Mogrify 2023. Make Change Happen at Speed.

It is common to hear that “the change is accelerating”. If you search for “exponential change”, for example, you will find endless articles on the topic.

These constant topics around rate of change is not new.

Even back in 1965, Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel (and former CEO of the latter), posited a doubling every year in the number of components per integrated circuit. In 1975, he revised the forecast to doubling every two years, a CAGR of 41%.

Today, not just the speed of computers but the amount of data in the world is doubling every two years. The internet speeds in some developing areas are doubling every two years. The rise of artificial intelligence and today’s extreme levels of connectivity – the world sure feels as if technology is doubling every two years.

The idea of exponential change is simply not true. Yes, the world is changing. But change is not accelerating.

People have always said this about change. They said that change was accelerating in 1900s. They said it in 1920. In 1940, in 1960, in 1980 and in 2000. If you go back and read what people wrote in the 19th century, they thought change was happening at an incredible rate we had never seen before.

Before the telegraph, information travelled at the speed of a horse. That’s the biggest transformation one could imagine in the world of information. And the web hasn’t done that has it?

Nevertheless, our current notion of exponential change is very much driven by the web and the transition to a network economy in what has been termed “the Information Age”. Yes, the web has changed the media landscape completely. And yes, the web has enabled new, network-based ways of exchanging good and services through, for example, the sharing economy and blockchain technologies.

But the web has yet to have a big transformative impact beyond the realms of information.

But why, then, do we continue to think that change is accelerating? Why do we fetishize the second derivative?

For one, there’s a psychological – or even biological – aspect to it. As always, while the new generations drive the change, their parents and grandparents will feel that the world has gone mad. It simply feels like exponential change.

Secondly, there’s a business aspect to it. A reason to keep the idea alive: It’s a way to challenge your organisation, to create motivational energy. If you say everything will more or less be the same, then why should people pay attention? If you read the business literature, there has never been a time in which managers did not invoke the idea that the world is changing faster than it’s ever changed before.

However, in reality change is not exponential. It’s better described as a series of S-curves. There are periods of frenzy, and there are the quiet periods.

We have all these (somewhat) new technologies at our disposal. Right now, most of us are trying to understand what they are, how they work, what they will mean, etc.

But soon these technologies will lose their lustre, and we will enter a pause. That’s when the real and boring work begins. And that’s when businesses should stay focused – when the initial tech appeal is long gone.

In short, the winners of tomorrow could very well be the boring companies. The ones that avoid the hyperventilation, meticulously develop their core product, and play the long game.

Many of the companies, which are so good at global scale and synergy, generally have a hard time refocusing on what’s needed today: reducing the time needed from product development to shelf, shortening payback periods on R&D investments, and capturing market trends and sales opportunities before competitors do. They also find it difficult to devolve responsibilities to local entrepreneurs, who have their finger on the pulse of local tastes more than headquarters ever can.

What is the best foundation for an agile operating model to innovate quickly and cheaply, test products and services in the market, refine them, and release them to consumers faster?

We believe the answer is to focus on employees—the most important asset of any company, even before the brands. An agile workforce should be central to any CEO agenda. Leaders in smaller organizations are positioned to focus on their employees more.

The world has always been one of change. But as technology evolves and speeds up lives, the changes we face keep on being different. In the face of this, leaders work harder, push their teams to work harder and faster to cope. These qualities are even considered as virtues – we even select leaders based on these qualities.

However, we conclude that just speeding up isn’t the answer. It often makes things more complex, consumes more energy and, in the best case, solves only a part of the challenge. If these teams slow down, they eventually go deeper and faster into achieving their objectives. They deal more effectively with increased complexity and challenges – and they use less energy.

The answer: Most leadership theories continue to be based on – and most leaders still live and work on – the Newtonian world view where leaders strive to control and structure their challenges and guarantee outcomes. Engaging in a quick discussion and moving as fast as possible from A to B in a controlled and straight line fits this Newtonian world view perfectly.

But the Newtonian world view doesn’t align anymore to help tackle the challenges companies and their leaders face today. In our work with top teams, we perceive that the Quantum world view, as exemplified in Max Planck’s and Albert Einstein’s theories around quantum physics, unlocks fresh possibilities and mindsets.

In the Quantum world view – where everything connects – we accept that our challenges are complex. We recognize, too, that we need to pace the speed of our work, slowing down in some moments for a deeper dialogue and understanding of our challenges and speeding up elsewhere.

Perhaps the most important element of the Quantum world view is knowing that solutions are always available and require only that we be conscious enough to see them. If we are, we set the right attention (we’re fully present) and intention, directing our energy to the solutions we want to emerge.

What little time you lose in decision making, you gain in execution.