BooksLeadershipPeopleNovember 25, 20142If Change Is a Wave, Here’s a Surfboard

All aspects of our lives are now chang­ing faster than at any pre­vi­ous time in his­to­ry.  I doubt that state­ment is sur­pris­ing to you, and unlike most sim­i­lar­ly defin­i­tive and sweep­ing state­ments, it’s true. How we live and work; how orga­ni­za­tions are struc­tured and how they make mon­ey; the objects avail­able to us and the ways we use them to learn, inter­act and consume…

And much of the change that sur­rounds and impacts us is dis­rup­tive and rev­o­lu­tion­ary, vs. gen­tle and evo­lu­tion­ary.  Who would have guessed, 15 years ago, how smart­phones would trans­form most every­one’s dai­ly rou­tine?  Or the ways in which web-based com­merce would alter our habits and expec­ta­tions about buy­ing and sell­ing? Or the extent to which we’d inter­act reg­u­lar­ly with peo­ple we may not have seen for years — or ever?

So what does a leader need in order to suc­ceed in these wild times? For­tu­nate­ly, some of the most nec­es­sary skills and capa­bil­i­ties are the same as they’ve always been: what it means to be a good leader, for instance, and the impor­tance of clear, hon­est, open com­mu­ni­ca­tion. But there are also some brand new skills and ways of think­ing that will help you “surf” this con­tin­u­ing wave of change.

I’m excit­ed to let you know about a ses­sion being put on by two col­leagues of mine, David Nour and Jen­nifer Bridges, that will offer atten­dees sup­port in both these areas: time­less core skills and new tools for your toolk­it.  It’s called the #New Norm­Sum­mit, and it’s being held in Atlanta on Jan­u­ary 9th.

The Sum­mit web­site has a lot more infor­ma­tion about each of the day’s 4 ses­sions — but here’s the thumb­nail ver­sion: David Nour will talk about how to keep your com­pa­ny’s busi­ness mod­el rel­e­vant through adap­tive inno­va­tion; Seth Kahan will focus on how to engage peo­ple in cre­at­ing change rather than impos­ing it on them; Roger Young will share the pow­er of Design Think­ing, a human-cen­tered approach to prob­lem-solv­ing; I’ll share our mod­el for becom­ing the kind of leader that peo­ple will fol­low — no mat­ter what changes arise.

I think it’s going to be fun, thought-pro­vok­ing, and use­ful — my favorite com­bo.  I’d love to see you there…