The great acceleration needs and even greater transformation

The World Economic Forum in Davos recently reported that we need a “great acceleration” in green investments to speed up our efforts on climate change. I believe for this to happen we also need an even greater acceleration in transformational leadership and in humanizing the structures and institutions within which we live, work, learn and play.

Political leaders globally have undermined trust in their ability to tackle the existential challenges of climate change and in their willingness collectively to set a course for a different future. Corporate and institutional leaders have disappointed in their reluctance to grasp the opportunity presented by the pandemic to make their workplaces more human centric and highly personalized to the life people want to lead.

The irony is that we have a perhaps our best opportunity presented by the times in which we live to take a greater leap to democratize leadership and make a mindset shift from the concept of leadership by the few, to instead leadership as a personal capability of the many. Corporate leaders can now make the historic shift from seeing buildings as places to contain people, to spaces that are designed to connect people.

There is no doubt that rapidly emergent technologies will transform the lives we live and the work we do. No one knows where this will lead, or if there is an end game. What we can be certain of however, is that technological innovation when combined with the power of human ingenuity can be an irresistible, positive force for change.

The big question is can we unleash human potential at the speed and scale required to keep pace with technology and harness that as a force that enhances the human spirit and enables us to meet the existential challenges we face.

These are truly the best of times and the worst of times and how we grasp the essence of both and reconcile the paradox within, may provide the answers for what lies ahead. ?We are no longer in an either/or world and it is clear that the worst of times can provide the incentive to break free of the past, whilst the best of times can bring forward the inspiration to create a brighter future all.

It will be the complementary power of technology and human ingenuity that will provide the great acceleration envisaged at Davos to meet the challenge of climate change. Neither one, nor the other, will suffice and successful investment will need both. The way ahead doesn’t come with a road map, but we will find our way using all of the resources, human and technological, we have at our disposal. In this way, the adversities of today can be transformed into the catalysts for building a better tomorrow. It is as people at our best, using technologies we can trust, that we will create a sustainable future for all of our people on this fragile planet.