“It is not the strongest of the species that survives or the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” Leon Megginson
It is early days but already the failure of Carillion Plc, the multi-national Facilities Management and Construction Company that went into administration on 15th January 2018 appears to be a failure of leadership unable to see the relevance of what was going on around them whilst others could.
Unfortunately for Carillion, in the ‘others’ was their key investment broker who could see the writing on the wall and told them so. The Board ‘shot the messenger’ and in-turn themselves in the foot, for they did not get the funding they needed and six-months later the company was bust.
For Carillion, from inception to obsolescence took some 19 years, a seemingly short time but as research[1] reveals longevity of corporate life is rapidly decreasing year on year to that of half of what it was 40 years ago; surely a wake-up call to any leader.
That businesses are operating in an extremely complex world appears an obvious statement with many business experts and observers warning that businesses and organisations today are increasingly operating in a ‘VUCA world’: one that is volatile, unpredictable, complex, and ambiguous.
The acronym VUCA entered the lexicon of business a few years ago originating from the United States Army War College. The US military adopted it as a descriptor of the ‘fog of war’ in a post-‘cold war’ world that has subsequently further deepened through the subsequent US military involvement in Afghanistan and the two Iraq wars.
Whilst the abbreviation may be relatively new emanating from the 1990s there is nothing innovative historically in the environment it describes, for very similar periods have been embraced in the past such as the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700’s in Britain; the Great Depression of 1929; and the Second World War to suggest but three.
Charles Darwin in his ground-breaking book, ‘The Origin of Species’, proposed that if organisms are to survive and thrive, they must learn and adapt. The quote at the header of this article is very often ascribed to Darwin but it is actually the words of Leon Megginson, an eminent Professor of Business.
Speaking in 1963[2] Megginson drew on the theory of Darwin in a talk entitled ‘Lessons from Europe for American Business’ proposing the importance of learning and adaptability. A year later he chose again to draw upon Darwinian thinking in an article he entitled, ‘Key to Competition is Management’[3], in which the message was similar but more specific: the need for management adaptability.
Megginson’s advice is as prescient to today as it was then.
Unfortunately many leaders, many of whom appear successful today, do not recognise that there is a time lag between relevance and obsolescence that directly impacts their organisation’s future as their skills, and those of their people, depreciate at a faster rate than the pace of change around them.
Charles Handy, a past Professor at the London Business School, writing in 1994[4] (some 30 years after Megginson) pointed out that: ‘The world keeps changing. It is one of the paradoxes of success that the things and the ways which got you where you are, are seldom those that keep you there.’
To illustrate his thinking Handy used the concept of ‘The Sigmoid Curve’ saying that a period of success depicted as a upward straight line will ultimately come to a point where it flattens into a gradual curve that if not quickly arrested by a new upward curve and straight line will lead if un-arrested into potential decline and a straight line downwards to obsolescence.
Understanding where you are on ‘The Sigmoid Curve’ as an individual, a business, or an organisation, is vital but too many leave it too late.
When will CEOs, COOs, Executives, HR Directors, L & D and OD leaders wake up?
New research released on the 27th February, 2018, by LinkedIn in association with Lynda.com[5] globally surveyed some 4,000 professionals that comprised of: 1,200 talent development professionals; 2,200 employees; 200 executives; and 400 people managers.
All the parties surveyed agreed that ‘training for soft skills’ is the #1 priority for talent development given ‘… the pace of change is fuelling demand for adaptable, critical thinkers, communicators, and leaders. As technology accelerates, soft skills are in high demand to fuel people and business growth.’ The top 3 soft skills being:
Leadership skills;
Communication skills; and
Collaboration skills.
The message of learning and adapting cannot be clearer – it has been said numerous times for over half a century.
Regrettably after some 35+ years in selling and providing organisational development and learning interventions too often the words, ‘We are happy with our current provider’, are followed by a leader, the business, or an organisation hitting trouble.
Relevance and obsolescence - a failure to learn and adapt - is too often not a manifestation of ignorance but an attitude of arrogance and complacency.
‘If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near.’ Jack Welch, past Chairman and CEO, GE Corporation.
[1] Reeves, M., Levin, s., and Ueda, D. (2016) ‘The Biology of Corporate Survival’, Harvard Business Review, Jan-Feb, pp 46-55.
[2] Megginson, L.C., (1963) ‘Lessons of Europe for American Business’, from Presidential address at the Southwestern Social Science Convention, Southwestern Social Science Quarterly, Vol 44, Number 1, June 1963.
[3] Megginson, L.C. (1964) Key to Competition is Management’, Petroleum Management, Vol 36, 1, p.91
[4] Handy, C., (1994) ‘The Age of Paradox’, Harvard Business School Press, Mass, USA
[5] LinkedIn with Lynda.com (2018) ‘2018 Workplace Learning Report’, www.linkedin.com/learning