The Ryder Cup golf tournament starts in late September (there goes 3 days I’ll never get back …). The teams are made up of players from both dominant golf tours: PGA/European players and LIVGolf players.
Two years ago, this would never have been thought possible. The rival, rambunctious LIV crew – minted with cash, full of brashness and bravado – upended the golf world, which became a divisive, toxic environment, which was in sharp contrast to the calm, gentlemanly environment of the past 75 years of professional golf.
In fact, the recently appointed Ryder Cup captain (back in 2023) Hendrik Stenatron was stripped of his captaincy when he joined LIVGolf.
Fast forward to today. Players from both tours are once again participating in the Ryder Cup, not quite harmonious yet, but on the way to getting back to equilibrium.
This is a great example of the Order -> Disorder -> Re-Order sequence that I have found so helpful in my own life. Rather than seeing changes that I might be experiencing in my life as being chaotic and hard to manage, now I can see that change for what it is: a necessary disruption to an old, stale way and a bridge between that old way and an emerging new way that promises new possibilities and upside potential.
Business — and leadership — follows the same arc. We begin with structure, meet chaos, and if we stay with the process, we emerge with something stronger, truer, and more useful than before.
The global business ecosystem is in the final stages of Order. Old norms are hanging on by the skin of their teeth – stretching and twisting in their old form as they try to stay relevant and useful. This stage will eventually run out of twists and turns and will break. There are many signs of this already, all of which are the last vestiges of an old and outdated way.
Soon Dis-order will arrive. In my view this is how it might play out:
- Profit, and the quarterly reporting of profit, will be challenged and then changed (for the better by alleviating the business from being short-term focused)
- Climate change is going to smack businesses upside the head (weather-affected property insurance has already gone that way, for example)
- Human capital is going to be adversely affected by AI (but in 15 years’ time for the better)
- Leadership, which is currently way under-capacitated to handle the above disruptions, is going to creak and break under the strain of solving complex/wicked problems being presented
And then, I hope, a new version of business will emerge through Re-Order.
Wiser.
Relevant to modern society.
More empathetic.
More interconnected with other aspects of society.
Planetarily helpful, not hurtful.
Better deployment of human capital.
Kinder, even.
With business in this Re-ordered form, society will be able to take huge leaps forward, given how this will impact capital flows, innovation and the three billion+ people who make up the workers of the world.
But hold onto your hats because we’re not there yet, and disruption awaits. Prepare yourselves and prepare your businesses for what’s coming, but don’t panic because it’s a necessary and predictable step of a natural process.
Here’s to business becoming liberated.