Latest / Success Story with Scott Clary / Lessons - How Fear Reshapes Global Economy and Society | John Hagel - Center for the Edge Chairman

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Lessons - How Fear Reshapes Global Economy and Society | John Hagel - Center for the Edge Chairman · Success Story with Scott Clary

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  In this lessons episode, explore how fear shapes modern life for entrepreneurs, leaders,
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  and individuals alike. Discover why rising competition and constant change,
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  fuel anxiety and short-term thinking, understand how shifting from fear to purpose transforms
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  both work and mindset and uncover how passion and supportive communities drive lasting growth
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  in uncertain times.
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  Can we properly define what living in a state of fear is for an executive,
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  for an entrepreneur, for even somebody outside the realm of a professional environment?
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  Because I feel like, as you walk through this, you're just saying that we constantly just
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  live in a state of fear, fear of expectation, fear of deliverables, fear of,
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  are we fulfilling what we're supposed to be fulfilling, doing what we're supposed to be doing?
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  What is the status quo for fear and fear in a professional environment right now?
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  Yeah, I think there are, again, many reasons for fear, but as part of my research,
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  I've looked at the long-term forces that are reshaping the global economy and society,
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  and I think the impact of those forces is to create mounting performance pressure
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  on all of us. I mean, at one level, we're facing intensifying competition on a global scale,
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  and it's both at the level of corporations, but also at the level of individuals. I mean,
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  more and more workers are now worried that their jobs are going to be taken by a robot or by
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  artificial intelligence, and they're competing for just to maintain their job.
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  So there's intensifying competition, there's accelerating pace of change,
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  things that we thought we could count on are no longer there, and then as if that weren't
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  enough, you've got because of all this connectivity we've created on a global scale,
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  we've got small events in a far-away place in the world that cascade into extreme disruptive events.
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  There I mentioned pandemic. I think it's just one example of the kinds of extreme events
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  that we'll increasingly see in the world. So when you combine all of that, increasing competition,
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  accelerating change, extreme disruptive events, there's good reason to be afraid.
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  And then by the way, I'll just say that, is it that weren't enough? We have a news media
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  that is largely feeding fear. I challenged people and asked them, when was the last time you saw a
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  news story that was good news about something wonderful happening in the world? No, we're all focused
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  on the latest catastrophe or disaster wherever it is in the world. And it's like the sense the world's
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  collapsing around us. And then just to wrap it up, I'll also... No, no, no, it's all good.
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  Don't feel the need to rush through. I actually was going to double down and just understand
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  the process of even the research that you did for the book because I think that everything
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  you're saying resonates. 100% I think everybody agrees with it. But many people don't look any
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  deeper than just, this is the reality, right? So even like the finish-up, what you were just
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  mentioning, but also what's the process of research for the book? How did you actually start this
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  sort of investigation? Yeah, so just the final note on the fear is, I believe we increasingly
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  live in political environments around the world where all the politicians, and I don't hold one
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  side or the other more or less guilty in this, all sides are increasingly focused on what I
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  call threat-based narratives. It's all about the enemies coming to get us. We need to mobilize
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  now and resist where we're going to die. And that feeds the fear again. Oh my god, we're going
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  to die or under attack, you know, I'm afraid. So as if the forces themselves weren't enough,
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  we've got the political environment and the news environment that are just feeding this fear
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  on a daily basis. And I think it's again very understandable why more and more people are consumed
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  by this fear. In terms of the research, I mean, this was largely done when I was at the
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  leading this center for the edge of Deloitte because our perspective was that to really
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  anticipate opportunities, we had to understand the forces that were shaping the global economy
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  and what the consequences of those forces are. So that was what led us to expand our horizons.
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  I mean, one of the things we find in business is increasingly businesses becoming more and more
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  short-term focused. And in part, that's fear. That's a natural consequence of fear. We don't have
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  the time or willingness to look ahead. We just want to focus on getting the job done at the moment
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  because we're under so much pressure. And so just stepping back and saying, no, we need to understand
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  how the world is evolving. The long-term consequences was something that most executives and
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  business people in general don't really have time to explore. And our feeling was it's
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  absolutely essential if we're going to really thrive in this changing world is to look ahead.
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  So the instigator for more fear is higher expectations. Those higher expectations,
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  nobody really thinks through. It's just delivering for shareholders,
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  delivering on bottom line. And then that trickles down into fear and the average individual trying
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  to always achieve more and more and more. Was it what do you think was the precursor for these
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  added expectations? Was it technology? Was it further propagated by COVID? I'm sure to some extent.
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  So what was the main instigator for this? Now, now, this again goes back many decades. I mean,
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  the big shift, as we as we began to understand it, our belief is it actually started back in the 1960s.
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  And I think even though it's been decades, we're still in the early stages of this big shift.
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  And part of it is an important part, is this notion of digital technology in the way it's
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  changing business at a fundamental level. All the connectivity that's creating, the accelerating
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  change, another force that's been playing out unevenly, but over time, it's been pretty
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  significant is the reduction of trade barriers around the world. So again, you have less political
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  barriers to trade and competition increases across the world. And the intersection too, I mean,
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  because of all these changes now, you can hire somebody in Africa to do work in the United States.
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  So competition for jobs is not just within your local community, it's around the world.
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  One of my favorite billboards, there was a billboard in Silicon Valley many years ago,
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  which said, how does it feel to know there are at least one million people around the world
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  who can do your job? Oh my god. It feels horrible. It's a good feeling.
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  You know, a few decades ago, it had been an absurd question. I mean, that doesn't matter. I'm here.
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  They're there. It doesn't matter. Well, guess what? Now, it matters. It's real. Wherever they are,
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  they can compete for your job. So yeah. So all right. So that's the that's the
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  instigator. So let's let's speak about, let's speak about the solution. So obviously, it's sort of
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  just been getting worse and worse and worse over the years. Again, as as globalization and technology
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  and barriers are broken down, like you said, all these things contribute to fear our expectations are
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  higher. How do we how do we fix it? What's the what's the solution? Which is obviously not
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  an easy one, right? Right. No, for sure. And again, it was the motivation to write the book. And
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  I want to start by saying that I don't think the book itself is the solution. I think it's the
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  start to build awareness of the potential for a journey and some of the elements on it.
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  But you know, I ended up and this was again, the result of a lot of research as well as my own
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  lessons along my personal journey. But I've come to believe there are three pillars. I call them
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  pillars that can be very helpful in the journey. And one is what I call a narrative. The second is
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  passion. And third is platform. And the challenge for me is I have very different definitions of each
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  of those terms. I mean, most people have attached very different meanings to narrative, passion,
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  platform. So part of the book is just explaining why I have a different meaning to it and why I think
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  it's so critical in terms of helping us in the in that journey beyond fear.
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  But who are these lessons for? Are these for CEOs or are these for individuals?
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  They're for everyone. I think the book, you know, most of my books have been business books. And
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  certainly, I think this has huge business relevance. I think again, one of the key issues in terms of
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  performing well in a rapidly changing world is making the journey beyond fear, both as the CEO
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  and as the employees within your company, if they're all driven by fear, good luck.
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  Yeah. Yeah. So which is which is a status quo in some organizations, which is not good, but
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  that's reality, right? No, I think it's a status quo in most, if not all, organizations today.
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  Certainly large organizations around the world, I think are very much driven by a culture of fear.
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  The way to get workers to work is to tell them if they don't work harder, they're going to lose
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  their jobs. Okay. That's a good motivator. So anyway, I think that that's
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  that, but the book is relevant, I think, to add everyone, you know, whether or not they're in a large
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  company, a small company, or just out in part of a family. I mean, in the family, you've got huge
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  issues around fear of your parents, fear of your children, fear of yourself. There's a lot of fear around.
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  So let's, can we add a high level breakdown, those three pillars? So people can dive a little
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  deeper because then this will, this will queue it up. They want to like go real deep and get the
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  book, but I want to, I want to bring out a couple like tactical takeaways for people that are
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  listening. So you said narratives, passion, and then platform. So first one, narratives are not
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  stories. What does that mean? So just context, somebody hearing that, they're not going to
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  understand what would mean my narratives are not stories. How does this have any impact on whether
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  I'm going to lose my job? Well, most people, again, view narratives and stories to be the same
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  thing. They're synonymous, you know, you can use either word. I make a big distinction between
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  them. And for me, a story is self-contained. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end to it, the end,
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  the story's over. And the story is about me, the storyteller, or it's about some other people,
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  real or imagined, but it's not about you. You can use your imagination, figure out what you would
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  have done in that story, but it's not about you. So that's a story, at least, the way I talk about
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  it. For me, a narrative is very different. First of all, it's open-ended. There is no resolution
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  yet. There's some kind of big threat or opportunity out in the future, not clear whether it's going
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  to be achieved or not. And the resolution of the narrative hinges on you. It's a call to action
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  to say your choices, your actions are going to help determine how this narrative resolves.
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  So it's that call to action. And I think tying it back to fear, and I talk about narratives
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  at many levels. So I think there's personal narratives. I think there are corporate narratives,
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  geographic narratives, movement narratives. But starting with the individual, I believe most of us,
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  first of all, we've never really stepped back to articulate what's the narrative that's driving
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  our life. What's our view of the future? Is it primarily driven by threat or primarily driven
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  by opportunity? And if so, what threat or what opportunity? And then what's our call to action to
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  others? Do we have a call to action to others? Because in my experience, many of us who are
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  increasingly consumed by fear because we're focusing on threat in the future, we lose trust in
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  other people. We can't afford to rely on other people. We have to do it all ourselves. So there
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  is no call to action to others. We become increasingly isolated. Versus no, I want people to come
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  together and help me to address this really big, exciting opportunity that's out in the future.
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  And so I think the process of just stepping back and articulating that narrative that we have today,
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  what is it that's driving our actions and choices today? But then reflecting on it to say,
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  is this really the narrative that's going to help me to get the most impact that's meaningful to me
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  can be very powerful? I view it as a catalyst in the journey beyond fear because in my experience,
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  people who go through this exercise, they come up with this
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  aha moment that they actually are focusing on fear and threat in the future. And that's what's
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  driving their fear. Thanks for tuning in. If you found this valuable, don't forget to hit that
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  subscribe button so you never miss an episode. And if you want to dive deeper into this conversation,
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  check out the links in the description to watch the full episode. See you in the next one.