Pressure to make progress and increasing complexity - executives at the breaking point

Executives are increasingly exposed to very high levels of stress.

Two aspects that are repeatedly evident in my executive training programs, I would like to briefly illuminate here: 1. The stress caused by the pressure for constant development and 2. The stress due to the increasing complexity of the world. Stress caused by Progress We live in a world of progress. This has brought a kind of obligation to improve into our lives, which directly affects all things and every person. No one is good enough as they are today. Even if many wise teachers tell us about the perfection of being, what really matters in our world is a reflective becoming, a constant learning and improving of ourselves. In many people, there is a fire of dissatisfaction with the current state. We are burdened by a better future, and we are subject to an upward pull, as beautifully described by Peter Sloterdijk. Regular Guest in Business Class Especially people who have taken on leadership responsibilities or people working in agile, self-responsible teams and have to deliver creative performances daily are regular guests in the business class of the obligation to improve. So what to do? Accept the world as it is and play holistically on this keyboard. Follow Nietzsche's advice and affirm the necessary, as it is inevitable anyway. You are best positioned as an executive for the new era when you make your leadership routine a practice. Complexification of the World What the world still has in store for us is a process of "complexification". Due to a lack of more creative ideas, this phenomenon has been termed as "VUCA", an acronym for increasingly complex environmental conditions. What does VUCA mean? VUCA describes our environment, the conditions under which we work. It is characterized by "Volatility", "Uncertainty", "Complexity", and "Ambiguity". Volatility refers to an environment where changes are very frequent and profound. It has become an unstable world where we can only vaguely remember the long stable phases of the past. Uncertainty describes the uncertainty we have to live with today. Even the near future is hardly predictable anymore. The world repeatedly has a "Black Swan" in store for us, an event that no one foresaw, a real surprise. Do Not Take Cover Now, of course, we can also permanently take cover, but it is better to welcome the unexpected with a new awareness and vigilance. Complexity refers to the increasing complexity of the world. There is one important message here: those who reduce complexity are cowardly and evade full vitality. Complexity as a Friend It takes holistic methods to master complexity. It is not our enemy but our potential, our resource, the mega development field for our business world. Ambiguity paints a world full of contradictions. Logic loses its validity. There is no right or wrong anymore. Contradictions behave strangely. One statement may be true, and the exact opposite may also be true. How to Deal with Complexity Trial and error is a popular method that sometimes works. However, it is better to apply emotional-intuitive methods, for example in decision-making. You can stick to your old patterns and ignore complexity. However, it is more helpful to embrace a new agility, a "sailing by sight," as Peter Kruse called it. Perhaps you will succeed in understanding complexity through details. Good luck with that! It is more meaningful to pay attention to the big patterns and uncover relevant contradictions. There are proven methods for dealing with real contradictions such as iterative problem-solving and aporetic dialogue. And lest we forget: the most popular method to deal with the complexity of the world is "Simplify." However, it is wiser to recognize complexity as potential, to utilize the intelligence of many, and to courageously engage in intuitive strategies. Yours sincerely, Heinz Peter Wallner Article by Dr. Heinz Peter Wallner. He is a speaker in the German Speaker Lexicon. You can find his profile here!