The Great Disruption: How Technology is Reshaping the World

The world is changing. Rapidly. Exponential technologies are having a deep impact on society, organizations, and traditional hierarchical and centralized power structures. We are on the cusp of great disruption – one that will see a fundamental reset in the way we live and work. Inspired by nature we will see a rapid decentralization of Governance, law, energy, agriculture, finance, and many more essential parts of our global economy. People will be in power again and hierarchical and centralized systems will soon be a thing of the past. Are you ready for The Great Disruption?

How and when is increasing technology disrupting our old systems and our old world? In this video we are going to see that the old world, including its old structures, is disappearing at a rapid pace, making way for a new world with new systems. We are not living in an era of change, but a change of era. Not so long ago we humans still lived in a world that was stable and predictable. The world we lived in was no bigger than our eyes could see and no bigger than our feet could bring us. We lived in relatively small communities, where small local changes sometimes took several generations to become truly visible. Our world was a stable and predictable place to live in.

But today we live in a world that is unstable and therefore unpredictable. We live in a world that is globally connected through smart telecom technology. A world in which if something happens on the side, we know it on the other side within minutes or seconds. A world in which significant global changes no longer need generations but months, weeks, and sometimes days. Our world has become an unstable and unpredictable environment. Every day we see new technological breakthroughs of which we didn't even dare to dream 5 years ago. We see the convergence of technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, robotics, big data, and advanced sensor technologies that together make completely new economies possible.

The end of these technological advances is nowhere near, even more so I think this is only the beginning. If you asked me as a futurist what the next 5 to 10 years would look like, I would summarize this in a picture like this. I believe that literally and figuratively a tsunami of radical change is coming at us. A tidal wave of digitization, automation, and disruption will destroy old systems and organizations. Meanwhile, many people and organizations see this tidal wave coming, and these people and organizations are experiencing stress. Imagine lying here in the water before this wave in a boat, a large oil tanker, or a small yacht, it doesn't really matter. Everybody who looks out of the partridge gate and sees this wave coming, think ouch! Are we going to survive this or will we be lying in pieces on the bottom? And it doesn't matter if you are the captain of the ship, the helmsman, or the sailor. Everyone experiences the same stress!

And so it is with organizations today when people look out the window, and see the tidal wave of digitization and automation rapidly approaching their organization. They experience this as a huge threat and they will start to ask themselves questions. Are we going to survive this as an organization? The employee will wonder if his job is still safe, the manager will wonder if his department is still relevant, and the director and shareholders will wonder if the company can change course fast enough. But it is all a matter of perception and mindset. Some people and organizations have a different mindset, and they see this tidal wave not as a huge threat, but as a huge opportunity.

These people and organizations have the mindset of a surfer. They, therefore, know exactly when and where they need to be to utilize the enormous power of the wave and turn it into exponential progress. We know most of these organizations from the apps on our smartphones. These are organizations that have managed to win hundreds of millions of customers within a few years because they have developed a new easy-to-use user interface that could help many customers manage complexity. But if you have always been told that waves are dangerous and that you need to stay away from them, then your first reaction is probably stress. Your pre-frontal and neocortex brain switches off, and you go on the autopilot of the primitive brain. In other words, you go into fight, flight, or freeze mode. In other words, you will fight and try to stop the wave, which, of course, will not work. Either your flight or you freeze and do nothing. On the other hand, if you have always been told that waves are a fascinating natural phenomenon and that you have to respect this natural force but can also make it work for you.