Since the last few years, we have lived in a super challenging, BANI world – one that is Brittle, Anxious, Non Linear and Incomprehensible.
Structures and systems have proved to be fragile and brittle, suddenly failing or falling apart without warning. Take healthcare systems around the world, even in the most developed nations, and what happened to them when hit by the pandemic.
There is deep and wide-spread anxiety and fear, both of the unknown and unpredictable, and of the probability of the known disintegrating all of a sudden. Mental health has indeed been the most studied and talked about subject for the last two years. We all know the widespread incidence of stress, strain and depression that has ensued around us.
Events and happenings have been non-linear and illogical, and have had unexplainable and disproportionate cause and effect. There are enough examples of this pertaining to the climate situation, and to geo-political crises around the world.
And no amount of gathering and analysis of data is helping to make sense of the incomprehensible situations we face. It is in fact often causing more confusion and overwhelm.
While we grapple with such a crazy context, what business success looks like is also fast changing. Increasingly, organisations are being measured on their overall impact, including but not limited to financial success. Businesses are being expected to create a significant, positive impact on the entire ecosystem and all their stakeholders including investors, shareholders, employees, partners, vendors, society, and the environment.
So, on one hand, expectations are growing exponentially and on the other hand, everyone is struggling to understand and survive in this BANI context. Is walking this tight-rope without tumbling possible? How can we not just survive, but thrive and create a positive leadership impact in a BANI world?
Clearly, past experiences no longer serve as a precedence for decisions and actions. The non-linearity and incomprehensibility of things has made even critical analysis and ‘connecting the dots’ irrelevant and almost ludicrous! Leaders need to lead very differently from before, but many of them, despite huge past successes, are overwhelmed and struggling. Their track record of success is in fact, in many cases, standing in their way of embracing completely different ways of working and leading. And this new experience of not knowing what to do, of having tried and tested methods fall flat, is magnifying the anxiety they feel, but often cannot share – after all, it is lonely at the top, and leaders have been brought up to be invincible and not show vulnerability!
In my experience, the organisational and leadership capabilities needed to succeed in a BANI context are totally different, and very few organisations or individuals have realised or understood this. Even those that have, are naturally, not finding the transformation easy to make. They need enablement to discover, decipher and accomplish the shift needed. This sounds like all gloom and doom, and we are constantly bombarded by completely disconcerting trends such as the great resignation, and quiet quitting and moonlighting.
Yet, in this super challenging situation, I believe, lies a tremendous opportunity – to redefine the way organisations are run, the way leaders lead, and the way the potential of employees is truly harnessed and developed – for themselves and for the organisation.
If we focus our energy and effort on the right things, this can herald the dawn of a new era, where huge, positive LEADERSHIP IMPACT can be unleashed.
This is what I call the POWER OF i
The Power of IMPACT through INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP,
by
Introspecting within,
Inspiring diverse others, and
Institutionalising the way.
