Daily Inspiration: “It’s not just about the trends. It’s the speed at which they are happening”

“It’s not just about the trends. It’s the speed at which they are happening” – Futurist Jim Carroll

For some reason or other, I’ve had a significant number of event inquiries from the Middle East, in particular, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. These are very short-term inquiries – in most cases just a few weeks, and in some cases, a few days out.

I was preparing for an exploratory call for one potential event yesterday, and was pulling together my thoughts to present to the client – and today’s quote came to my mind, based on the context of my keynote a few years ago at the World Government Summit in Dubai.

Check out the clip – I opened with this observation:

“Maybe the very first thing that we need to appreciate about the future is to realize that it is probably happening faster than we think”

That’s the context in which you need to be thinking, working, and preparing for today – it’s not just the trends, but the speed with which they are coming about.

Think about it – we live in a world in which, according to some estimates, medical knowledge is now doubling every 78 days. One in which the dashboards in automobiles from 2019 already look like they are from the olden days as the pace of iPhone innovation comes to the automotive industry. A time in which the entire concept of insurance risk is being torn apart as we move to an era of real-time insurance underwriting. A reality in which we are talking about farming 24 hours a day utilizing autonomous technology and virtualized farm management.

An era in which nothing lasts forever, and in which today’s reality is suddenly gone in but an instant.

It’s no wonder that one of my books is called “The Future Belongs to Those Who Are Fast.” And I wrote that one back in 2012 – if things seemed fast back then, then they are crazy fast today!

My clients recognize this too – often, they are looking for me to frame the idea of ‘agility’ into my talk – with observations on how their leadership teams and the overall culture of the organization can align to a world of speed.  Quite clearly, a new leadership paradigm is emerging that consists of three key ideas:

• Speed: An acknowledgment by leadership that speed now defines success – and that the future belongs to those who are fast!
• Agility: Success is defined by the ability to respond to rapidly changing products, markets, business models, economic trends, competitors, and skills issues.
• Results: The organization quickly pivots with identified trends, responds to fast emerging volatility, and is now structured for speed.

The idea my clients are now looking for is that the future belongs to those who are fast and that organizations need to think big, start small, and scale fast!