Crandi

All Change The New Era Of Perpetual Organizational Upheaval

Leo Migdal
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all change the new era of perpetual organizational upheaval

We have entered a new era: an age of perpetual organizational upheaval. It demands new approaches to organizational management to replace models designed for a less complex, less unstable bygone age. To flourish at a time when massive shifts are shaking their organizations, business leaders can focus on the 4 “superpowers” of speed, technology, talent, and leadership. Our latest article explores each of these competitive superpowers and how they can improve organizational health and build resilience for the future. #StateOfOrganizations #Leadership #FutureofWork Your current browser isn't compatible with SoundCloud.

Please download one of our supported browsers. Need help? Is your network connection unstable or browser outdated? We used to think of disruption as something temporary—a storm to be weathered before things returned to normal. Not anymore. McKinsey calls this the "Era of Perpetual Upheaval", where change isn’t an event—it’s the default setting of our world.

Economic shifts, AI advancements, geopolitical instability—uncertainty is now baked into our every day lives. And yet, most organizations still rely on outdated change management models designed for a time when disruption had a beginning, middle, and end. That time is gone. The real question isn’t how to survive change—it’s how to thrive in it. Our brains hate uncertainty. At its core, the brain is a prediction machine, constantly scanning for patterns to anticipate what happens next.

But in a world where predictability is dead, our fight-or-flight response kicks into overdrive. The amygdala—the brain’s fear center—hijacks our thinking, cortisol floods our system, and we become reactive instead of strategic. Leaders cling to old playbooks, teams get stuck in analysis paralysis, and employees feel mentally exhausted. The worst part? This isn’t temporary. Waiting for things to "settle down" is no longer a strategy—it’s a trap.

If disruption is the norm, we need a new set of mental tools. The best leaders aren’t just managing change—they’re architecting adaptability into how their teams think and operate. The neuroscience-backed strategies? Cognitive agility and emotional granularity are two tools. Cognitive agility allows leaders to switch perspectives and make decisions with incomplete information. Emotional granularity helps teams regulate stress and stay in problem-solving mode.

Leaders can no longer be stability managers—they must be uncertainty trainers. The best companies will train their teams' brains to operate in constant change. This means hiring for adaptability, promoting for resilience, and rewarding those who innovate in chaos. Job descriptions will shift, prioritizing cognitive flexibility over technical expertise. The best CEOs won’t just manage disruption—they’ll design for it. The organizations that embrace upheaval as fuel for reinvention will come out ahead—everyone else will be left behind.

The Future Belongs to Those Who Rewire Their Minds McKinsey's recent article by Homayoun Hatami, Dana Maor, and Patrick Simon, "All change: The new era of perpetual organizational upheaval," points out that today's leaders are dealing with "massive shifts" shaking their operating and... These words could just as well describe the world of academic leaders grappling with the combinatorial effects of the pandemic, racial reckoning, economic turbulence, and social/political unrest. It is worth noting that Peter Vaill wrote a book in 1996 using the phrase "permanent white water" in the subtitle, describing the same sort of chronic upheaval, albeit engendered by a convergence of... Maybe the takeaway is that disruption of the status quo is more normal than we think; in fact, disruption may be the status quo.

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