enjoyed a long history of association with moral and spiritual thought. Reference Dr Martin Luther King describing his imaginative visit to Mt Olympus, and later, echoing Moses’ descent from Mount Sinai, in his last speech (“I have been to the mountaintop …”).

A comparison of the focus, origins, and advantages of strategic and moral high ground is offered in the next chart.

Ivory Tower or Control Tower?

Academics, and lately, intellectual ‘elites’, have suffered from the characterisation of their evidence-based approach as being too far removed from the experience and understanding of ‘ordinary people’. (See Prof Steven Shapin’s excellent 2012 paper – The Ivory Tower: the History of a Figure of Speech and its Cultural Uses). Non-profit boards sometimes suffer similar criticisms when members or stakeholders feel that directors have lost touch with the day-to-day issues affecting them.

The airport control tower, the bridge of a ship, and the pilot’s cockpit, all share the high vantage point of the key decision-maker and actor. While this elevated view is above the view ‘on the ground’ or ‘in the trenches’, it is well positioned to observe what is happening, and what lies ahead.

From both strategic (control tower) and risk management (watchtower) perspectives, these elevated vantage points offer ad-vantages not available to nonprofit leaders who are stuck ‘in the weeds’ down at ground level.

You may not need to adopt such perspectives all of the time, but desirably some part of every board meeting would involve shifting to the higher ground. Certainly, every debate involving complex problem-solving and strategic considerations will benefit from using an elevated perspective.

See also:

The Scales of Governance: Weighing Options, Argument, Evidence, & Consequences
“Am I thinking what you’re thinking?” – Perspective Taking Vs Perspective Sharing
Double-edged Swords & Paradoxical Choices