From Episodic Change to Relentless Acceleration

For decades, leaders have been taught to think in periods of time characterized as S-Curves. Change starts slowly. It accelerates. It matures. It eventually levels off. 

The S-Curve has explained everything from technology adoption and business growth to learning and innovation. But what happens when change itself accelerates? The rate of change looks more like a straight-line rather than a series of S-Curves. The slow beginning gets shorter. Acceleration happens earlier. The period of advantage gets compressed. And before one curve has matured, the next is already arriving. 

This presents a new leadership challenge. Historically organizations have been able to manage lifecycles in the predictable way that the S curve describes. In a world of constant change, there may be no stable lifecycle to manage. The challenge becomes the ability to continuously adapt the enterprise while still running it. That requires more than transformation programs, annual planning cycles, or another wave of technology. It requires a change engine built into the enterprise itself. That change engine is the Operating Model. 

The competitive advantage of the future won't simply be having the best strategy or the newest technology. It will be how quickly your organization can become something different. 

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