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Thriving in an
UNSAFE World

Keynote · Leadership, ethics, strategy

A figure on a ledge above a city at dusk
A sailboat in a storm

“UNSAFE” allows us to confront the new realities head-on.

VUCA was a phrase coined in 1987 by the US Army War College that has since become common language in the business world (in fact, some speakers still use VUCA as the next best thing!). However, VUCA describes the world we live in today, not how to deal with it.

Best for

Leadership summits, governance and risk audiences, and organisations working through a values or accountability reset.

“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” The Red Queen, in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871).

A figure on a ledge above a city at dusk

Thriving in an UNSAFE World

The problem

The world today is changing at a breakneck pace where waves of disruption are threatening our very survival and challenging our understanding of the next normal, and the vocabulary leaders are given for it is thirty years old. Craig’s own research shows that once more than 3.46 forces change at the same time, change stops behaving exponentially and starts behaving factorially.

A sailboat in a storm

Thriving in an UNSAFE World

What is
happening now

VUCA was a phrase coined in 1987 by the US Army War College that has since become common language in the business world (in fact, some speakers still use VUCA as the next best thing!). However, VUCA describes the world we live in today, but there are very few ways to think about the emerging “Autumn” where changes emerge and you need to create a system to identify “sentinel animals.” Without early warning, organisations are prone to miss the emergent future beyond just trends and forecasts.

Balanced stones under a storm sky

Thriving in an UNSAFE World

The keynote

UNSAFE is an acronym drawn from Craig’s twenty years as an entrepreneur, executive, academic and practitioner. Through this keynote, he elaborates on each of the letters, which in combination give listeners a framework for determining the future. The talk goes further, showing that the combinatorial effect of these changes is where signals actually sit.

U
N
S
A
F
E
A figure on a ledge above a city at dusk

Thriving in an UNSAFE World

What you get

An understanding and methodology to determine signals (and trends) versus being told what these may be. Audience members will be able to map out these changes and how to create a framing for their specific context and industry.

Leadershipethicsstrategy

Preparation
hardens decisions.

He takes bookings for keynotes, MC and hosting, workshops and advisory work, both directly and through speaker bureaus.

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