In Part 1, System D was explained as a way to deal with unforeseeable events and situations – black swans – that focuses on agility, adaptability, and creativity. In our chaotic times, we need these abilities more than ever. But just how might we actually develop them in practice when they are so different for everyone? An example via a case study was offered for this purpose. Here, it concludes.
You probably know all about System D. No? Well, neither did I until today. Maybe you know what’s coming, unlike myself. No? Well, nobody truly does. And this is just what System D is designed to handle. Dealing effectively with the unforeseeable and unknowable, like black swan events and situations. Vital to know about and use.
Businesses fail for many different reasons, and often for some combination of these. True causes are seen most clearly post-failure, from the smoking rubble. But these causes are almost always detectable long before the final crash and burn. Signs of trouble are there someplace, but few businesses have any way to spot them. That’s what a resilience process can do.
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?
Shortages of everything is being reported as a catastrophe: we are doomed. But what if this is just a symptom of massive changes underway that are now driven by the COVID black swan? Changes that were inevitable in our way-too-brittle world. If so, this shifts our management context to one of challenge and opportunity. We look here at what to do about the global supply chain mess.
