We Can’t Prepare For Uncertainty Without Changing Our Ways

Leadership Strategy We Can’t Prepare For Uncertainty Without Changing Our Ways Glenn Llopis Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Leadership in the Age of Personalization New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories. Got it! Aug 13, 2022, 09:30am EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Uncertainty news with assorted related newspaper headlines surrounding it.

Shutterstock Imagine getting a troubling health diagnosis. You’re suddenly facing a life that looks nothing like you’d planned it. Your treatments will disrupt your routines.

You won’t feel as energetic as you used to. You might not even be able to continue doing the work you’ve done for years. Some people in this situation will tackle the new challenge with gusto.

They’ll do the treatments, make the changes and adapt to their new realities. Other people will deny the diagnosis and won’t be willing to fight the disease because they don’t want to disrupt the life they’ve become comfortable with. They continue as-is, thinking they’re maintaining a status quo that they find acceptable.

But what they don’t see is that the disease is already changing that status quo for them. Rather than taking the opportunity to shape their new reality themselves, they are surrendering influence over their future by not accepting, facing and adapting to what’s really happening. This is where we are today in our businesses.

Society at large has received a diagnosis: perpetual uncertainty . Unpredictability has always been the fabric of our world, but the pace of change is now so rapid that it is increasingly difficult for organizations to keep up. This accelerating volatility exposes us to new risks that can impact every aspect of our business.

These risks are often impossible to anticipate, which makes them all the more damaging when they do occur. To succeed in this rapidly changing environment, organizations need to be agile and adaptable, with the ability to quickly identify and respond to new risks as they emerge. Only then can they hope to stay one step ahead of the ever-changing world around them.

Learn To Navigate Uncertainty and Change the Way You Think Recommended For You 1 5 Cognitive Biases Blocking Your Success More stories like this Fewer stories like this 2 Preparing To Go Public: An Overview Of The IPO Process More stories like this Fewer stories like this 3 Immigrants Hope Registry Saves Immigration Bill More stories like this Fewer stories like this Much like an unhealthy lifestyle habit, we’ve been warned about this in the past, and our inaction has turned a manageable situation into an urgent crisis. If you deny it and try to maintain the status quo that you have become comfortable with, you will lose control over your own future. But if you recognize the opportunity before you, and adapt to these new realities, you can evolve your organization into one that can adapt.

You don’t have to be able to predict exactly what’s coming. But you do need to be able to adapt and evolve. One thing is certain: the balance of power is shifting away from traditional institutions into the hands of individuals.

RBC Capital Markets calls this “ The Individual Revolution ” and says this will “create a new world order in every aspect of the global economy and will likely be the single biggest disruptive force to existing centers of power. ” If we ignore this truth, it’s as if we’ve been diagnosed with lung cancer yet refuse to quit smoking. Most see change as a threat.

Be the one who sees and seizes it as an opportunity. Find New Opportunities in a Changing World. Learn more about the 2022 Leadership in the Age of Personalization Summit on October 14 th at the Wilbur O.

and Ann Powers College of Business at Clemson University. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn . Check out my website or some of my other work here .

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