"We should all take an interest in our future. It's where professionals and organisations have to evolve to remain relevant"

We are facing a future that will be more volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous with little influence or control over external factors. However, what you can control, is how you personally respond to those challenges. You will have to become more agile and resilient to tackle challenges such as climate change, new economic logic, or creating a fairer society. We already have the tools to face those future challenges. We don’t need to invent them; we just have to use and combine them in the most effective way. We can only achieve this through hyper-collaboration – collaboration across sectors – which requires, essentially, clear and thoughtful leadership.

We already have the tools to face future challenges. We just have to use and combine them in the most effective way.

Adapting to a fast-changing world also means constantly reassessing and reassembling what you do and how you do it. Suppose everything around you is changing but you still continue doing the same things as before. If that’s the case, you will quickly lag behind, finding yourself in “the valley of death”, or a period of stagnation an organisation faces until they transition and adapt. To reassess, reassemble and take action is challenging but essential; it requires resilience, creativity, courage and vision. We would never have thought that collaborating purely online was possible, but, due to covid, this is what we were forced to do. It became not only doable but a reality within the course of a few weeks.

Suppose everything around you is changing but you still continue doing the same things as before. If that’s the case, you will quickly lag behind.

Social and emotional skills, as well as technological skills, are the skills of the future. Do you have people with those skills in your organisation? If not, hire them!