Competing in the New World of Work: How Radical Adaptability Separates the Best from the Rest
Keith Ferrazzi with Kian Gohar and Noel Weyrich
Harvard Business Review Press (February 2022)
“VUCA on steroids”: Here’s a blueprint for success based on specific leadership competencies.
When I first read Alvin Toffler’s classic work, Future Shock, in 1970, this prediction really caught my eye: “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” With substantial assistance from Kian Gohar and Noel Weyrich, Keith Ferrazzi has created a comprehensive verification of Toffler’s prediction. This is a research-driven book. Most of its insights and counsel are based on what was revealed during rigorous interviews of more than 2,000 C-level executives.
Ferrazzi, Gohar, and Weyrich focus on real-world executives engaged in real-world competition. They mazker excellent use of several reader-friendly devices. For example, “High-Return Practices,” a set of key points in each of the eight chapters. Here’s what you’ll find in Chapter 3 (Page 51):
1. Always put customer value first.
2. Drive team identity downward.
3. Lead biweekly sprints toward measurable outcomes.
4. Scale to sustain innovation.
Ferrazzi, Gohar, and Weyrich also make clever use of another device, “Guiding Questions,” that stimulate creative thinking. A pair is inserted at the conclusion of Chapters 2-8, accompanied by a brief but substantial commentary. These appear in Chapter 8 (Page 207).
“Does our company rally around a sufficiently aspirational and well-articulated purpose that guides and inspires all stakeholders?”
“Does our company’s purpose guide our innovation and future-proofing strategy?”
Each of the “High-Return Practices” and each of the “Guiding Questions” is anchored in a context, a frame-of-reference, with which leaders in almost any organization can readily identify. The secret sauce of high-impact competition is the development and strengthening of radical adaptability. That is, Co-elevation (more, better ideas), Agility ((pivots and sprints forward), Team Resilience (peer-to-peer support), Readiness to act (anticipate change and disruption), Seeks constant reinvention (discards obsolete assumptions, LEGO block workforce (versatile, cohesive, and fluid), and Purpose-driven (drives every decision).
These are among the dozens of passages of greatest interest and value to me, also listed to suggest the scope of Ferrazzi’s coverage:
o Chapter 1 which serves as an outstanding introduction to the information, insights, and counsel that follow (Pages 1-21)
o Break Through Silos by Teaming Out (34-39)
o Collaborating Through Inclusion: Guiding Questions: (47-48)
o Lead Biwseekly Sprints Toward Measurable Outcomes (59-62)
o Leading Through Enterprise Agile: Guiding Questions (67-68)
o Diagnose Your Team’s Resilience (71-75)
o Promoting Team Resilience: Guiding Questions (90-91)
o Detect ThrEats and Opportunities (100-104)
o Assess and Prioritize Signals (108-113
o Developing Active Foresight: Guiding Questions (121)
o Identify Technologies Poised for Exponential Growth (128-138)
o Future-Proofing Your Business Model: Guiding Questions (148)
o Building the team, and, Deciding where to focus (153-154 & 155-156)
o What Workforce Will We Engage? (160-163)
o Execute the Transition (176-182)
o Building a Lego Block Workforce: Guiding Questions (182-183)
o Team Out to Explore Your Organizational Purpose (192-186)
o Set a Purpose-Driven Course for Radical Adaptability (202-207)
o Supercharging Your Purpose: Guiding Questions (207)
o Futurelogue (209-214)
Here in a single volume, C-level executives a thorough examination of the WHATs of competition in a new world of work and an equally thorough explanation of HOW to do that.
I urge you to highlight key passages and keep a lined notebook near at hand to record your comments, questions, and page references as well as responses to the “Guiding Questions” that conclude each of Chapters 2-8. These two tactics will facilitate, indeed expedite frequent review of key material later.
As indicated earlier, the material provided by Keith Ferrazzi — with assistance from Kian Gohar and Noel Weyrich — is relevant to the current and imminent needs of almost any organization, whatever its size and nature may be. It remains for each reader to select whatever is of greatest value to the given objectives, challenges, resources, vulnerabilities, and opportunities.
If you share my high regard for this book, I recommend Ray Dalio’s Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail (November 2021).