Lead Forward: The Next Revolution Is Already Here

Lead Forward: The Next Revolution Is Already Here

4 Global Disruptors and 7 Ways to Lead Forward at the Speed of Change

The Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries, altered life and work as we once knew it.  Guess what?  The next revolution is already here,
 it is a transformation in progress at a velocity McKinsey and Company estimates is happening ten times faster and at 300 times the scale and impact of the Industrial Revolution. 
Read more by the authors of No Ordinary Disruption: The Four Global Forces Breaking All the Trends, to be published by McKinsey and Company on May 12/ by PublicAffairs

1.  The age of urbanization, market shifts and emerging market leadership
2.  Accelerating technological change
3. The challenges of an aging world
4. Greater global connections
 Watch the excellent McKinsey Slideshow:  No Ordinary Disruption


Here are 7 ways to start leading forward at the speed of change:

1.  Recognize and enhance your ability to use the changes you face to develop NEW ways of thinking, collaborating and communicating; ways that help YOU and your people optimize human potential and results while improving the ability to learn, re-learn, innovate and succeed.
Read more:  The Individual and Organizational Imperative for 3Q Leadership™

2. Don’t manage, optimize. Use technology as a tool for adapting, evolving and growing human potential and results.  Develop a culture of optimization because whether you are managing up or not, the imperative to optimize is clear.  You cannot manage change, you cannot manage talent or potential, you need to optimize the fire of human potential by using technology as a tool that can take YOU and your people forward. 
Read more:
 Predictive Technology in Human Capital, Sarah Brennan, HR Tech Blog, 2013

3. Reset your default GPS. Seeing changes, challenges, disruptors as threats is how you are wired; the caveat is that we can re-set our wiring.  YOU do not want to fight or flee; you do not want to react, you want to respond by transforming changes, challenges and disruptors into a positive lever for your greatest potential.  Read more:  Constructive Discontent-Building a Critical Life and Leadership Skill, 2012

 4. Use cultural, generational, cross functional challenges as bridge builders; turn differences around by learning how to communicate across barriers. Develop your ability to speak and write in ways that open the ears of your audience.  Become a culturally and generationally ambidextrous communicator, because you can learn to build bridges that are critical to thriving and surviving at the speed of change. 
Read more: From Now to HOW, 2013

 5. Develop a powerful mix of strong leadership and equally strong collaboration. Find new ways to develop communities of purpose that ignite vertical and horizontal communication, learning, growth and imprint the reality that 21st Century success is a team sport which demands great leadership, great collaboration and a mindset that is pragmatically optimistic and relentlessly solution and value focused.  Success means creating value for others, and it demands both great leadership and equally great collaboration.
Read more:  Are YOU a Collaborative Leader? Herminia Ibarra, Morten T. Hansen Harvard Business Review, 2011

6.  Find new ways, daily ways to get inspired by advances in science, technology and healthcare that are nothing short of extraordinary, because our ability to rise the challenges before us is real and critical. 
Read and enjoy: A growing collection of science and technology advances.

7.  Remember that purpose equals profit.  Technology is a tool, people are your most important resource. Honing in on the critical purpose that unites your people, that serves your community that will help you build a growing, thriving, resilient culture that empowers, enables and actualizes human passion and potential is the way forward.  
Read more:  Leading and Succeeding in Disruptive and Turbulent Times-10 Ten Posts 2014-3Q Leadership™ Blog

 Anything else?  YES!  The revolution is here; the imperative to optimize your ability and the ability of your people to build their 3Q Edge is real and critical.  Read more:  3Q Leadership Exposed™ - Realizing Leadership Magazine, 2014

 More?  Only one thing!  If you enjoyed this post, I encourage you to visit 3Q Leadership Blog for lots of excellent, free, insightful and practical content!  If you are interested in learning more about 3Q Leadership™, guest posting on our blog, or becoming a  member of the 3Q Global Leadership™ Champions, we would love to hear from you!

Image Credit:  Big Stock Photo

Chuck Nyland MBA PMP

Real Estate Development / Construction Project Management: Team leadership, strategic planning, data analysis, communication, collaboration, and problem-solving.

8y

Awesome article!!!

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Scott Guthrie

Influencer Marketing Trade Body Director General, event speaker, podcast host, author of the Creator Briefing newsletter

8y

“You cannot manage change”. I really agree with this Irene Becker. Much of today’s change management methodology is based on a model dating back to the 1940s. Kurt Lewin, the German-American psychologist, put forward his three-phase change theory in 1947 . Both John Kotter’s eight-stage process and Jeff Hiatt’s Prosci ADKAR model can be mapped against Lewin’s linear approach of unfreezing, changing and freezing. Trouble is: the world isn’t linear. It’s dynamic, complex, globally focussed and we are all socially networked within it. So how can change effectively be managed using linear processes in our non-linear world? If fact can we ever truly ‘manage’ change? Change is a function of complexity, uncertainty, and learning, not of executing a detailed plan. Through this lens change moves from slavishly adhering to processes; assiduously using a change methodology’s tools. Instead, change moves towards tailoring efforts of individuals and the way they interact within networks. Fundamental change never ends, and it is better viewed as something to be continually nudged in the right direction. The mind set of change needs to shift from discrete projects to becoming woven into the fabric of a firm’s culture.

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Leon Benjamin

Customer Success | Adoption | Collaboration | Digital Workplace | Change Management | Cloud | SaaS

8y

Profit follows purpose. Like!

Dr John Kenworthy

Leadership AdvantEdge Coach for a Thriving Sustainable Business | Collaborative, High-Performing Teams | Engaged and Joyful Employees

8y

Terrific Irene Becker. Indeed, throw away your GPS, since the maps are already wrong.

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Irene Becker

Trauma Informed Executive Coach who specializes in building improved communication, #leadership, #EQ/#EI during disruptive times and career/life transitions

8y
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