So much these days seems to be getting out of control. Not just in politics but in businesses and organizations generally. Why, and why now? What has changed – the leaders, or their world? Or perhaps it is the role of leaders that has become very different and unfamiliar. At the least, something very big seems to have happened to leadership in these COVID times, but what?
One of the realities of a large complex world is that actions, even the most well-intentioned ones, can have huge unintended and unforeseen consequences. The world works the way it wants, not the way we might hope or plan. The Great Reset may have many noble aims but it is beginning to appear that the world has other ideas. What does this mean for us folks who don’t run the world?
COVID certainly has messed up the world but it will eventually go away. Just another black swan experience. But what if there is something much bigger, fundamental, and permanently world-changing? Like the crisis-driven end of an age? If so, where are we in this time of crisis? Strauss and Howe see this as the final crisis phase or Fourth Turning of a roughly 80-year secular cycle. Could they be right?
Seeking simple answers to complex problems is part of human nature. Humans want to know how something happens – causation – as well as why it happens – understanding and meaning. But all too often, few are willing or even able to go through this typically difficult process. Much quicker and easier to jump at the first simple answer that appears and then invent meaning for it. This often creates much bigger problems. There is a better way.
Life in the old normal was stable, predictable, manageable. Life in the new normal of constant major change is creating Darwinian survival challenges. Size and strength, or being the fittest, will not make you a winner (i.e., survival-plus-success). As Darwin wisely observed back around 1870, it is the most adaptable who ultimately come out on top. Just how do you go about this adaptability thing?
