The Future of Leadership in VUCA-MAX times with Maureen Metcalfe
In this podcast Futurist Matthew Griffin explores how today's increasingly complex and disruptive world is changing how leaders think about the future and their organisations, and discusses the mindset and strategies they can use to navigate this complex world successfully.
Matthew GriffinFounder, President and Futurist, 311 Institute
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About this podcast
Firstly, thank you to Maureen Metcalf and the team at the Future Innovative Leadership Institute for asking me to join them on a podcast to discuss the future of leadership in a VUCA-MAX world where nothing stays the same, where everything is getting faster and more complex, and where sci-fi is increasingly sci-fact.
Today we’re seeing the CEO’s of major corporations burn out faster than ever before, with the average tenure falling from just over 10 years to just 5 in the past decade, and surveys show that CEO’s control just 45% of what happens to their companies, such as talent hiring and retention, product development and R&D, and so forth, with the remaining 55% coming from external trends and factors.
And, against the backdrop of the emergence of hundreds of technologies and trends it’s unsurprising that many leaders today feel over whelmed by everything, as well as find it increasingly difficult to see it all, understand it all, and plan for what could, or could not, be coming to prop up or destroy their companies prosperity.
During the podcast we covered all manner of topics, great and small, explored the future, discussed the importance of future ready mindsets, and discussed what leaders and their teams can do today to prepare themselves and their companies for what’s coming tomorrow.
311 Intelligence
What this means for your leadership team
Short tenures reward earlier foresight.
With average CEO tenure down to just 5 years from just over 10, there is less time to learn on the job. Leadership teams that watch external change early have more room to act before it reaches them.
Most of the pressure is external.
CEOs control 45% of what happens to their companies. The other 55% comes from outside trends and factors. Corporate blacklisting is one example, with governments cutting individual companies off from markets, chips and capital.
Mindset and skills need to move together.
A future ready mindset only helps if teams can keep up. Adaptive leadership asks leaders to learn and adjust rather than command and control. Faster skills obsolescence makes continuous reskilling a condition of employment.
Three questions for your next leadership meeting
Which external trends could affect us most in the next five years?
Who on our team is responsible for watching the 55% we do not control?
How often do we review and refresh the skills our people need?
The trends and technologies behind this session
From the 311 Starburst, the 311 Strategic Intelligence Unit’s map of the technologies and trends shaping the next 50 years.
Leaders hold less control than they think, with 45% of what happens to a company in their hands. Organisations need a routine way to scan the outside world, understand it and plan for it, before hundreds of trends overwhelm the people running them.
How does adaptive leadership relate to it?
Adaptive leadership is about guiding teams through uncertainty by learning and adjusting, not by command and control. 311 expects it to be in wide use by 2028, which matches the future ready mindset discussed in the session.
How does faster skills obsolescence relate to it?
As the skills jobs need change faster, continuous reskilling becomes a condition of employment. 311 puts wide use at 2027 and advises acting now, so teams can keep pace with what leaders are being asked to prepare for.
How can 311 brief our leadership team on this?
311 offers a private executive briefing or leadership workshop, tailored to your sector. These sessions are held in person first.
Bring this to your leadership teamA private executive briefing or leadership workshop, tailored to your sector. In person first, anywhere in the world.
Analysis by the 311 Strategic Intelligence Unit, from Matthew Griffin’s session and 311 data.
If Matthew gave this session today
One heavy AI user directs about 18 people's work.
311 Institute's Future of Work report finds a heavy AI user already directs the work of about 18 people for $180 a month. It takes the productivity question this session raised and measures what one person can now make and direct.
