The science of the past cannot shape the future
In 1915, the US chemist William Draper Harkins first proposed the concept of nuclear fusion. Unlike conventional nuclear fission – in which atoms are split – fusion is a reaction that combines atoms, releasing copious energy in the process.
Then, as now, fusion was an alluring prospect for global science and governments – promising a future of abundant safe power born of fusing a near-infinite resource of nuclei.
Yet, as with so many potentially transformative sciences, there is a problem. Or, rather, a barrier: the Coulomb barrier. Nuclear fusion relies on two positively charged nuclei being combined. The trouble is that such nuclei are reluctant to fuse – in fact, they repel each other. This electrostatic repulsion is the Coulomb barrier. It creates an invisible wall between positive atoms. This can be breached only when temperatures greater than those in the core of the sun achieve enough kinetic energy to allow fusion to occur. Nevertheless, advanced physics is determined to break the barrier. The prize of ample, clean energy makes the arduous challenge worthwhile.
As the 21st century comes of age, leadership’s own Coulomb barrier will be compromised as global businesses reach for the sun. The disruptive, breakneck advance of technology; the pressures placed on multinationals through a rolling back of globalization; the geopolitical and environmental instability faced worldwide; have created the white heat to undermine the guardrails within organizations. No longer will the atoms of companies remain at an innocuous distance. Walls will come tumbling down. Collisions will occur.
This moment of severe instability is perilous for leaders. The tools we have honed over decades of the modern organization are suddenly blunted. They have abruptly become inadequate – and incapable of scaling to the changes the future organization demands. Even the greatest leaders are at risk. The clear and present threat is that they obsolesce like pedestrian hunter-gatherers after the advent of tractors.
We are swirling in a vortex of change. The transformation will pierce the Coulomb barrier – resulting in a massive collision that forms something new and unknown to us. To prepare, we must understand the coming shifts.
The first shift is the ending of hierarchies. In a barrier-free organization, leaders can no longer rely on corporate structures to power their hands. Instead, the levers of control have been replaced by the tools of influence: leaders who can persuade will win the future.
The second shift is the replacement of combined team output to that of talented individuals in loose collectives. These footloose operators will experiment in the unbounded organization, their successes scaled for shared gain.
The third shift is from digital fluency to augmented intelligence. No longer will learning about technology suffice: the leaders of tomorrow must partner with computerized colleagues or rapidly become irrelevant.
The final shift is from symmetrical scaling to asymmetric flexibility. The time of uniformity is over. Unvarying leadership will fail. The leaders who will command the next age will alter their style to the situation, modify their messaging to the territory, and challenge inflexibility everywhere. Rigidity is the wrong tool in a chaotic world.
If these shifts sound scary, it is because they are. The change vortex is destroying the fundamental frontiers of the modern organization. Everything we once knew is wrong. Yet amid the fear comes hope. The boundless organization is possible. With the right leadership, it can become a dazzling reality.
Consider nuclear fusion in businesses. The collision of the organizational atoms requires explosive change. Yet it will release limitless energy.
Vishal Patel is president of global markets at Duke Corporate Education
