On September 10th, in “Listening for Context“, I talked about how I had observed in many meetings in my time in Cayman what was NOT being said. Specifically that nobody was ready to talk about what it would mean to re-open the borders. I predicted that the planned October 14th border opening would not happen. What we have then seen in the next week was the first community transmission cases in 14 months in Cayman, which accelerated something that I felt strongly was going to happen anyway, which was that the Cayman Islands Government pushed back their reopening date until at least early 2022.
Now, earlier this week I met up for the first time in person for eighteen months with the brilliant Ben Brabyn (watch/listen to Ben and I in conversation last year on WhatComesNextLive here). One topic I raised was my observation that people were almost universally talking about life beyond covid and looking and planning for that. I noted that my sense is that this is set for a rude awakening, that Covid will never go away, it will always be with us. Ben then asked a key question, “what does that mean?”.
- We are living in the fastest times we have ever lived in and the slowest we ever will
- We also can predict less and less in this VUCA world (Volatile, Unpredictable, Complex, Ambiguous
- We as Humans have created much of this environment. Humans influence evolution and spread of diseases old and new (and variants) through increasingly advanced scientific methods plus global air travel and more. Humans influence climate change and the climate crisis we are now deep into. Humans influence the pace of technological change. Whether or not covid is with us to stay, we will live in a pandemic / endemic disease era, whether or not we wish to hear this yet.
- We cannot learn fast enough to keep up, nor can even the smartest people in the world have all the answers
I will be considering this question for a longer post, but a few thoughts for now:
- We, therefore, need our education systems to teach not fact, but how to learn, and specifically how to learn in an adaptive and rapidly iterative fashion.
- We also need new forms of leadership.
Over five years ago I developed a new leadership model of #OpenLeadership, based on the pace of change and the need for leaders who listen and learn more than command and control. I wrote about this in “Are you Ready for Open Leadership” and the model illustrated above remains at the core of my thinking, a model I teach and have at the centre of my work with leaders around the world.
Covid has simply accelerated us into a time when #OpenLeadership is not simply a positive new way to lead that is gaining traction, it is a global imperative across leadership both private sector, public sector and in politics. As Trotsky said: “War is the locomotive of history”. Covid put the world on a war footing, accelerating change at previously unfathomable speed.
Thank you again, Ben, for bringing these thoughts forward from me, I’ll now be cogitating on “what does that mean?” and will write further around the topic.
To close, if this theme hits home for you, I’d love to talk to you and listen to your thoughts and ideas. You can book a zoom here in moments, I love to listen to diverse views on topics around Leadership of all forms!