For every act there is an accepted set of limits. If you stay inside them it is considered safe.  Pushing the outside of the envelope tests those limits, finding out exactly how far they can be pushed.

The term came from mathematics first, and then was applied to aeronautics. Tom Wolfe made it popular in his novel, The Right Stuff, about US pilots experimenting in the 40s, 50s, and 60s with rocket-powered, high-speed aircraft.

One of the phrases that kept running through the conversation was "pushing the envelope." The "envelope" was a flight-test term referring to the limits of a particular aircraft's performance, how tight a turn it could make at such-and-such a speed, and so on. "Pushing the outside," probing the outer limits, of the envelope seemed to be the great challenge and satisfaction of flight test. At first "pushing the outside of the envelope" was not a particular terrifying phrase to hear...

Then Wolfe goes on to detail the horrible crashes and deaths that result in the boundary where human effort meets the laws of physics. He concludes a few pages later, "One of the most demanding disciplines in flight test was to accustom yourself to making precise readings from the control panel in the same moment that you were pushing the outside of the envelope..."

Visionary leaders live on the frontier and find themselves often at the limits of what the system will bear. And everyone knows, frontiers people are a weird lot. Those who spend a lot of time at the limits of human endeavor do not take for granted the same assumptions the masses share and their ways reflect it.

Further, they are no strangers to danger. Each has their own standards and ways of dealing with greater ambiguity and threat than most of us would choose to take on.Yet, human progress owes them immeasurable debt, as these visionaries are responsible for breaking the collective trance of what is possible, forging into new territory, and making real progress possible.

Being a visionary while leading an organization is an odd pairing. Organizations by their very nature are paragons of stability, thriving on the rhythm and pacing of the status quo. Yet, when the two find each other, the makings of greatness are present: the potential to lead in a rapidly changing world.

To make the whole thing work there needs to be some kind of weaving together of the dependable foundation of the organization with the adventurous experiments of the visionary. How this happens is as individual as the alchemical mixture of organization and personality can be, which is to say highly nuanced.  Nonetheless, here are seven guidelines that can make a valuable contribution:

1. Recognize the need for both pushing the envelope and providing a firm foundation. Do not attempt to convert either to the other's task. Put conditions in place that allows each to succeed powerfully with their task.
   
2. Avoid micro managing by the visionary. Instead, create a body or hire a person to connect the dots.
   
3. Avoid boxing in the visionary with requirements and bureaucracy. Instead, develop frameworks that embrace the liquidity of their actions.
   
4. Provide appropriate and robust two-way communication between visionary and staff members. Take it seriously. The visionary needs to read the control panel and the people who are keeping the trains running need to welcome innovation.  In general it's about 75%-25% for each. The visionary needs to know the top 25% of the organization's basic performance indicators, and those in the trenches need a good dose of 25% of the disruptive, boundary-pushing activity that is taking place at the top.
5. Choose processes to weave the two together that are flexible, and bridge these two worlds: stability and transformation. Do not use frameworks that are inflexible or rigid. Just the same, do not allow chaos to reign by stepping free of processes altogether. Instead choose a way of working that provides both adaptability and reliable endurance.
   
6. Welcome the friction.  Prepare for it. Budget for it. Bring in expertise that knows how to handle it and use it to create extraordinary results.
   
7. Work both ends. Follow visionary insights; ie, probe new ground. Likewise, leverage the steadiness, dependability, and strength of a solid foundation. These two combined create the perfect conditions for achieving the gold standard.
   

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