Jared Weiner

How the world will look after the pandemic is not completely unknowable. In many cases, the current pandemic is accelerating many already-developing trends at an exponential pace (e.g., the growing importance of design in every aspect of innovation; fully distributed workforces, etc.). Ultimately, one of the most important trends to consider is how this global pandemic has accelerated (and, in some cases, necessitated) the reality that AI and robotics will disintermediate sectors of human labor in areas as disparate as retail, learning, healthcare, and transportation.

It is staggering to consider how many reputable and well-regarded companies – and, in some cases, entire industries – are on the brink of existential failure because of several months of business disruption coupled with a measure of future marketplace uncertainty. This speaks to a long-building epidemic of short-termism among the leadership ranks when it comes to both strategy and innovation. Symptoms include poor preparedness, insufficient risk modeling, and perhaps most importantly, too much of a focus on immediate stakeholder returns instead of on a long-term plan of sustainable innovation that truly supports an organization’s vision. The businesses set to win both during and after this pandemic are those with the discipline to engage in truly long-term thinking.

Talk of an eventual “return” to the way things used to be is unrealistic. Nothing will be the same after this. Instead of preserving our ways of doing things, we must adapt quickly, and in real-time to a new world. We have long talked about templosion, defined as big things happening in smaller chunks of time. Are our organizations easily liberated from the slog of bureaucracy, marathon R&D protocols, and outdated thinking? If not, we must diagnose and reengineer our innovative capabilities so that we are able to not only respond but thrive, in any future scenarios like this pandemic.

The characteristics imperative for effective leadership are evolving in real-time, accelerated by the pandemic. Conventional talks about “leadership” are a dime-a-dozen. By contrast, our goal is to closely examine a handful of essential and new characteristics that will define successful leaders of sustainable organizations in the near future. These characteristics include, but are not limited to : 1) The Rise of the New CEEO — The Chief Ethical Executive Officer and; 2) The Discerning Leader — Going beyond basic critical thinking, discerning leadership will increasingly be defined by the ability to distinguish between good and bad information in a world permeated by misleading indicators and fake news.

The COVID Accelerator effect is changing what it is that we value in the workplace – and the skills and competencies required to future-proof your organization. As such, competitiveness will rely on the creation of an entirely new skills and competencies framework. To ensure that we have the thinking required to solve the big issues that will arise in the future, we need to start viewing and training for these skills and competencies as interconnected. This goes beyond the confluence of ideas (cognitive skills), things (technical skills), and people (interpersonal skills). A more fitting visual is that of a tree – with branches (and sub-branches) that go off in many directions. Our proprietary Competency Tree is meant to serve as a framework to help visualize potential arenas for future jobs – even ones we have yet to imagine. (*The complete visual framework is included with this module.)

Another area of focus is on generational trends – particularly from a values and attitudes perspective. Generations have long been grouped in birth year cohorts of 15-20 years. But generations are now seemingly refreshing every two-to-three years. Technology is changing so rapidly that kids only a few years apart struggle to have the same cultural and technological frames of reference. Today’s youth are not just “digital natives” – they are Cybrids – cyber hybrids, who have a fully symbiotic relationship with the digital world from the moment they were born. Understanding what makes this generation tick is critical for understanding retention & recruitment, advertising/marketing, education/learning, etc.