Introduction

The overwhelming questions of our time are:
•Can today’s organizations learn to adapt to accelerating change?
•Do they have the necessary leadership skills?
•Can they overcome their personal and organizational bias for the status quo?
•Can they win the talent war?
•Can they successfully meet the demands of today’s empowered workforce and customers?
•Can they manage the challenges of digital transformation and cybersecurity?
•Can they embrace change and become an adaptive organization?

With the view that accelerating change is making the future impossible to plan for and with a clear sense of the long-term nature of organizations, this book offers a repository of ideas, concepts, and principles for organizational debate, discussion, and decision-making. It views uncertainty as an opportunity to create a competitive advantage.

The premise is that organizations need to think differently, rethink everything, and create an adaptive symmetry of leadership, vision, technology, and talent.
The future, by its nature, is unpredictable, without definition, shape, form, or boundaries—ambiguous, difficult to understand, and easily misinterpreted. Our reactions can swing back and forth inconsistently, divided and hesitating.

In an environment of disruptive change, strategic planning as we know it is no longer workable. Accelerating change makes the future less knowable and impossible to plan for.

Organizations need to become flexible, resilient, and innovative. They need to learn to adjust to constantly changing circumstances and situations. They need to become adaptive.