Latest / Chief in Tech Deep Dive Shortcast / Chief in Tech S1E41 - Rose Cartolari : The Everchanging Journey of Leadership – Staying Ahead of the Game
Transcript
- 0:00Imagine drawing a meticulously detailed map for
- 0:03a cross -country road trip. You map out every
- 0:06gas station, every scenic overlook, every overnight
- 0:10stop. Right. You've got the whole thing perfectly
- 0:12planned out. Exactly. Then you step outside,
- 0:14you get in your car, and you realize the continents
- 0:16have literally physically drifted. Wow. Yeah.
- 0:19The rows you parent to take are just, well, they're
- 0:22at the bottom of an ocean now. And the mountains
- 0:24have completely moved. Just a totally different
- 0:26landscape. Yeah. And that is exactly what corporate
- 0:29planning and personal strategy feel like today.
- 0:31I mean, you make a plan for the year, you allocate
- 0:34your resources, and then the terrain simply shifts
- 0:37right underneath your feet. It is honestly the
- 0:40absolute baseline. of our current reality. I
- 0:43mean, the rule book hasn't just been rewritten,
- 0:45it's been discarded entirely. Right. We are operating
- 0:48in this this VUCA environment. You know, volatility,
- 0:53uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Right.
- 0:56And the crucial thing for you to understand is
- 0:59that this disruption isn't just a passing storm
- 1:01we can wait out. It's just the weather now. Exactly.
- 1:04The disruption is the climate now. OK, let's
- 1:06unpack this because How do we even begin to function
- 1:12let alone thrive when the ground is constantly
- 1:14shaking? Yeah, it's overwhelming. It is, because
- 1:17the instinct for most people, and I definitely
- 1:19include myself in this, is to just hunker down,
- 1:21try to minimize the damage, and hope things eventually
- 1:24stabilize. Which they won't. Right. So today,
- 1:27we're doing a deep dive into some incredible
- 1:29insights from a session by executive coach Rose
- 1:33Cartellari. It's called Navigating the Turbulence,
- 1:36Strategic Leadership in a VUCA World. And she
- 1:39is definitely the right person to guide us through
- 1:41this. Oh, for sure. She brings, what, over 30
- 1:44years of C -suite and advisory experience to
- 1:46the table? Yeah, 30 years. And what makes her
- 1:48approach so compelling is that she grounds her
- 1:51strategies in actual behavioral science. Not
- 1:54just corporate buzzwords. Exactly, no buzzwords.
- 1:56We are looking at concrete mechanisms for staying
- 1:59on offense when the whole world is essentially
- 2:01forcing you into a defensive posture. But before
- 2:03we even get into the tactics, she says we need
- 2:05a complete perspective shift regarding the turbulence
- 2:08itself, right? Oh, 100%. As long as you view
- 2:11market volatility or technological disruption,
- 2:16or just organizational chaos solely as a threat,
- 2:19you will remain completely stuck. You have to
- 2:21fundamentally change your relationship with the
- 2:23friction. Yes. There's this striking quote in
- 2:26the source material from Machon Adelayo. Oh,
- 2:28I love this part. Yeah, it says, turbulence breaks
- 2:31a tree's branches, but only tickles an eagle's
- 2:34wings. It's such a great visual metaphor, but,
- 2:36you know, we need to ground that in reality.
- 2:39Because when things get chaotic, most of us,
- 2:41we default to acting like the tree. We really
- 2:44do. We root ourselves down. We become incredibly
- 2:47rigid. We fiercely defend the status quo. And
- 2:50as a result, we just get battered. I mean, we
- 2:52lose branches. And if you look at the actual
- 2:54physics of an eagle in a storm, the metaphor
- 2:58becomes even more instructive. Wait, really?
- 3:01How so? Well, an eagle doesn't survive a storm
- 3:04by flapping its wings harder to fight the wind.
- 3:06That would just exhaust it, and it would crash.
- 3:08Yeah, right. That makes sense. Instead, it locks
- 3:11its wings and uses the aerodynamic friction,
- 3:13the actual updrafts and thermals created by the
- 3:16storm, to push itself higher above the cloud
- 3:18line. Wow. Yeah, the turbulence is the exact
- 3:21mechanism of its elevation. OK, so bringing that
- 3:23back to a business or personal context, how does
- 3:26a leader or a team actually do that? Like, how
- 3:29do you use market turbulence? to pivot a failing
- 3:33product into a new opportunity rather than just,
- 3:36you know, taking the hit. What's fascinating
- 3:38here is that Cardelari uses behavioral science
- 3:42to explain the human element of this. Okay. When
- 3:44we are forced into highly volatile situations,
- 3:47the psychological friction pushes us completely
- 3:50out of our comfort zones. Which feels awful in
- 3:52the moment. It feels terrible. But her approach
- 3:54highlights that these roughest instances are
- 3:57the precise tools that force us to make sense
- 3:59of things in new, innovative ways. Because the
- 4:01old ways literally don't work anymore. Exactly.
- 4:04When the old processes break, you are forced
- 4:06to build new mental models. You are forced to
- 4:08reconcile competing priorities. And interestingly,
- 4:11she points out that you are forced to forgive.
- 4:14Yes. That concept of forgiveness really stood
- 4:17out to me, too. Because... Honestly, it's not
- 4:20a word you typically encounter in a corporate
- 4:22leadership seminar. Not at all. It's usually
- 4:23all about accountability. Right. But in a highly
- 4:26volatile environment, mistakes are mathematically
- 4:28inevitable. If your team is terrified of miscalculating
- 4:32in an unpredictable market, they'll just freeze.
- 4:35They become that rigid tree. Exactly. They hunker
- 4:37down and do nothing. And the psychological weight
- 4:39of constant disruption is immense. I mean, if
- 4:43a leader cannot forgive themselves, and their
- 4:46team. For the necessary friction that occurs
- 4:48during rapid adaptation, the organizational culture
- 4:51turns toxic immediately. It's a recipe for burnout.
- 4:55Completely. Embracing these opposite competing
- 4:58facets of ourselves during rough times like demanding
- 5:01excellence while forgiving inevitable missteps
- 5:04is what actually allows an organization to adapt.
- 5:06It builds resilience. Yeah, it builds the kind
- 5:08of deep resilient human connection that you absolutely
- 5:10need when the external world is chaotic. You
- 5:13end up sharing the cognitive load of the turbulence.
- 5:16Which shifts the dynamic entirely. If the internal
- 5:19culture is reconciled and connected, the external
- 5:22chaos becomes like a problem to solve collectively
- 5:25rather than a threat that splinters the team
- 5:27apart. Precisely. But, okay, here's the catch.
- 5:31Being an eagle and riding those thermal updrafts
- 5:34is completely useless if you have absolutely
- 5:36no idea where you are flying. Right, you're just
- 5:38drifting. Exactly. Which brings us to the first
- 5:42major pillar of navigating this turbulence. Finding
- 5:46your direction. Yeah. The wind might be lifting
- 5:49you, but to what end? The source material is
- 5:52explicit about this first step. You must set
- 5:54your North Star. I have to play devil's advocate
- 5:57here, though. Go for it. We just established
- 5:59that we live in a world defined by constant change.
- 6:02Business models that worked three years ago are
- 6:03totally obsolete today. So doesn't committing
- 6:06to a fixed, unyielding North Star make you dangerously
- 6:10inflexible? I can see why you'd think that. I
- 6:12mean, practically speaking, if my North Star
- 6:15as a department head is providing elite, high
- 6:18-touch customer service, how does holding onto
- 6:22that help me when my budget is suddenly slashed
- 6:25by 40 %? I need to survive the quarter, not,
- 6:28you know, stare at the sky. See, your pushback
- 6:30highlights the exact reason why most people misunderstand
- 6:34the concept of a North Star. Oh, really? Yeah,
- 6:36you're conflating the destination with the route.
- 6:38OK, explain that. A North Star is not a step
- 6:41-by -step project plan. It's not a quarterly
- 6:44milestone, and it's certainly not a fixed budget
- 6:46allocation. It is your guiding principle. It's
- 6:49the core value proposition that defines why you're
- 6:51doing the work in the first place. So it's the
- 6:53why, not the how. Precisely. In a VUCA world,
- 6:57the how is going to change constantly. Returning
- 6:59to your example, if your budget is slashed by
- 7:0140%, your tactics for delivering elite customer
- 7:04service must change. Right. I can't afford the
- 7:06same things. Exactly. You can no longer afford
- 7:09a massive call center offering 24 -7 phone support.
- 7:12The old map is gone. But because your North Star
- 7:15remains elite service, you pivot your methods.
- 7:18So I have to get creative? Yes. Maybe you invest
- 7:21heavily in proactive, highly personalized, automated
- 7:24check -ins. Or maybe you create an exclusive,
- 7:28high -value community forum for your top -tier
- 7:30clients. The mecha devolved, but the underlying
- 7:34purpose remained steady. Okay, I see. In a landscape
- 7:37full of ambiguity, the North Star is literally
- 7:40the only thing that isn't ambiguous. Exactly.
- 7:42It prevents you from just reacting to the budget
- 7:45cut by indiscriminately slashing the quality
- 7:47of your product across the board. Which would
- 7:49ultimately destroy the brand anyway. That is
- 7:51the crucial distinction. Without that fixed point,
- 7:54every single market disruption or unexpected
- 7:56crisis just sends an organization spinning. You
- 7:59end up putting out fires, engaging in forced
- 8:02mutation rather than intentional evolution. So
- 8:04the North Star allows you to be radically flexible
- 8:07in your methods while remaining utterly fixed
- 8:09in your ultimate destination. I want you, the
- 8:12listener, to really think about your own career
- 8:14trajectory or the team you manage right now.
- 8:16When things get incredibly chaotic, like when
- 8:19a major client pulls out or a new competitor
- 8:23disrupts your space, do you have a clear North
- 8:26Star guiding your immediate decisions? Or are
- 8:30you just trying to survive until Friday? Because
- 8:32having that anchor is the literal difference
- 8:34between navigating a storm and merely being a
- 8:37victim of it. And once that North Star is established,
- 8:40the very next challenge is managing how you actually
- 8:42move toward it. Yes, the momentum. Because the
- 8:44natural human instinct, especially when the world
- 8:46feels like it's just spinning out of control,
- 8:48is to rush. The pressure to keep up creates this
- 8:51frantic energy. But the source material warns
- 8:54us that our default definition of fast is often
- 8:58completely counterproductive in a complex system.
- 9:00It absolutely is. Here's where it gets really
- 9:02interesting. This brings us to a fascinating
- 9:04distinction the source draws between two types
- 9:06of momentum, operational speed and strategic
- 9:09speed. A huge difference between those two. Yeah.
- 9:13When I was reading this section, the best analogy
- 9:15I could think of was a treadmill. Operational
- 9:18speed feels exactly like sprinting on a treadmill.
- 9:21You know, you are moving your legs incredibly
- 9:23quickly, your heart rate is maxed out, you are
- 9:26sweating, and you feel incredibly busy. But you're
- 9:29going absolutely nowhere. Exactly. You haven't
- 9:31moved an inch. Strategic speed is the realization
- 9:34that you are on a treadmill, having the presence
- 9:37of mind to hit the stop button, getting off and
- 9:40walking at a normal, deliberate pace toward your
- 9:43actual destination. The treadmill captures the
- 9:46trap perfectly because it highlights the illusion
- 9:48of progress. Yes, the illusion. The text explicitly
- 9:52defines these terms to strip away that illusion.
- 9:55Operational speed is simply moving quickly. It's
- 9:58measured by the sheer volume of tasks completed,
- 10:00the number of emails you rapidly answered, the
- 10:03back -to -back meetings attended. It is motion
- 10:05for the sake of motion. I mean, we've all been
- 10:07caught in that busy trap. I remember a day last
- 10:10month where I spent Eight straight hours, aggressively
- 10:12clearing out my inbox, organizing folders, responding
- 10:15to minor queries. At 5 p .m., I felt incredibly
- 10:18productive. But when I actually looked back at
- 10:21the day, I realized I hadn't moved the needle
- 10:23on a single major project. Zero actual value
- 10:26was created. Zero. That is the danger of operational
- 10:30speed. Strategic speed, conversely, is defined
- 10:33by cartillary as reducing the time it takes to
- 10:36deliver value. Delivering value, not just finishing
- 10:38tasks. Notice the profound difference in metric.
- 10:42It's not about doing more things faster. It is
- 10:44about getting to the tangible value faster. And
- 10:47in a highly complex environment, the C in VECA,
- 10:51prioritizing operational speed over strategic
- 10:53speed, is actively dangerous. Because if you
- 10:56are sprinting in the wrong direction, you are
- 10:58just compounding your errors at a faster rate.
- 11:00You're efficiently executing the wrong strategy.
- 11:02If we connect this to the bigger picture, when
- 11:04a system is deeply interconnected and unpredictable,
- 11:07blind operational speed just generates more systemic
- 11:10chaos. So how do we stop it? Achieving strategic
- 11:13speed requires something that feels deeply counterintuitive,
- 11:17almost uncomfortable in a fast -paced corporate
- 11:19culture. It requires pausing. Pausing to look
- 11:23up from the treadmill and locate the North Star
- 11:25again. Yes. pausing to analyze the shifting terrain
- 11:29and figure out the most direct route to actual
- 11:32value. Which might mean doing less. Frequently.
- 11:36Sometimes the fastest way to deliver value is
- 11:39to stop doing 80 % of the tasks you're currently
- 11:42stressing over and execute flawlessly on the
- 11:4520 % that actually matter. Strategic speed is
- 11:48about the efficiency of your impact. It requires
- 11:51the discipline to say no to busy work. Okay,
- 11:53so let's say you step off the treadmill. You
- 11:55pause, you cut the busy work, and you are entirely
- 11:58focused on finding the shortest path to value.
- 12:00Right. The massive hurdle here is knowing what
- 12:03value even looks like when the market can change
- 12:05overnight. How do you anticipate the shift before
- 12:07it renders your current strategy obsolete? Because,
- 12:10I mean, you only have one set of eyes, and your
- 12:12perspective is inherently limited. This is where
- 12:15we move from internal mindset to external architecture.
- 12:18To achieve strategic speed, you need to upgrade
- 12:20your radar system. You need to see the disruption
- 12:23forming on the horizon before it hits your industry.
- 12:25The source material argues that you do this by
- 12:28diversifying your network of trusted advisors
- 12:30to develop the ability to pick up what it calls
- 12:32weak signals in the marketplace. Let's break
- 12:35that concept down. What exactly constitutes a
- 12:38weak signal? A weak signal is an early, quiet,
- 12:42often ambiguous indicator of an impending disruption.
- 12:45It's the whisper in the market before the shouting
- 12:47starts. Give me an example. It could be... a
- 12:50strange anomaly in a competitor's hiring patterns,
- 12:54or a seemingly obscure piece of tech regulation
- 12:57passed in a totally different country, or even
- 12:59just a subtle shift in how teenagers are using
- 13:01a new app. So it's the pebble falling down the
- 13:03mountain before the avalanche hits? Exactly.
- 13:05By the time a signal becomes strong, by the time
- 13:08it's the cover story of a business magazine,
- 13:10or your board of directors is actively panicking
- 13:12about it, it is entirely too late to be strategic.
- 13:15You're back to playing defense. Right. The entire
- 13:18goal of strategic leadership is to catch those
- 13:20weak signals early enough to use them to your
- 13:23advantage. And this really highlights why the
- 13:25composition of your network is so critical. Because
- 13:28if you're sitting in a boardroom with five other
- 13:30people who share your exact educational background,
- 13:34work in your specific industry, live in your
- 13:36city, and read the exact same financial news,
- 13:39well, you're all going to miss the exact same
- 13:41weak signal. You share the exact same blind spot.
- 13:43You haven't built a radar system. You've built
- 13:45an echo chamber. and an echo chamber only amplifies
- 13:49the strong signals you already know about. To
- 13:52build a radar system that genuinely works, you
- 13:55need profound cognitive diversity. You have to
- 13:58surround yourself with people who process the
- 14:00world through completely different lenses. And
- 14:02the source material provides an incredible real
- 14:05-world case study of this concept through the
- 14:07biography of the author herself, Rose Kartellari.
- 14:10Oh, her background is fascinating. It really
- 14:12reads like a masterclass in accumulating diverse
- 14:14perspectives. Just looking at her geographical
- 14:17footprint alone, she grew up living across India,
- 14:20Indonesia, Somalia, the USA, and Italy. That
- 14:23is a staggering amount of exposure to wildly
- 14:26different geopolitical realities, economic systems,
- 14:30and cultural norms. Yeah, but the value isn't
- 14:33just in the travel, right? It's in how that exposure
- 14:35builds a unique cognitive architecture. Exactly.
- 14:39And professionally, her career spans just as
- 14:41wide a spectrum. This raises an important question
- 14:44about how we build our resumes. She's held management
- 14:47roles at American Express, a massive, highly
- 14:50structured corporate financial giant, but also
- 14:53at UNICEF, a global humanitarian organization
- 14:55operating in crisis zones. Talk about two different
- 14:58worlds. Right. Plus, she co -founded and served
- 15:01as COO of Sharper Pharmaceuticals, and she serves
- 15:04on the advisory board of Diversity Magazine,
- 15:06focusing on inclusion and equity. When you lay
- 15:09out a resume like that, you realize her success
- 15:12as an executive coach isn't an accident of networking.
- 15:15It's the direct result of cross -pollination.
- 15:17That is the exact mechanism of her expertise.
- 15:21Think about how cognitive diversity practically
- 15:23applies to problem solving. If you spend years
- 15:26dealing with humanitarian logistics at UNICEF
- 15:29in Somalia, you develop a mental model for resource
- 15:33allocation under extreme distress where failure
- 15:36literally costs lives. The stakes couldn't be
- 15:39higher. Right. And when you then transition to
- 15:41a pharmaceutical company in Italy and a sudden
- 15:43a supply chain bottleneck occurs, you are not
- 15:46looking at it like a standard corporate logistics
- 15:48manager. You're looking at it through a crisis
- 15:50management lens built in the developing world.
- 15:53You see solutions and workarounds that a person
- 15:56with an MBA from a traditional business school
- 15:58simply cannot perceive because their mental model
- 16:02relies on stable infrastructure. Exactly. Because
- 16:05she has navigated how entirely different systems
- 16:07operate. Finance, global nonprofits, pharmaceuticals,
- 16:10publishing. She can synthesize information across
- 16:13boundaries. She understands that the solution
- 16:15to a bottleneck in European manufacturing might
- 16:18actually be found in how a nonprofit in Indonesia
- 16:21handle the distribution. Her fluidity across
- 16:24these sectors is exactly why she's an expert
- 16:27in spotting weak signals. She is scanning multiple
- 16:29frequencies simultaneously. So what does this
- 16:32all mean for you listening to this right now?
- 16:35It means it is time to perform a ruthless audit
- 16:38of your own inner circle. 100%. Look at your
- 16:41trusted advisors, your mentors, your core team.
- 16:44Are they all from the same industry? Do they
- 16:46all approach problem solving the exact same way?
- 16:49Because if your network is homogenous, you are
- 16:52incredibly vulnerable to the next wave of disruption.
- 16:55You're missing the weak signals because your
- 16:56radar only points in one direction. To navigate
- 16:59a complex world, you need a complex network.
- 17:02You must intentionally curate people who will
- 17:04challenge your baseline assumptions and point
- 17:06out the anomalies you are totally blind to. Resilience
- 17:09in your outputs requires diversity in your inputs.
- 17:12You cannot synthesize new solutions from recycled
- 17:15perspectives. We have covered a tremendous amount
- 17:17of ground today, moving from high -level mindset
- 17:20shifts down to the daily architecture of your
- 17:22professional network. There is a very clear,
- 17:26proactive roadmap here for dealing with a world
- 17:28that often makes us feel entirely helpless. It
- 17:31fundamentally shifts the locus of control. You
- 17:34cannot dictate the volatility of the market,
- 17:36but you have complete agency over how you equip
- 17:38yourself to move through it. Let's trace that
- 17:40roadmap one more time. It begins with abandoning
- 17:44the defense. Stop fighting the wind like a rigid
- 17:46tree and adopt the mechanics of the eagle. Ride
- 17:49the thermal updraft. Yes. Use the friction of
- 17:52the VUCA world as the updraft that forces your
- 17:55growth and deepens your team's connection through
- 17:57shared adversity and forgiveness. Second, establish
- 18:00your North Star. Define the unyielding purpose
- 18:03behind your work so you can pivot your tactics
- 18:05wildly without ever losing your direction. Third,
- 18:08step off the operational treadmill. Have the
- 18:11courage to pause, cut the busy work, and prioritize
- 18:13strategic speed, finding the absolute shortest
- 18:16path to actual value. And finally, tear down
- 18:19the echo chamber. Actively recruit trusted advisors
- 18:22with wildly different backgrounds, industries,
- 18:25and mental models so you can catch the weak signals
- 18:28before they become avalanches. It's a brilliant
- 18:30framework. It really is. But as we wrap up this
- 18:33deep dive, there is one final implication of
- 18:36this source material that we really need to sit
- 18:38with. something that builds on everything we've
- 18:40just discussed, but turns our standard definition
- 18:43of success completely upside down. Yeah, if we
- 18:46accept the core premise we established at the
- 18:48beginning, that the eagle absolutely requires
- 18:51the turbulence to rise, and that psychological
- 18:54and market friction are the exact mechanisms
- 18:56that force us to innovate and evolve, then we
- 19:00have to ask a very uncomfortable question. What
- 19:02is it? What if the periods of comfort and calm
- 19:05are actually the greatest threats to our personal
- 19:08and professional development. Wow, that completely
- 19:11flips the script on what we're all striving for.
- 19:13I mean, we spend our entire careers trying to
- 19:15build a moat, trying to establish stability,
- 19:18wishing for the market to just be easy for a
- 19:20few quarters. But if the wind stops blowing,
- 19:22the eagle has to expend twice as much energy
- 19:25just to keep from falling out of the sky. Without
- 19:27the updraft, there is no elevation. If chaos
- 19:31is the engine of growth, then a perfectly predictable
- 19:34frictionless environment leads inevitably to
- 19:37stagnation. We shouldn't be hoping for the storm
- 19:39to pass. We should be studying the aerodynamics
- 19:42of the storm. Because the turbulence isn't the
- 19:45obstacle keeping you from delivering value. The
- 19:48turbulence is the exact fuel you need to create
- 19:50it. The storm isn't in your way. The storm is
- 19:54the way. That is a paradigm shift that will change
- 19:57how you walk into your next crisis meeting. Thank
- 20:00you for joining us on this deep dive. We hope
- 20:02this conversation equips you to look at the shifting
- 20:04terrain in your own life, not as a disaster,
- 20:07but as an opportunity to chart an entirely new
- 20:09path. Keep questioning your assumptions, keep
- 20:12seeking out those weak signals in the noise,
- 20:14and the next time the wind starts howling, remember,
- 20:17it might just be time to lock your wings. We'll
- 20:19catch you next time.