The book
CurrentA Practice of Living in Motion
What if leadership were not about control, but about learning to interact — to read movement, stay present under pressure, and shape direction without pretending to control the system?
A radical reframing of what it means to lead in conditions of complexity, uncertainty, and constant change. Drawing on Heraclitean philosophy, Ralph Stacey's complexity theory, and decades of executive advisory experience across the Nordic region and beyond, Kenneth Saxskiold-Noerup argues that the fundamental challenge of modern leadership is not strategy or structure — it is the capacity to remain present, oriented, and purposeful while in motion.
- Edition
- First edition
- Language
- English
- Format
- Hardcover · Paperback · eBook
- Pages
- 209
- ISBN
- 978-87-976843-0-6
- Published
- 2026, SAXSKIOLD
A second, revised edition (978-87-976843-3-7) is in preparation for 2026. The Companion already follows its fourteen-chapter structure.
Additional retailers to be added.
The interactive Companion reads the book with you, chapter by chapter — not a summary but a conversation held to the book's own premises.
To see how the whole practice moves through a leader, the Flow Through Self model traces what arrives from upstream, what passes through the self, and what is passed downstream — the terrain the book asks you to stand in.
At the heart of the book
The river.
A deceptively simple metaphor. Like a current, organisations and the people within them are never static. The question is not how to stop the flow, but how to navigate it with skill, awareness, and integrity.
From this foundation, CURRENT develops the Stay · Sense · Shape model — a three-part capability framework that enables leaders to ground themselves, read emerging conditions, and act with conscious intention rather than reactive force.
What Current is not
- — Not a conventional leadership manual.
- — Not a checklist of behaviours.
- — Not a set of shortcuts to mastery.
- — Not a manifesto of certainty.
What Current is
- — An invitation into a deeper practice.
- — A weaving of philosophical reflection and organisational reality.
- — A book for leaders, coaches, and thinkers willing to engage seriously.
- — A way of leading better by first understanding the self more fully.
What readers say
“An authentic humble and thoughtful reflection on a lifetime of management and life experience, this is a book that gets in your brain and simmers. The reminder that we all exist in constant interaction, development and change challenges you to consider self, relationships and engagement with the world more deeply and maybe even more objectively? There is much to learn here if you are ready to dive in.”
“A rare leadership book that does not sell control, but deepens your capacity to stand in complexity with integrity, presence, and courage.”
“This is not an easy read in the sense of easy answers; it asks for patience and self-honesty. For leaders willing to do that work, it becomes an invaluable companion rather than another management trend.”
“A quietly radical book about how currents of culture, power, and story move through us and how to live, lead, and relate more responsibly inside them.”
“Current will frustrate anyone looking for quick fixes; it refuses checklists and neat models. Yet that is precisely why it stays with you and subtly changes how you lead.”
“A rigorous, elegantly written exploration of practice in motion, translating complexity, phenomenology, and ethics into a lived philosophy of organising.”
“At times I wanted more prescriptions and fewer questions, but Saxskiolds insistence on staying with ambiguity feels truer to real leadership than most ‘playbooks’ on my shelf.”
From the opening
“No one steps in the same river twice — and yet we keep designing organisations as though stepping were the exception, and standing still the rule.”
— from CURRENT, opening pages
The book begins in the water, not on the bank. It argues that the leader's task is not to arrest movement but to remain workable inside it — to stay when the ground is unstable, to sense what the situation is actually asking, and to shape a next move small enough to be honest and large enough to matter.