Episode 17: Leading in Unpredictable Times

My guest, Steve Wyatt, who is an authority of leading in the 4th Industrial Revolution, shares his insights on how to lead in this highly unpredictable time.

The management practices that have served us well in the past, e.g., forecasting, ‘peck and chase’ strategy and processes don’t work well at a time when things are constantly changing.

Which is why we need 3 important skills for us to work at speed in today’s world of change. The 3 skills are:

(i) Sense and making sense of what is happening around us

(ii) Seizing the opportunity by coming up with a solution

(iii) And implementing the solution quickly not just at the home base but right across the world

In my conversation with Steve, he stresses the importance of optionality. He also talks about knowing when to stop doing things as the tendency for many of us today is adding too much stuff onto the ‘To Do’ list.

A good analogy of how all of us move forward is to use the analogy of crossing a river by stepping on stones. While we might not know all the steps to get ahead, we can’t stop moving as stopping would result in us being washed away by the currents of the river.