Lesson 1.1 | Why is it vital to become future-ready?
TRANSCRIPT
Volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity are nothing new. The same goes for the crises and disruptions we are currently facing and faced before. We can no longer excuse disruptions by saying they're black swans when, very often, they hide in plain sight. It's a question of whether we look for them or choose to ignore them.
In the volatile, uncertain world of cascading and interconnected crises, accelerating change inside and outside our organization, and increased competition, being future-ready is no longer a nice-to-have for leaders. It's an absolute necessity for survival and success.
For the last several years, the constancy of firefighting and operating in crisis mode has been taking its toll on leaders, leadership teams, boards of directors, and their organizations. Pure and simple, we cannot keep this up. Amy Edmondson and Mikayla Kerrisey, in a recent Harvard Business Review article, state that traditional leadership skills are inadequate for sustained, interconnected crises.
They note we can't just perpetually firefight and react. People are getting burnt out and stressed, and trust is breaking down. Future-ready leaders are needed—leaders who can see ahead, prepare, thoughtfully respond, and then react to disruptions and crises in change.