We live in turbulent times. The twenty-first century has already seen many crises. These were each time accompanied by the ups and downs of the global economy that go with it. It started with the bursting of a dot.com bubble (2000), which caused many companies to go bankrupt at the beginning of this century and was followed a year later by an attack on the World Trade Center in New York (2001).
This attack gave the world two decades of wars and terrorism. Furthermore, two years after these attacks, the second Gulf War (2003) followed, an event that still has its consequences today. At the same time, banks were increasingly creative with loans and investments which resulted in a real estate bubble (2008), having consequences for the whole world to bear. Because all these events were always accompanied by major economic shocks and rapid changes in the world economy. With the fact of terrorist attacks in major European capitals such as Madrid (2004), London (2005, 2007), Paris (2012, 2015), Brussels (2014, 2016) and Berlin (2016), a lot has happened and a lot has been invested in people and resources to deal with these types of threats.
In 2019, a pandemic started in China. It is an event the world will remember for a long time. To date, this happening still has its effects on the global economy. In addition, Russia’s attacks on Ukraine (2014, 2022) resulted in economic sanctions for Russia, but these have economic consequences for the whole world. And as if it weren’t enough, the world’s population has increased by a third in that period (from 6 billion to 8 billion!), which does not do any good to the climate problem, which has now become clear to most people. Because more people need more energy and more living space, which leads to more CO2 emissions, more environmental degradation and more deforestation. These circumstances also lead to excessive natural disasters and large migration flows from those places in the world where life is bad to places that seem to offer a future perspective. All this puts societies under pressure, demands human lives and costs huge amounts of money.
Nevertheless, the economy grew during that period and companies are constantly finding new markets or are focusing on innovative solutions with which new markets are being developed. In the twenty-three years this century has almost passed, there has been only one constant in life and that is a constant change. On the one hand things change due to the events that have their impact on the world, but on the other hand also because of the many innovative solutions that are being pursued. In two decades, the world has become a small village, where an event on one side of the globe only seconds later is shared on social media on the other side of the planet. Every day or week your computer gets software updates and every few years you have to replace the hardware because it is “too old” and no longer performant or even compatible. Cybercrime did not even exist in the last century. Today, the roads are saturated by the many transports of online orders, which have to be delivered just-in-time and it is becoming increasingly difficult to do your daily journeys in a normal way. Politicians have to put out one fire after another and are no longer able to develop a coherent policy. You would say for less “the world is going mad and has become a fool’s nest”. It is increasingly a chaos that leads to depression and burnout.
An important aspect of this state is the flow of information. Today, the traditional media are being questioned, no matter how hard they try to report truthfully on reality. After all, nowadays there is also an arsenal of social media, where anyone can, usually uncontrolled, express an opinion or proclaim whole fabrications. It leads to “Fake News” and conspiracy theories that are hard to reveal. Despite all the possibilities to connect, there is more and more polarization and alienation. To get out of that chaos, you need leadership. This applies to yourself (self-leadership) for your company, as well as for society.
Leadership consists in initiating a process from a specific vision of reality. It is important to have a clear view of the current state and to see the gap that exists between what the current state is and what you would ideally like to see. That gap is the difference between what is there and what you would like to be there. This is the essence of a “vision”. A good understanding of the gap leads to an understanding of what needs to be done to achieve what that vision entails. Doing what is necessary to realize this vision on a very general level is then what you can call a “mission”. People need a vision and a mission with which they can identify. That is what is inspiring and what is needed to get out of the chaos they are in. However, in order to be able to get started in concrete terms, it is also necessary to very clearly express an ambition. After all, “ambition” is the extent to which you wish to accomplish the mission. It is necessary to express a sufficiently challenging ambition, but also not to exaggerate in order to keep it credible. There is a difference in wanting to be the best in the world or the best of the village. Vision, mission and ambition form the basis on which the leadership process is based. To complete the strategic component of this process, there are the values and norms that fit your ambition, mission and vision. What’s important? Which issues should definitely receive attention and in what way are you going to realize the ambition? Here too, it is essential to find the right tone to inspire people. After all, there is a difference between a society that works through dialogue, cooperation and respect or wanting to achieve a goal through oppression and exploitation. One will inspire more than the other. After all, crucial values such as trust, equality, freedom, respect and innovation differ greatly from dominance, envy, oppression, distrust and the straitjacket of a dictatorship. After all, different visions yield different values and other mental models that lead to a different culture and a different result.
What is your vision for this world, your company or for yourself?
BIO:
Peter Blokland, born the 8th of August 1957 in Antwerp, Belgium, studied at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels obtaining his MSc degree in Military and Aeronautical sciences (1983), to start a career as a fighter pilot, flying the F-16 at Kleine Brogel airbase (1985).
In 1988 he was appointed flight instructor continuing his career educating student pilots.
In 1991, he continued studies at the Royal Higher Institute for Defense (KHID) to become a superior officer.
As a superior officer, he occupied duties as a staff officer, commanding officer and aircraft accident investigator, following various courses regarding aviation safety, human factors and aircraft accident investigation. He also served at the NATO, SHAPE, NucOps, dealing with nuclear surety and command an control.
At the age limit, he retired from military service in 2007 to start a second career as a business coach, trainer and consultant, specialised in ISO 31000, Systems Thinking and Organisational Alignment.
In 2013, together with Prof.dr.ir. Genserik Reniers, he wrote the book “Total Respect Management” (in Dutch), later followed by “Safety & Performance” (in English) bringing together his experiences as a pilot, staff officer, commanding officer and consultant.
To follow up on this book, he started a PhD project at TUDelft, sponsored by Netbeheer Nederland. The public defence of his thesis “Towards sustainable safety and performance in organisations” is scheduled for the 8th of March 2023
Peter is also a member of the Belgian I262, supporting ISO TC262 with his experience.