Human minds tend to estimate things linearly. Technological change, however, is an exponential phenomenon. This natural inability to anticipate exponential change exposes businesses to disruptive risk. As technological growth accelerates, the impact of strategic decision-making is accelerating too.
"40% of Fortune 500 companies will not exist in a meaningful way in 10 years from now."
— John Chambers, ex Cisco CEO
“Our intuition about the future is linear. But the reality of information technology is exponential, and that makes a profound difference. If I take 30 steps linearly, I get to 30. If I take 30 steps exponentially, I get to a billion.”
— Ray Kurzweil
Synthetic biology, quantum computing, robotics, AI, blockchain, 3D printing, and more, will be part of our lives in a few short years. Those changes will not just transform our productivity. They will completely remodel our society and the way we live.
When it comes to social change, it’s not so much what people’s ideologies are, or what people believe. Looking back on history, the big political and social changes happen when technology changes. And the most interesting thing is that nobody sees it coming.
Some experts are predicting mass - unemployment by year 2025. According to Elon Musk, “it will be very disruptive and very quick.” Amazon is launching stores with no employees. Warehouses are rolling out fleets of small robots to replace significant numbers of human workers. That’s 8 million people in the US alone.
To put this in some perspective: in 2007, the biggest companies in terms of market capitalization were unrelated to the tech industry. In 2017, those companies are all in tech. And while their market capitalization is 30% greater, they employ 44% fewer people.
This trend will only accelerate.
Individuals, communities, the companies we work for, and the institutions we belong to, stand to be disrupted. The vast majority of people are not ready. And because people make communities, those communities are not ready either. As a result, most companies and enterprises are not prepared.
But what exactly do we mean by “not prepared?” What is it that we’re missing? Is it information? Is it some training program?
Financial Times Global 500 Rankings
As technological growth accelerates, the impact of strategic decision-making is accelerating too.
And despite having more information at our fingertips than ever before, our decision-making is not getting any better.
We believe that it is not information or training that is missing. What we need is the transformation that comes from human growth. As we grow, our capacity for complexity, our form of mind, changes. We see the world around us with different eyes and understand our inner landscapes from a different perspective.
Human growth doesn’t stop when we become adults. Growth is part of what being human is. That’s what we are here for. Growth is our most innermost desire and need.
Adult Plateau Fallacy is the mistaken notion that human growth stops at adulthood.
This misconception was less of a problem during the industrial age. Back then, work experience and specialization were adequate because markets and production lines were predictable.
But today’s exponential change requires larger, more flexible and complex minds. The need for human growth has never been greater.
Creativity, critical thinking, mental flexibility, empathy, perspective taking. We cannot send people to training courses to magically learn those skills. They have to grow into them. They have to learn experientially, in their everyday life and work. People have to mature into a different way of doing things.
As a senior EnPro Industries leader says, “you don’t learn how to be a better listener by going to a better listener class. You learn how to be a better listener through practice.” Our frame of mind mirrors the communities we belong to, the way we work in our teams and organizations—the overall culture of our institutions. The greatest catalyst (or impediment) to human growth is the maturity level of the institutions we belong to.
Our work over the years has taught us that the best way to encourage human growth is by focusing on the communities people belong to—their teams, their business units, their overall company culture. In this fast moving world, where competition evolves at breakneck speed, the capacity for centralized control is diminishing. Organizations are increasingly functioning in a decentralized way, empowering people to be autonomous decision makers. To contribute ideas to problems that are bigger than any of us. To participate in learning and growth for everyone involved: people, teams, communities and enterprises.
Economic performance is a natural outcome of human development. Financial and operational performance are linked with human development. We call this, Dual Bottom Line.
Progression of human capacity happens through the performance of daily tasks. Development is not limited to special occasions or events, but is ongoing in learning communities.
We use the existing complexity of everyday business challenges to grow people. No training programs, no reporting on progress, no separate management process.
People grow and develop to the point where they can thrive in times of rapid change and escalating complexity. They become bigger, more agile versions of themselves, so they can achieve more. They learn to let go of limiting and outdated assumptions and practices. They evolve into a fluid, flexible, and high-performing organization.
Learning organizations see in terms of wholes rather than fragmented parts. They recognize the inherent interconnectedness of the world. Becoming whole is part of the human journey. It naturally taps into the human potential.
We are building an ever growing network of thought leaders, industry pioneers and innovators that share the same mission. Sounds interesting?
