At the Age of Acceleration, leadership has also to adapt to the realities we are living: the accelerated pace of technological change, the market globalization combined with the new geopolitical forces and the necessity to preserve planet Earth against climate changes.
Since everything is accelerating so fast, and exponentially, it is natural to think at some form of exponential leadership which would be the response to the modern era. I found an interesting book Exponential Leadership from Doug Johnston, where he proposes the following mathematical formula for Exponential Leadership:
R = (A x I)^B
where
R = Impactful Results
A = Focused Actions
I = Interrelationships
B = Beliefs
This means that in order to get impactful results, as an exponential leader, you must multiply your focused actions through interrelationships, and you can leverage them exponentially thanks to your beliefs.
Clearly beliefs can have an exponential impact on what we do (actions) and our connectedness (interrelationships). Conversely, a negative set of beliefs will undermine any action we take and any connections we try to build.
So, in the context of the Age of Acceleration, what does this mean? You can make focused actions by using exponential technologies (AR/VR, AI, robotics, blockchain, genomics, …) to help your organization to get better/more agile with your current business model (buying you more time in an industry facing disruption), and at the same time creating your future. You can build strong interrelationships by empowering different departments across your organization to work on those focused actions. And you will get exponential results by leveraging all this thanks to your set of beliefs. Why does your organization exist? Can you define clearly the problem space and how will your organization solve it? Can you imagine the transformation?
Actually, that approach is exactly what we want to achieve with the ExO framework. The Exponential Transformation Book written by Francisco Palao, Michelle Lapierre, Salim Ismail and an awesome community of 200+ transformation practitioners around the world (NB: I had the privilege to be one of them) proposes a very clear recipe to take advantage of the Abundance to grow faster.
An Exponential Organization (ExO) is one whose impact (or output) is disproportionately large, at least 10x larger, compared to its peers because of the use of new organization techniques that leverage accelerating technologies.
Your organization’s success comes from the ability to unlock the abundance delivered by emerging technologies, and readily adapt to your rapidly changing business environment.
Beware the organizational immune system! It will rally to attack your efforts to transform.
The flagship programme is the ExO Sprint by which your organization can bridge a 2-year transition in just 10 weeks through an intensive coaching where focused actions are generated to build core initiatives that will help your organization to face disruption and edge initiatives (that can be seen as spin-off ventures) that will create the future of your organization. Coaches certified within the OpenExO ecosystem will guide you along the sprint process to unlock your mindset to abundance and exponential thinking. Since teams from different departments are formed, this generates that multiplication effect of Interrelationships. The set of Beliefs can be summarized within your MTP – Massive Transformative Purpose that unites and inspire actions.
There may be different ways to face and benefit from the accelerated pace of technological change, the market globalization and the environmental changes, but the ExO framework provides a clear validated one to get your organization future-proof, as well as to be an Exponential Leader. Embrace the movement now!
