#4

Session 4's session was on Drivers of World Change and Change Management & Leadership.
The session started with several discussions on the different types of drivers of world change such as globalization and environmental drivers. Prof then touched on the difference between evolutionary and revolutionary change, which was interesting to note because the line can be rather blurred.
Another thing that was discussed in class was the notion of a disruptive change, loosely defined as a revolution that has great impacts on the world.

He went on to talk about the readings. I have read a couple of them myself and thought they were very good readings. The first reading on Global Drivers of Change to 2060 (Natural England Comissioned Report) was an interesting summary of several drivers of change that could happen in the near future. There are various global drivers of world change, varying from natural things beyond our control, to things that we have done that would impact future generations. It interesting to note that although a lot of the changes are human things that can be controlled, the dynamics of today's world is such that change is so necessary that they become inevitable and unstoppable.

An interesting video that was shown to us during the lesson was a video on a man dancing and making a fool of himself in public, and how in the course of the videos one follower steps in and the rest follow. It's a very simple but relevant example of how a leader is one who is not afraid to step out there and take risks. And because the man kept on dancing without feeling awkward or embarrassed, eventually he convinced the first follower that it's alright to do that. Indeed, a leader needs not only to be brave but to be persistent and committed to his purpose in order to gain others' trust.

The second half of the lesson discusses the difference between leadership and management. The best definition in my opinion was from one of the readings, "The manager does things right, the leader does the right thing."
Prof showed us a graph on the pessimism-time curve which shows the timeline of managing change which follows: uninformed optimism -> informed pessimism -> informed realism -> completion.
He compared this to a relationship. I agreed with this amusing comparision that the dynamics of a relationship loosely follows this timeline. Uninformed optimism being the honeymoon period of a relationship, informed pessimism being when they move in together and discover each others' faults, informed realism being the acceptance and commitment towards the other party and completion being marriage.

He also touched on the three approaches we can take to change.
Eagle approach: embraces and seeks change, stays ahead and leads.
Ostrich approach: 'head in a sand', is not aware of what's going on around him, just gets the job done
Dodo bird approach: one that does not adapt to change and therefore becomes 'extinct'.

Indeed, the one who survives is the one most adaptable to change. The ones that adapt are the ones who rise to become dominant players, while those who don't will only become a falling star.

I felt a lot more could have been discussed in this session. It was a bit of a pity to me because this topic and session was by far the most interesting for me. I would rate it 7/10.