Session 4

Brief Overview/Summary

The forth TWC lesson was about Drivers of World Change, followed by the topic on Change Management and Change Leadership.

Interesting Observations and Ideas

Prof Shahi started the lesson by defining “Drivers of World Change” as factors that play a direct role that brings about a change in the world. He also introduced the quote:

“If everyone in the world used oil at the same rate as the average Saudi, Singaporean or US resident, the world’s proven oil reserves would be used up in less than 10 years”.

Many of us are aware of the fact that the US consumes a lot of energy today. However, we must also realize that we, Singaporeans are also consuming much more energy as compared to our neighbors, such as other Southeast Asian countries. Simply looking at most of the shopping malls in Singapore, most of them open at about 9am in the morning, and close at about 10pm daily without fail. This means that for 13 hours per day, these shopping malls use energy to provide lights, air conditioners, elevators and escalators to the shoppers. Although the energy used by shopping malls only constitute a small fraction of the total amount of energy used in Singapore, it provides a good example to show that it is not shocking to know that Singapore, despite being much smaller than the US, consumes a large amount of energy too.

Prof also talked about the different drivers of change today, the different impacts they have on the world and the probability of the expected results. This is very closely linked to Reading 1 of Session 4a. According to Prof Shahi, the different drivers of world change are such as:

1)   Environmental Drivers (Evolution, Environmental change and “germs”)

2)   Scientific Discovery and Technology Innovation

3)   Social, Demographic, Cultural and Ideological change

4)   Competition

5)   Globalization

6)   Changing Expectations and “Tastes” with Changing Times

Prof also introduced different types of change that can arise – Evolutionary, Revolutionary and Disruptive. Evolutionary changes refer to gradual development and improvement of a certain technology. Revolutionary changes refer to a sudden, complete or marked changed. On the other hand, disruptive changes may sometimes be considered revolutionary, but they are not radical. They refer to the outcome of change, which is different from the expected outcome.

During the second part of the lesson, Prof Shahi started the discussion on the difference between leaders and managers. Leaders have a long-range view, and they create a paradigm for change. On the other hand, managers have a short-range view that works well within the paradigm of change.

Prof Shahi also introduced to us the Pessimism-Time Curve.

The Pessimism-Time Curve has four sections.

Uniformed optimism – One is excited and intrigued by change, and is looking forward to it with anticipation, building a positive and optimistic view.

Informed Pessimism – One finds that not all have fallen into place, and things are not as easy as they expected. This ushers in a period of gloom when they realize that change and perfection is not easy to attain.

Informed Realism – Original optimism starts to reassert itself, tinted with the reality of the situation.  One makes realistic plans and move forward with optimism.

Completion – One reaches a relatively steady platform of realistic and workable action.

Lastly, I was very impressed with Chermain’s presentation. Her presentation allowed us to look “behind the scenes” on the leadership of the late Steve Jobs in Apple Inc. The Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model has simplified the rights and wrongs of Jobs’ leadership in the world leading firm, and allowed us to understand the breakdown to successful leadership.

Key Takeaways

1)   Drivers of world change can only come into effect if people are able to accept and improvise on these changes instead of just being satisfied with what they have and not moving on. (Eagle, ostrich and Dodo bird analogy)

2)   With the current usage of energy, people must look for sustainable sources of energy for future generations.

3)   Followers are as important as leaders. Without followers, leaders are just “lone nuts”.

4)   People should follow the modern model of continuous monitoring and renewal instead of the traditional model of freeze-unfreeze-freeze in managing and leading world change.

5)   YALI’s Question: The uneven development in the world today is caused by peoples’ acceptance of world change and the type of leadership in each country.

Issues for Further Discussion

1)   What are basic characteristics of a good leader?

2)   Is constant change of leadership necessary?

3)   What are the certain drivers of change that people do not wish to accept?

4)   Why are some leaders in countries less effective than others, leading to uneven development in the world?

Personal Ratings

I give this session an 8/10, as it was very relevant to today’s world, especially the changes in leadership, which is rampant today. I have learnt a great deal about how the drivers and people of today’s world must work together to achieve greater development for future generations to experience what we have today.