The Problem
The modern world is changing all of the time and at a faster rate than ever before. We’ve already experienced monumental technological advancements and social changes in just the past 200 years and the modern globally interconnected world doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon.
Change creates a temptation for people to want to focus on what we know and to turn away from it. Experts call this the “adaptability paradox,” in which the need to change creates the opposite desire within us.
Three business leadership experts from the global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company address this paradox in their new book Deliberate Calm: How to Learn and Lead in a Volatile World.
Backing Up a Bit
Jacqueline Brassey, Aaron De Smet, and Michiel Kruyt have decades of experience as researchers and experts on business leadership.
Brassey is the director of Research Science Luxembourg and focuses on helping organizations promote mental health. Smet is an expert on organizational health. Kruyt is the CEO of Imagine One which promotes sustainability and transformation within the corporate world.
“A trio of McKinsey & Company veterans draws from a unique combination of psychology, neuroscience, and consciousness practices plus a combined 50-plus years of international board room experience to offer a unique approach to learning and leading with awareness and intentional choice, even amidst the most challenging circumstances,” says the publisher.
Possible Solutions
Deliberate Calm aims to be a useful, science-based guide for promoting “Dual Awareness” in the workplace—teaching business leaders how they can be responsive to the challenges of the changing world through decisive decision-making.
”As the speed of change in our increasingly complex world accelerates daily, leaders are tasked with performing outside of their familiar zones both in their personal and professional lives. This requires us to adapt. Yet, the same conditions that make adapting so important can also trigger fear, leading us to resist change and default to reactive behavior … To avoid this trap, leaders must become proactive so they can lead ahead of the curve,” says the publisher.
“With Deliberate Calm, anyone can lead and learn with awareness and choice to realize their full potential, even in times of uncertainty, complexity, and change.”
Deliberate Calm: How to Learn and Lead in a Volatile World will be published on November 29, 2022, by Harper Business.
