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.
