125: Leading in Complexity | Nick Jankel (Part1)

Nick Jankel is an author, keynote speaker, serial entrepreneur, futurist and leadership theorist. Nick explains there is no ‘new normal’, and we must be prepared for the ‘never normal’ of operating in a constantly changing and complex environment both personally and professionally.
Nick explains that complex is not the same as complicated. A complicated system is basically a machine with lots of bits, like a plane with high levels of predictability as it doesn’t change or adapt by itself. A complex system is a live system where the parts self-organise, adapt to change and are interconnected with emergent capabilities. Innovation is an example of an emergent capability.
Organisations are made up of people and therefore are complex living systems. Leaders must shift from merely thinking about a better plan or strategy to run a machine to considering how they can orchestrate the conditions for talented people to self-organise in teams and projects and evolve as a complex system in meeting the ever-changing world.
Future leaders must therefore understand that the old world was about efficiency and the new world is about effectiveness which requires leaders to create time for people to connect, think, reflect as opposed to just execute.
The future of work that we thought was the future, is now here due to the pandemic.
Leaders are grappling with issues that can’t simply be dealt with efficiently. Organisations can’t run on low trust and high coercion which just creates a transactional workplace.
If meaning is the new money, leaders must consider the 4M’s
Meaning: Purpose and impact
Mastery: Autonomy and empowerment, being given space and time to try, fail and evolve
Membership: Being part of something and cared for with space and time for wellbeing
Majesty: Dignity, inclusivity, respect and being remunerated fairly.
Future ready leaders must continue with the best of the old world, to create sustainable businesses with predictable return on investment and expand themselves to do things that many of us were never taught, such as to play, adapt, be curious nimble, vulnerable, empathetic and leveraging our overall human centred leadership capabilities. Human growth is one of the most rewarding gifts a leader can bring to those within their organisations.
Nick outlines that leaders today must (i) develop, learn and grow (ii) recognise that the leader as hero is dead, the leader is now the creator of culture where lots of heroes can thrive (iii) work on self to shift understanding that the never normal is here to stay, It is not an inconvenience but an invitation to grow, learn and adapt and thrive. (iv) there is no data about the future only the past, so leaders can never wait for perfect data to make decisions but optimise their intelligence to operate in the complex world based on Intuition, Insight and Imagination.
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