LEADERSHIP SKILLS FOR NAVIGATING TURBULENCE

WHILE change is undoubtedly accelerating exponentially, the tools to cope with it are also accelerating equally fast.Perhaps the gap between them is constant.

- R GOPALAKRISHNAN

Most of us are convinced we are living amid never-before turbulent times. It is true, but only partially. What do we mean when we say 'never-before turbulence'? When Covid occurred, it was seen as a 'once in a century' event.

Think back to your parents' and grandparents' times. Did they not sincerely believe their times were turbulent? When partition occurred in 1947, it was a 'once in a civilisation' event.

Contemporary futurologists and visionaries persuade us that AI, ESG, EV, quantum computing and alternative energy will irreversibly change our lives. Leaders naturally feel challenged, if not stressed. The perception of challenge and stress may be more manageable if leaders could remember that times were always turbulent.

Historian Ian Mortimer's book, Centuries of Change (2015), takes you on a whirlwind tour of the last 10 centuries and pits one century against others to explore which saw the greatest change a complex and subjective exercise. If I had to summarise the findings of the book, it is that the answer depends on how you look at it. In medicine, it may be one century (think anaesthetics), while in travelling to new lands (think ships), it may be another. If the turbulence of change is measured by the number of people impacted (printing press), then it is one century, but if it is by amount of money spent (space travel), it may be another. Is it likely each generation views its own period as being the most turbulent? Most likely, yes.