The 4 antibodies of the modern entrepreneur
3 May 2022
Learning to deal with complexity and uncertainty
7 November 2022
I have always been impressed by biological laws and how they enable us to survive in a changing and eternally changing environment.
The human body, for example, is a fantastic example of continuous transformation. We change skin every 28 days. During this period, all the skin covering our body surface is renewed through cell regeneration, synonymous with life and energy.
All this happens 12 times a year and 120 times every 10 years.
Regeneration mechanisms involve almost every cell in our body: liver, lung, nails, hair, blood, bone. Strange to believe, but even our skeleton every 7 to 8 years fully regenerates.
I find it peculiar that this “ability” of the human body to change and adapt, we do not find it in all people when it is our knowledge and habits that need to be regenerated.
There are people who indulge the natural inclination for permanent transformation and train their aptitude for continuous change through personal and professional growth. They are the ones who are more prepared for external variability and uncertainty, and who are predisposed to turn mistakes into learning opportunities.
And then there are the people who remain static, attached to a single definition of themselves and others, to habits crystallized over time, and who give up exploring new ways to grow, change and learn from experience.
Similarly, companies, as structured systems of people, are also divided between those trained in continuous change and those attached to static.
In an age of uncertainty, the latter are an endangered “species” because what worked yesterday may no longer work today. While yesterday efficiency was a sufficient and necessary condition for generating value, today it may not be sufficient as effectiveness, the ability to respond quickly to a customer who has changed his or her mind or to quickly change the customer’s mind through experimentation, data and facts made quickly available to him or her, matters more.
Companies that want to thrive in this historical moment must therefore increasingly acquire the characteristics of a living organism and continually transform themselves.
Because changing skin is good not only for our health, but also for the health of companies!
In my latest book, “Management in the Age of Uncertainty,” I explore managerial strategies for being more flexible in every part of the company in such a complex, uncertain and variable period as the one we are living in.
Practical insights and strategies to make the company more compact and strong, to make better decisions, to innovate and experiment with greater market impact, and to better manage personal and business change.
