Dealing With Flux in the Time of COVID-19

Change, fluctuation, inconstancy, and oscillation! Could any others be more descriptive of our lives since the advent of COVID-19?  April Rinne was interviewed about her new book, Flux: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change. https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-on-books/author-talks-april-rinne-on-finding-calm-and-meaning-in-a-world-of-flux  As a lover of words, I immediately sought some synonyms. Add in political unrest, wars elsewhere in the world, racial tensions, hurricanes, and climate change, and all we are missing is the proverbial plague of locusts!

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is happening 5-10 times faster than the First Industrial Revolution.
Her interview had some powerful observations, such as the increasing pace of change. “Think about the First Industrial Revolution; it took about a hundred years to really take root. That’s five generations. And we’re now in the Fourth Industrial Revolution in only ten or twenty years; it’s happening fast.”

Baldrige’s Core Values of Agility and Resilience are imperative to success.
It brought to mind the Baldrige Core Values and Concepts of Agility and Resilience.  “All aspects of time performance are now more critical, and cycle time is a key process measure… Disruptive events are occurring more frequently, triggered by economic upheaval or stress, major weather or health events, social or societal demands, or innovative technologies or product introductions. For an organization to be resilient, leaders must cultivate the agility to anticipate opportunities and threats, adapt strategy to changing circumstances, and have robust governance with a culture of trust.”  Rinne has a similar recommendation for leaders, “We need to be prepared for this sense of constant, sometimes relentless, change, much of which we can’t control or we don’t see coming. And we need to figure out how we adapt to that, relate to that, move forward amidst that.”

Balancing Management by Fact with a Tolerance for Ambiguity
This reminded me of another Baldrige Core Value and Concept, Management by Fact.  While I certainly agree about the importance of using data and information to make informed decisions, the pace of change can make the data and information we “knew” become obsolete in mere moments. That has certainly been the case of the COVID-19 pandemic in the early days and now with the Delta variant.  One of the companies I worked for had as one of its rating factors for managers, “Tolerance for Ambiguity.”  Even 30 years ago, we faced changes fraught with uncertainty. There really is no such thing as perfect knowledge.  In our role as leaders, we must often make decisions with incomplete information and then respond with agility when new information becomes available.  The key is leading with transparency, telling our employees, customers, and other stakeholders what we know when we know it, and amending that when warranted.

What is your professional identity shape?
Rinne says that “we need to redefine our professional identity for a world in flux,” categorizing people by their combination of breadth and depth to create a skills profile.

I-shaped:  deep expertise in one topic

T-shaped:  both breadth and depth of exposure and expertise

Pi-shaped:  breadth and depth in more than one area

X-shaped:  breadth, depth, diversity, and ability to stretch into new domains

She continues,” Pi-shaped and X-shaped people, when there’s depth and breath, are much able to see that bigger picture, see where they may grow into. And there’s a notion of lifelong learning and that will never stop upskilling and reskilling.  But a world in flux will force us to do that.”

Which type of leader are you? What about the other members of your leadership team?  Time to flex your flux muscles.

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