IN THE 2019 PwC Global Crisis Survey, 69 percent of respondents said they expected a global crisis in the next five years, most likely due to a financial meltdown or technology failure. Little did they know how soon the crisis would come. Just nine months after the survey was released, an entirely different and unexpected medical and public health crisis — COVID-19 — has fundamentally altered the world. If driving change in the uncertain and turbulent environment that existed at the beginning of 2020 was a complex challenge, the degree of difficulty has now been ramped up significantly.
As we recently noted in these pages, five global forces — asymmetry of wealth, disruption, age disparities, polarization, and loss of trust — which together we’ve termed ADAPT, were already changing the way millions of people live and work (see “Adapting to a new world,” s+b, May 13, 2020). The pandemic has sharply accelerated these forces. As a result, organizations have even less time than they thought to reconfigure themselves so that they can maintain their viability in a vastly changed world. In our new book, we predict that humanity has “10 years to midnight.” But with events moving so quickly, it seems there may be even less time until the fateful hour. The good news is that by recognizing the challenges confronting society, internalizing the lessons of the pandemic, and deploying the tools and technologies at hand, we can chart a new, more adaptive course. But doing so is going to place a fresh set of demands and intense pressures on leaders.
The six paradoxes of leadership
この記事は strategy+business の Winter 2020 版に掲載されています。
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この記事は strategy+business の Winter 2020 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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THE URGENT NEED FOR SOPHISTICATED LEADERSHIP
The pandemic has highlighted a series of paradoxes inherent to the work of leaders. What comes next will depend on how well leaders face up to them.
The road to successful change is lined with trade-offs
Rather than trying to convince people your change initiative is the right one, invite them to talk openly about what it might take to implement it: the good, the bad, and the frustrating.
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Embrace four principles to turn today’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives into sustained progress.
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Consumer companies must take leaps, not steps
As shoppers show how quickly they can adapt to external shocks, retailers will need to radically reconfigure their business models.
Businesses can fast-track innovation to help during a crisis
“Unrealistic” timelines can actually work. Here’s how.
Agility and experience management work better together
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