Daniel Burrus

It is often assumed that people don’t like change, when in reality humans are born to instinctively love change. It’s why we take vacations and crave travel, because we want and need change. We must get out of our usual surroundings and witness something new in order to regain focus and refresh our perspectives. In this case, change is a choice, so we like it. But there is also a negative side to change: when the change affects you personally, unpleasantly, and unknowingly. However, most of the changes that come “out of nowhere” are actually very visible months or even years before they officially hit. For example, people get burglar alarms usually after being robbed. We all tend to react to change and put out fires more than we anticipate what will happen based on the direction in which change is heading. It’s time to become more anticipatory so you can see change coming and pre-solve problems associated with it before they occur. Only after becoming anticipatory will you be able to use change as an opportunity for growth rather than a crisis to be managed.

To thrive in this new age of hyper-technological disruption and change, it is imperative to learn a new competency: Becoming Anticipatory. That may sound impossible, but it’s not. It is actually quite simple when you know where and how to look, and when you and your employees master this skill, you’ll be able to create what I call an Anticipatory Organization™.

I’ve discussed the importance of cybersecurity in healthcare due to the extremely sensitive personal data and the loss of trust if hacked. If healthcare data and a patient’s trust is as sensitive as research shows, then it's no surprise that the banking and financial industry is in serious need for anticipatory cybersecurity and digital data protection.

A better solution to solving tough problems is to just skip them. I know skipping a problem completely sounds simple and almost daunting in nature; however, it is necessary.

By the time the rapidly growing streams of data get to the cloud-based analytic systems and then circle back to the devices with instructions based on the analysis of the larger data ecosystem, the opportunity for instant analysis and appropriate action is greatly reduced. Fortunately, a concept called Edge Computing can make sense of, and put to use, the wealth of data taken from IoT.

I spent my early career teaching and have a deep passion for lifelong learning and creating a life of dreams fulfilled. Accomplishing educational goals is a significant step toward this. I tell my audiences that “I want to create a widely diversified portfolio of unforgettable memories,” and I encourage others to do the same. While each of us has an important purpose and a unique story to tell, we all need a boost at some point to give our dreams momentum.

A difficult problem can and will eventually become a roadblock so large that it renders forward progress in any productive way virtually impossible. The direct result of a roadblock as such is more often than not, procrastination, and the longer this problem is in place, the more you become convinced there are no solutions. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

In the past, I suggested that the role of the CIO needs to shift from that of a Chief Information Officer to a Chief Innovation Officer, largely due to the rapid, multiple technology-driven transformations that are always occurring. But just as the CIO’s role needs to change, so too does the CTO’s role—from Chief Technology Officer to Chief Transformation Officer.

Now that I’ve revealed what business leaders must know in order to become the disruptor instead of the disrupted, the next step is applying those principles. I discussed previously the need to solve problems before they occur; however, what happens when you do uncover a problem?

Have you ever wished you could predict the future? What would you do if you could clearly see critical changes in the months and years ahead and use them to shape your future instead of just letting it unfold by default? I have good news for you: you can.

Recently, technology company Sage conducted surveys pertaining to AI and individuals’ understanding of it. Unfortunately, 43% of respondents in the US and 47% of respondents in the UK indicated they had no idea what AI is capable of in business.

Based on technology-enabled Hard Trends that are already in place, how we sell, market, communicate, collaborate, innovate, train, and educate will continue to transform. If you don’t anticipate the disruption that comes with this transformation, someone else will. And with all the business processes technology is transforming, nothing is transforming more than the role of the CIO.