We Need Leaders to Generate Practical Hope Amidst Accelerating Change and Anxiety
Naïve hope for a return to a new normal is an illusion. Practical hope is not the wish or belief that everything is going to get better. It develops from the conviction that the best way to plan and prepare for a world of accelerating change is to recognize that we are in the age of adaptation. The times call for leaders who can help others think more clearly and creatively about the unpredictable, emerging challenges their organizations will face.
In 2005, I had an encounter that changed the way I guide businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies to make wise plans for an uncertain future. I sat in a conference room with fifteen members of a division leadership team in a large science and engineering laboratory. One of the world’s leading futurists presented them with a framework to think clearly about the uncertain future in the next twenty years.
He described powerful trends that have since become common daily headlines:
- the inevitable arrival of a global pandemic that could turn the world upside down;
- accelerating flows of refugees that overwhelm borders and create political instability;
- increasing magnitude and frequency of climate disasters;
- intensifying political and social polarization (international, national, and local); and
- increasing fragility of a globally interconnected financial system and supply chain.
His key message was “Leaders cannot predict the future, but they can enable it by preparing their organizations to adapt.” Fixed, long range plans inevitably become irrelevant amidst rapid change. Rigid structures with limited hierarchical communication flows are too slow and limit creativity. Therefore, leaders must increase the capacity of the organization to be flexible and respond in new and different ways.
There is an acronym (V.U.C.A.) that summarizes the ongoing dynamic reality that all organizations (business, nonprofit, and government) must prepare for.
- Volatile - powerful dynamics and velocity of change continually shift conditions
- Uncertain – inability to predict and the probability of being surprised increases anxiety and produces unskilled reactions
- Complex - decision makers become overloaded with factors to consider, producing confusion and paralysis
- Ambiguous – inability to discern what is happening increases misunderstanding and mischaracterization of opportunities, challenges, problems, and threats
The futurist highlighted the need for a new generation of leaders with the vision, understanding, and skills to build organizations that can adapt with more flexible structures and approaches. He also indicated the need for organizations to seek out new strategic coalitions, partnerships, alliances, and networks in government, business, nonprofit and civil society.
I believe that adaptable leaders must have the skills of a mediator, able to:
- bridge different perspectives;
- facilitate honest, productive dialogue;
- reconcile differences; and
- build sustainable agreements.
Adaptable leaders must be leadiators who canguide organizations to make increased adaptive capacity their true north. Only then can their organizations navigate change and uncertainty with three fundamental strategies:
- BUILD UNITY - Bring people together with an inspiring sense of purpose, clear shared values and guiding principles. Focus them on a compelling vision that motivates their creative, collaborative efforts.
- IMPROVE AGILITY – Design the organization’s structure and provide training to enable high integrity, high confidence decision making and flexible response. This builds trust and increases the speed of execution.
- GENERATE FORCE MULTIPLICATION- Facilitate engagement, dialogue, learning velocity, and the flow of creative ideas throughout the organization. A healthy, unified organization becomes more than the sum of its parts.
Leadiators guide individuals and groups to generate practical hope by doing things that make sense, using these strategies to work together in creative collaboration, no matter how things turn out. In future newsletters, I will describe specific action ideas that implement these three strategies.
Leadiators have the duty to develop the organizational adaptive capacity to respond resourcefully to the inevitable, unpredictable changes ahead. How is your organization building adaptive capacity?
Words of Wisdom
As we build bridges and even become bridges, we will be doing a service to the world.
John A. Powell Racing to Justice
The greatest force is adaptation and inventiveness, if we can operate well together.
Ray Dalio Legendary financial investor.
Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much. Helen Keller Social visionary
Practice Tip – Develop or Update your Values Statement You need a values statement as part of the trust and shared understanding necessary to unify. If you don’t have one, begin to develop it. If you have one, review and reconfirm your commitment.
There are three parts to an effective statement.
- The key core values, e.g. nouns like Integrity, Respect, Quality Service, Innovation that you want to characterize your organization and the individual behaviors and standards you set for your work together and with others.
- A brief, clear definition of what everyone understands the word means from senior leaders to front line workers, e.g. Respect – Positive regard for the dignity of all people.
- A set of action principles as commitments to take action and implement the core values. For example, under RESPECT, “We will create a psychologically safe environment that encourages all employees, managers, and leaders to speak, ask questions, offer ideas, and raise concerns with leaders and managers.”