The Leadership in Action Series: On Leading in Times of Change

INTRODUCTION

Many years ago, when I was a young, wide-eyed organizational psychologist, a wise mentor gave me sage advice on understanding the psychology of human behavior. He said: “All of psychology is essentially the understanding of learning. If people have the ability to learn, everything else takes care of itself.” His wisdom seems particularly appropriate for understanding the challenges of leading in our modern world. We live in a time when the notions of evolutionary or incremental change seem as much a relic of history as the Walkman and the typewriter. Gone are the days of sequential and predictable change with clear outcome goals, a rational window for implementation, and easily identifiable action steps to guide the journey. Gone ...