Direction, Vision, and Change — Transcript

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1. 0:01So, also, I often say that one of the
2. 0:03things that leaders need to do is invent
3. 0:05the future.
4. 0:06Do you agree with that? Is that Is that
5. 0:08like How does that fit within your sort
6. 0:10of research and practice of leadership?
7. 0:14>> You know, inventing the future, these
8. 0:16are such intimidating words, right?
9. 0:18Inventing the future. But what it is,
10. 0:22it's really determining and thinking
11. 0:25about what's in the present and
12. 0:28beginning to anticipate what can be
13. 0:31possible in the future. Sometimes it's
14. 0:34to say, "Whoa, I see an oncoming train.
15. 0:38I see it, others don't. So, that's part
16. 0:40of the future." Other times it's to say,
17. 0:43"Whoa, I see all these dots.
18. 0:46Imagine if we connect them.
19. 0:49What new possibilities
20. 0:51can we engage in?" And so, part of that
21. 0:54is we talk about this in
22. 0:57our leadership work here at the Harvard
23. 0:59Business School as leaders as beacons.
24. 1:04>> Yes.
25. 1:04>> To be able to see the landscape
26. 1:08and to
27. 1:10imagine
28. 1:12what may be the very next thing that we
29. 1:14all need to think about. So, you're
30. 1:15right. In a sense, that is inventing the
31. 1:18future and it comes from understanding
32. 1:21the landscape, understanding today in
33. 1:24order to imagine what's for tomorrow,
34. 1:26which means we need to be exposed to a
35. 1:30lot of things.
36. 1:30>> And so And so, this is like setting
37. 1:32direction and a vision, right? Like part
38. 1:33of inventing the future is direction and
39. 1:35vision.
40. 1:36>> It's absolutely direction and vision. I
41. 1:39mean, even if you think about the image
42. 1:40of the leader as a beacon,
43. 1:43it's the ability to look far
44. 1:47and to set
45. 1:50a direction and a vision based on not
46. 1:54facts that are very much in front of
47. 1:56you, but
48. 1:58the facts that you imagine will be in
49. 2:00the future. So, if you think about all
50. 2:03of the innovators of our world, those
51. 2:05who've invented telephones,
52. 2:08those who've invented new ways of doing
53. 2:10things. And as you know, we're living at
54. 2:13a time where there's so much innovation
55. 2:16going going on, but it took leaders to
56. 2:19be able to see those things. And
57. 2:21sometimes it's also responding to what's
58. 2:23here.
59. 2:24>> Yeah.
60. 2:25>> Uh in in an affirmative way. So, for
61. 2:26example,
62. 2:28we know that technology's moving very
63. 2:30fast, and leadership requires us to
64. 2:33understand those technologies, to start
65. 2:36shaping those technologies. That's where
66. 2:38vision and direction
67. 2:38>> happens if you're not a technologist?
68. 2:41>> You learn as much as you need to learn.
69. 2:43Often time, there's a baseline. We call
70. 2:46it, in fact, the 30% rule. And you learn
71. 2:49a ton of research. My latest book with
72. 2:51Paul Leonardi is called the digital
73. 2:53mindset, and you learn the baseline or
74. 2:56some basic, some common vocabularies,
75. 2:59languages around these technologies, and
76. 3:02you shape it. That's what it means to be
77. 3:05a beacon. You shape it, and to shape it,
78. 3:07you have to understand it.
79. 3:09>> Now, one of the things I've heard you
80. 3:10say quite a bit when you've been
81. 3:13You know, as a doll talks to leaders
82. 3:15everywhere,
83. 3:16executives of large companies
84. 3:18around the world,
85. 3:20you've often talked about like the
86. 3:22importance of becoming good at change.
87. 3:25So, why should our audience care about
88. 3:28change change management? Because that
89. 3:30seems like a thing that companies do.
90. 3:32You know, like your old fart company,
91. 3:35sorry, your old company around for a
92. 3:37while, and then the the old line
93. 3:39executives say, "We need change
94. 3:40management."
95. 3:42Why should they care about change and
96. 3:44and becoming good at change?
97. 3:45>> Change is a fundamental core competency
98. 3:47of leadership. Because what is change
99. 3:50ultimately? It's improvement. It's
100. 3:52either small improvement or big
101. 3:54improvement. And change management is
102. 3:56actually an entire field.
103. 3:58>> Yeah.
104. 3:58>> Uh we can teach a whole a whole module
105. 4:00on it. Uh but it's a core leadership
106. 4:03competency. Otherwise, you're presiding
107. 4:05over something and you're not
108. 4:07anticipating the future and you're not
109. 4:10making any improvements. So, to make
110. 4:12improvements, to think about the future,
111. 4:14it requires change and change
112. 4:16management. And there um two ways to
113. 4:19think about leadership. One is leaders
114. 4:22uh as um
115. 4:24or the role of leaders as transactional,
116. 4:26which is the presiding over to make sure
117. 4:28the trains are running and the
118. 4:30uh buses are running and everything that
119. 4:33need to run
120. 4:34>> Yeah.
121. 4:34>> on time and adequately.
122. 4:37But that's not enough. The world is so
123. 4:40dynamic. It changes so much all the time
124. 4:43that we need to be ready to improve and
125. 4:47change and meet the moment. And at
126. 4:49times, we need to transform. That's why
127. 4:53uh it's a very core competency for
128. 4:55leadership, change.
129. 4:56>> Yeah, you know and you know like you
130. 4:57have to be able to change
131. 5:00cultures, organizations, people, their
132. 5:03mindsets, their perspectives. And and
133. 5:07that to me is part of this leadership
134. 5:09journey, right? Like how do you actually
135. 5:11enable people to change? Because most
136. 5:13people tend to At least what I found in
137. 5:16all of my inventing the future
138. 5:18activities
139. 5:18>> [laughter]
140. 5:19>> that she knows all about uh that I come
141. 5:22to her for therapy
142. 5:23uh
143. 5:24uh
144. 5:25is is that you you've got to be able to
145. 5:27enable others to change, to sort of be
146. 5:28comfortable with change because most
147. 5:30people resist change.
148. 5:32>> People don't love change.
149. 5:33>> Yeah.
150. 5:34>> They may say they like change. And you
151. 5:36know
152. 5:36>> Change is good for others, not for
153. 5:37ourselves.
154. 5:38>> good for others, not for ourselves. And
155. 5:40you've heard people say, "I love change.
156. 5:42You know, I change my hair all the
157. 5:44time." And change change change. That's
158. 5:46not true. People like predictability.
159. 5:49>> Yeah.
160. 5:50>> They like certainty and they like um
161. 5:53stability.
162. 5:54>> Yeah.
163. 5:54>> Change by definition is not about
164. 5:57certainty, is not about predictability,
165. 6:00is not about stability. So, they resist
166. 6:03and there's always this belief of if we
167. 6:06enact any of these changes,
168. 6:09are we actually going to break things
169. 6:11that are working?
170. 6:11>> Mhm.
171. 6:12>> Change is also breaking things that are
172. 6:14working.
173. 6:14>> Yeah.
174. 6:15>> You're very familiar with that, aren't
175. 6:16you?
176. 6:17>> Uh a little bit.
177. 6:18>> [laughter]