Breaking paradigms will be the watchword in the near future.
With the trend towards increasingly rapid and disruptive change, managers do not have a known solution to the problems that arise. The solution is outside your repertoire and your usual paradigms. They will have to make an adaptive resolution. Let's consider 4 unavoidable trends of our time and how Adaptive Leaders can deal with them.
Trend 1: Innovation is getting faster.
The most successful companies, such as Google or Facebook, are the ones that innovate the most. And even these, when they cannot innovate quickly enough, are forced to buy innovative companies at exorbitant prices (Instagram and Whatsapp by Facebook, Youtube by Google, Linkedin by Microsoft). Adaptive leaders are those who create a culture of innovation, eliminating paradigms that may be obstacles to this, such as structures with several hierarchical levels, aversion to error and standardization.
Trend 2: The number of reorganizations increases.
Com a constante inovação vem uma adaptação dos modelos de negócio, dos processos, da cultura e das estruturas das organizações. Já não é novidade ter 3 reorganizações em 3 anos com 3 chefes diferentes. Os Gestores têm de ser peritos em gestão de mudança e saber lidar com as resistências naturais dos colaboradores à mudança.
Trend 3: Collaboration is increasingly virtual.
Virtual collaboration is also important because more and more people work or go to work from home. If in Portugal companies are introducing, little by little, the home office for one or two days a week, in the United States many people work at home 5 days a week. The ‘ROWE’ system which stands for “Results Only Work Environment”, in which the flexibility of time and approach is total - the only thing that counts are the results - is increasingly common. To deal with this tendency, the Manager will have to free himself from the control paradigm.
Trend 4: Generational and cultural differences.
There have always been generational and cultural differences within organizations. But right now, the impact of these differences is more pronounced. Each of these generations has a specific way of dealing with technology, managing information, communicating and being motivated. Managers will need to be experts in empathy and conflict management to ensure they harness each other's potential and the synergies of diversity.
To deal with these trends, organizations will have to have continuous change management and organizational culture management programs. Adaptive Leaders will continue to consult experts, not to have solutions already tested by others, but to help them think differently and adapt to the current situation. They will look to coaches more than consultants to overcome resistance to change and leverage all their skills to adaptively solve problems.
Isabel Freire de Andrade and Oliver Rohrich | bright concept
Areas of activity: Consulting, Training and Coaching in the area of Leadership, Engagement and Accountability, Change Management, Organizational Culture, Customer Relations. www.brightconcept.pt
(Translated to English)