Maybe I should have put together another book! After all, look at where we find ourselves today! If I were to write one right now, it would be how to navigate through uncertainty, complexity, and relentless volatility. But perhaps by the time I wrote it, we might find no need for it! There's always hope!
Barely 3 months in, 2022 has certainly been defined by volatility and the unexpected. War in Ukraine, accelerating inflation, an uncertain economic horizon, continued supply chain challenges, high oil, and gasoline prices. I tried to capture the idea of future volatility last year when I started putting together some blog posts about the year to come with a number of related 'thinking-teasers" - short clips that give people something to think about. Here are two of them. Notice a theme?
And while I force myself to be an optimist, I also had one moment in which I compiled a list of the worst things yet to come, and wrote them into a really depressing blog post, The Dark Underside of a Usually Optimistic Future: How Bad Could Things Get? Pretty Bad!' In a particularly sour mood, I captured all of my negative predictions into one spot. How bad could it get? Pretty bad. I dare you to read it, and disagree with some of my predictions. You can read it here: https://badthings.jimcarroll.com
To go with it, I "filmed a thing." It's pretty dark, LOL. I even found some wonderfully dark music to go with it. Depressing!
What was one of the things on the list of my 'bad things' post? War with China - and so while I did not anticipate Ukraine, I did expect unexpected volatility!
Here's the point of this post - I've long thought that we would enter a new era of accelerating volatility, and here we find ourselves today. And so, being forward-oriented, one of the keynote themes I pulled together last year that is now attracting attention is how to lead through volatility. It plays into the types of talks I did through our last era of big volatility from 2008 to 2011 or so. I kept pretty busy! Check out the description - and take a look at the image at the end. That's from a keynote from early 2009.
So keep this in mind - where we find ourselves today, accelerating into the unexpected is the natural result of what happens when we find ourselves in a world in which volatility is the new normal!
Keynote: Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity - Leadership Strategies and Insight for the Post Pandemic World
History has taught us that only 10% of organizations become breakthrough performers during a period of economic challenge. What will you do to be part of this elite group of aggressive survivors?
Futurist Jim Carroll has carefully studied the strategies they pursue, the concepts that drive them, and the actions they take to become a success in this complex new world.
It's timely and critical insight! Recovery-oriented CEOs and senior executives understand that in addition to managing existing challenges, right now is the time to focus on strategies that align to our complex new reality in order to achieve growth and pursue the opportunity. They know that they need to act quickly to establish an innovative mindset with their team in order to get there quickly.
In this interactive keynote, Jim provides his unique insight on staying ahead in volatile times. A culture that has everyone thinking about what can be done going forward rather than looking back. A solutions-oriented mindset in which people are thinking less about the problems that have occurred, and more about the innovative strategies that could be pursued. A leadership style and mindset that takes on volatility as a form of innovation oxygen, complexity as a foundation for action, uncertainty as to the platform for disruption, and ambiguity as to the clarity for stifling aggressive indecision.
