Clarity is the new super-power!

Views are personal. Sources are cited. Feedback is welcome.

Clarity is the new super-power! / 075, 06 May 2023

One of the most impressive books in the last decade for me has been Sapiens, by Israeli author Yuval Noah Harari. The book is an amalgamation of everything – history, geography, biology, economics, politics, but everything narrated in the context of our evolvement as humans on this planet. What shines through every page of the book is the clarity of the author, who, even while explaining wide-ranging phenomena, keeps his focus clear, and the narrative interesting. In a subsequent book, 21 Lessons For the 21st Century, he talks about maintaining focus amidst disorienting change. He states that Clarity is the new super-power, the theme for today’s article.

Clarity is very simply defined as the quality of being clear and easy to understand. While it has always been important, today it has become the most critical quality for professionals, especially leaders. Why has Clarity become so critical? It is due to a combination of factors:

-??????Rapidly evolving market landscape: Over the last decade, we have seen several breakthrough innovations and consequent disruptions. For e.g., payment Apps and UPI disrupting the digital banking space, travel Apps like MakeMyTrip and Airbnb disrupting the travel and hotel industry, EVs disrupting the automobile industry, and many more such. Amidst disorienting change, Clarity is needed by leaders to understand which changes in the market landscape are relevant to their business, and which are not. They need to be able to anticipate disruptions and try and disrupt it themselves before the new entrants do so.

-??????Innovation cycles from years to months: Not so long ago, product innovation cycles used to be 5-10 years, from concept to prototype to series production, and eventual phase-out. Think cars, mobiles, or trains. After introduction, they didn’t change for years. Today, a new car needs a facelift after about 6 months and will be replaced by a completely new model in about 3 years. Dozens of new smartphones are launched every year. Our Vande Bharat semi-high-speed trains were conceptualised and manufactured launched in record time. Innovation cycles have crashed, this means frenetic work at the backend with the R&D, Engg. and Mfg. teams. Today, leaders need Clarity to anticipate customer and market needs ahead of time and communicate and execute plans at double speeds within their organisations.

-??????Economic and Geopolitical turbulences: We had a fairly stable era of globalisation and geopolitical stability without major conflicts – barring few localised ones – between 1980 – 2020. We can no longer take this for granted. A combination of trade wars and supply chain disruptions due to the pandemic have resulted in several reversals to globalisation, with countries looking to reverse it, by bringing back technology and jobs from abroad to within their frontiers. The war in Europe today, apart from the human tragedy, also impacts businesses (Energy, Steel, Argon supplies) and upends established business channels. It is a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world, and leaders need Clarity to identify turbulences and make their organisations agile to manage them.

These are the major factors, but there are other minor ones too – like too much data to be managed, reconciling differences between teams, managing contradicting requirements (e.g., increase quality but lower costs) that can actually feel overwhelming. Clarity will help us handle all these situations better. So how does one strive for better clarity? A few points, from personal experience:

• Define true north: when lost for directions, we look to the compass for reorientation. Similarly, in leadership we should define our true purpose for business and success. When faced with multiple pulls and pressures, this compass will provide the true direction or Clarity on what we should really do.
• Sharpen focus & priority: we generally tend to do too many things that keep us busy. But for developing Clarity, we need to do less, and cut the clutter around us. Prioritise and focus on a few critical and strategic things, being aware yet away from the whirlpool of constant activity.
• Amplify Communication: I heard from a senior colleague once that there is no such thing as overcommunication. Communicating priorities and direction – in simple and relatable terms on a consistent basis – provides Clarity to both the leader and the organisation.

I hope you enjoyed reading this one, and as always, I request you to share your own thoughts and experiences in the comments section. Let us build a conversation on this topic!

Warm regards, Krishnakumar.

?

Image courtesy:

How to Develop Mental Clarity and Peace of Mind - Barry Winbolt

References:

Yuval Noah Harari - Wikipedia

How to Develop Mental Clarity and Peace of Mind - Barry Winbolt

CLARITY | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary

Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity - Wikipedia