Why Change Leadership is the most important skill of the 21st Century
This first learning segment focuses on 'Why'
In my experience helping people learn new skills—whether transitioning to new ones or upgrading old ones—those who understood why it mattered always learned faster and gained more value. Without that understanding, progress was slower, and the results weren’t as strong. That's why we're starting with why.
People who aren't convinced of the importance and relevance of something will take longer to learn it, and longer to get value from it.
So for our first learning segment we want to convey why change leadership is so important.
Learning objective
By the end of this lesson, your goal is to be able to explain to yourself and others 2 things:
- Why change leadership is the most important skill sets for the 21st century
- Why you are investing time and resources into learning about change leadership, and
Why Change Leadership is the most important skillset of the 21st century
Why do we say change leadership is the most important skillset of the 21st century?
- The world has accelerated as Thomas Friedman pointed out in Thank You for Being Late. New ideas and capabilities - new technologies, new platforms, new financial tools, new ideas for governance - are being unleashed at a faster rate than ever before - often with big unforeseen and unwanted side effects.
- The stakes are higher than ever. There are more people, more needs, bigger risks, often with stricter less forgiving timelines - than ever.
- There is too much intentional or misguided change: change for greed's sake, or change driven by hype, or power struggles. This often results in change that has very negative impacts and unwanted side effects. Being passive and unengaged in this era of accelerating change runs the risk of allowing toxic and negative impacts to proliferate.
Change Leadership then vs now
100 years ago being a change leader, an inventor or innovator was considered rare...something that occurred randomly here or there in any given country or population.
It wasn't for everyone. Change leadership was something done only by a few atypical innovators and status-quo challengers like Harriet Tubman, Thomas Edison or Albert Einstein. Sure, they’ll bring big changes, but the rest of us will just keep our heads down and mind our own business.
That was the mindset for the 20th century and much of history. Today we are in a very different place.
We can no longer afford to assume that change leadership is optional, or that it is just something that a few rare people do while the rest of us go on business as usual. That is no longer the right mindset. There is no business as usual. Truth be told it probably never was an accurate mindset. Every person is born to have an impact and every person has the potential to have a great impact.
Finding that change leadership opportunity that resonates with you - that mission you have, that gift that you can bring to make things better for others, is such an exciting opportunity. And its more crucial today than ever.
Change leadership is not just for a few of us. It’s for all of us.
Given the challenges we face today, it’s all hands on deck. Every person needs to be a change leader: someone who is constantly learning and building their skills to drive good change - the kind of intentional change that we actually want and need.
Not negative change, not careless change, and certainly not staying stuck in the status quo.
We each have a choice to make
We can:
- Perpetuate the status quo OR
- Be part of unintentional or careless change that has unwanted side effects OR
- Learn how to thoughtfully and effectively drive positive beneficial change that lasts, as depicted here:
This is where all of us want to be focused. This is where good outcomes become possible.
This is also why S3T exists. S3T (pronounced "set" but just spelled differently) refers to this set of skills that comprise change leadership. We'll describe and give you ways to develop this crucial set of skills in the upcoming learning segments.
S3T focuses on sharing 21st century leadership skills set in the context of emerging tech and the evolving economic landscape. This unusual combination of skills (not usually taught together) has become essential for the global and local challenges we face today.
You have a unique role to play
You have the potential and the ability to create lasting and very beneficial changes in the world.
There are change opportunities that you notice and urgently wish you could change. No one you know of may be thinking about it in the exact same way that you are. That's because you've been given a vantage point or set of experiences that sensitized you to a specific issue. Maybe something happened in your life that gave you awareness of some needed changes - and these have become very important to you.
It could be changes needed on an individual level, or changes within families, or communities. It might be a change that you recognize is needed in your team or your company or perhaps on a change needed on an industry level or macro, national or even a global level.
Whatever change you are motivated to desire and drive, you will can increase your chances of successfully enabling that change by committing to learning and building change leadership skills.
Review & Reflect
Questions to think about
Take a few minutes to think about and answer these questions. They will help you reflect and reinforce what you learned and help you solidify your understanding of responsible change leadership.
- How does the concept of change leadership in the 21st century differ from the way it was understood 100 years ago? Why is it now considered a skill that everyone should develop?
- Think of a situation in your life, organization, or community where change is needed. What specific steps can you take to apply change leadership skills to drive intentional, positive change in that situation?
- What are the potential consequences of ignoring change leadership or engaging in unintentional/careless change? How can you avoid these pitfalls and focus on leading thoughtful, effective change?
- Am I discounting my ability to be an effective impactful change leader? If so, why?
What you learned
1️⃣ Change Leadership is the most important skillset of the 21st century, because the world is accelerating, the stakes are higher, and unintentional or misguided change can have devastating impacts.
2️⃣ The world needs leaders who are committed to learning how to drive intentional beneficial change in the context of the 21st century. This calls for a blend of expertise:
- Emerging tech
- Evolving economics
- Effective Execution & influence
3️⃣ There are different kinds of change. Much of the change occurring today is unwanted, or bringing unwanted consequences. Beneficial change happens through shared intention - using change leadership skills to deliberately and carefully enable beneficial changes and positive outcomes.
4️⃣ At personal, organizational and macro levels Change leadership skills are critical for driving intentional change. Some of the largest issues in our world today require changes in thinking, design and policy. Individuals who want to instigate these kinds of positive changes can leverage the change leadership skillset to be successful.
What you'll learn next
Now that you know why Change Leadership is critical, you're ready to learn how we define change leadership, and what makes it unique.
Click here to go to the next learning segment: Defining Change Leadership
Change leadership is a way of seeing, working, mobilizing and navigating. Learn how change leadership skills enable these new ways of driving intentional beneficial change.