The Art of Balancing Decisions as an Exponential Leader
Erich R. Bühler
Philanthropist, logosophist, founder and CEO of Hanna Prodigy and Enterprise Agility University. Author of Leading Exponential Change, Enterprise Agility Fundamentals, and The Convergence.
The Art of Balancing Decisions as an Exponential Leader
Exponential forces such as AI have thrust the economy into a new reality. Rapid technological innovation, short work cycles, skills magnification with AI, and global connectivity have created an environment of constant disruption.?
Markets and consumer expectations are no longer evolving linearly but exponentially. As a leader in this new world, you must make increasingly complex trade-offs and decisions in an ecosystem of interconnected stakeholders.
What are exponential markets and why are they important to?you?
Exponential markets experience incredibly rapid, accelerated growth. Like compound interest, they grow exponentially, not linearly. Think about how quickly smartphones have displaced landline phones, how quickly streaming has changed entertainment, or how quickly social media has created new cultural norms. Entire industries can emerge, dominate, and disappear in just a few years. The strategy and decision cycles you’ve provided for stability are faltering in this environment. As a leader today, you must make decisions with much at stake in constant uncertainty. What is successful in the current quarter may be obsolete tomorrow. Your company faces relentless competition from digital rivals. Technology promises opportunity but might also be a threat. Your shareholders demand predictability, but your markets are characterized by volatility. In this time, you must rethink how to balance profit and purpose, short-term performance and long-term investment, shareholder return and social impact, workforce objectives achievement and wellbeing. You need to optimize and evolve the entire value proposition and ecosystem?—?for customers, shareholders, workforce, and society?—?simultaneously. Exponential forces have made your traditional approaches to strategy and decision-making inadequate.
Why do humans behave differently in exponential markets? People are not prepared for constant alterations in tools, processes, and ways of working. We have evolved for linear progress, not rapid accelerated or exponential change. Our brains orient to the familiar and crave stability and predictability. We rely on past experiences, habits, and heuristics to help us navigate the world. But in disruptive markets, these instinctive practices and well-known frameworks such as SAFe or Scrum might harm your organization if not adapted to the new reality.?
Holding on to what worked in the past may not work in the new, accelerated reality. Exponential forces strain your individual and collective neurology, causing people to be reactive, tribal, divided, and polarized—precisely when adaptability is essential. As a leader, you must understand that it is acceleration itself that stresses instincts and behaviors. Change overwhelms perceptions and sensing capabilities and evokes fear and uncertainty. Different groups experience this turbulence in different ways, fracturing unity. In this environment, inspiring leaders who can creatively engage people and reimagine the future will succeed. They transparently communicate the need for change, combining tradition with reinvention. They support people through transitions and help them write the next chapter. They balance incremental successes today with bold experimentation to conquer the future and embrace current challenges with a new financial and value-creation model. And this is what the TriValue Company model is all about!
What is the TriValue Company Model? The TriValue Company model (TVC) is a blueprint for optimizing value across customers, company, and workforce wellbeing. It emphasizes balancing priorities and experiences across these groups to enable adaptability and shared progress. The three spheres of value in TVC are:
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TVC provides a compass for navigating tradeoffs and turbulence. It illuminates interconnected priorities needing balance for mutual success. By considering potential impacts across TVC’s three spheres of value, you can make holistic decisions benefiting all stakeholders?—?especially during volatility.
How do we use the TriValue Company Model to make balanced decisions? Practically, this means transparency about changes while engaging people to shape solutions. Set ambitious teaming and innovation goals. Ask “Who could this decision exclude or empower?” daily. Make balancing interests in these three values a visible leadership practice, and make sure management replicates it.
TVC offers a compass to navigate uncertainty as one ecosystem. When you consider the potential impact on all of these interconnected groups, you can make holistic decisions that benefit everyone?—?especially in times of volatility.?
TVC gives you a blueprint for achieving Shared progress?—?a crucial part of Enterprise Agility to deal with the new accelerated reality.
The TriValue Company model (TVC) model represents a new paradigm for organizational success amidst exponential change. It moves past outdated constructs focused solely on the customer or maximizing shareholder returns measured by short-term financial metrics. It provides a more holistic framework for value creation suited to the new reality of constant disruption. It emphasizes optimizing experiences, capabilities, and outcomes across three interconnected groups: customers, company, and workforce.?
Will you lead with a forward-thinking mindset? TriValue Company model is here to support you.