Looking back on multiple waves of COVID-19, it has become self-evident that predicting the future is a risky endeavor. For organizations to recover and thrive in the longer terms it is critical to build adaptive muscles to quickly reorient themselves to whatever reality emerges, whether it’s a V-shaped (quick), U-shaped (long) or L-shaped (no return to normal) recovery.

To do that, a paradigm shift is needed in the way businesses lead, work and organise themselves. Today with 50% of companies still locked in functional silos and command and control mindsets, we are effectively using “hardware” (structures) from the 19th century to run 21st century “software” (ways of working), leading to unfulfilled corporate ambitions and largely disengaged workforces. The challenge with today’s operating models is that they lack the fitness to evolve and are based on control versus potential. This calls for a change in the way businesses design their organisations so that they are based on our best human impulses rather than trying to control for our worst.