Generation Flux describes the people who will thrive best in today's global environment. It is a psychographic, not a demographic; you can be any age. Their characteristics are clear: an embrace of adaptability and flexibility; an openness to learning from anywhere; decisiveness tempered by the knowledge that business life today can shift radically every few months or so.
Navigating work in an era that refuses to settle into a status quo.
The overriding concern is simple: Traditional organizational structures no longer seem sufficient. This is the challenge of the 21st Century leadership. We have grown up with certain assumptions and beliefs about what works in an enterprise, what the metrics for success are, how we organize and deploy resources. The bulk of these assumptions are wrong now. The world in which we were raised and trained no longer exists. The clarity of words we use to discuss business (like marketplace and competitive advantage) are being redefined and rendered almost meaningless.
In this world of constant change, following a single system or model is foolhardy--the companies that succeed will be nimble and ever-changing.
Twenty years ago, Margaret Wheatley published a book called "Leadership and the New Science." It was prescient then: it is even more eye-opening now. Her premise: Organizations and society have been structured to match our understanding of the natural world, which goes back to the 17th Century ideas of Sir Isaac Newton. In Newtonian physics, there is no greater goal than stability. Now, however, post-Newtonian study of quantum mechanics and subatomic particles illustrate that cause and effect is not a given in the natural world. Creation comes not from stasis but from unpredictable movement. Chaos is everywhere.
One of the more mind-bending paradoxes of quantum physics that Wheatley highlights is the fact that subatomic matter has two form of being. In something called a double-slit experiment, an electron behaves like a wave when it is observed in one way and like a particle when it is observed another way. Both views are true. Organizational systems based on the Newtonian model are not equipped for these dualities.
"Companies and people tend to look at chaos as an obstacle, a hurdle," says Nike CEO Mark Parker. "We look at it as an opportunity: Get on the offense. Sometimes, it's good to see raw ideas at the basic level."
In a fast-changing world, the boots on the ground--be they soldiers or salespeople, engineers or intelligence officers--often need to react without going up the chain of command for approval. What's more, they need to be empowered to act, to solve problems they encounter unexpectedly. This kind of openness requires not just free-flowing information but a new kind of collaborative trust.
The either-or framing drilled into us from an early age is a useless oversimplification. This insight may be the most important one for the age of Flux. There exists no single model that leads to success. Tolerating, accepting, and reveling in paradox is the approach demanded by our chaotic economy.
Leaders must develop emerging leaders and encourage failure. They must encourage experimentation and implement efficient processes. They must institutionalize constant change. They must be ready to constantly throw aside previous assumptions.
Sources: FASTCOMPANY, November 2012
Margaret J. Wheatley: Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World (ebook at $9.99, paperback at $14.25)
Self-Coaching Leadership Books in ebook or paperback editions:
Develop Leadership Skills: A Mobile Reference Guide ,
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