Week 4 - Drivers of World Changes & Leadership Management

Brief Overview

Drivers of World's Change - This topic was a very interesting, Prof Shahi started the lesson with an important topic, difference between two kind of changes, Evolution and Revolution. Evolution is change that happen in a comfortable way, such that people who are not ready for it have sufficient time to adapt to the change. Whereas Revolution is a "radical" as in sudden changes that bring about a considerable impact to society. Moving on from there, we discussed some of the drivers of world changes, which include: Environmental Drivers, Commercial & Business Drivers, Scientific and Technology Drivers & Social and Cultural Drivers.

Leadership Management - To be able to bring about a revolution, extraordinary leaders were needed to lead the changes. However before going into the concept of leadership, Prof identify the difference between leader and manager. Leader is the one who set up the vision and framework, and one needs followers and maintain trust with one's followers. In contrast, manager is one who follow leader's vision and responsible to carry out goal that was set by the leader by overseeing the operation in one's department. Stepping up from this, Prof began to introduce us with the concept of leadership, and one that I find interestingly true is the analogy of leaders and birds.

Key Takeaways

The class last week was very interesting from me, especially when prof introduced us with the analogy of birds and leaders. The analogy was interesting, humorous but meaningful. He said that true leader is like an eagle. Eagle will observes everything with its accurate bird eye-view, and when it find an 'opportunity', it will make strike it with its lethal move. While leader is like an eagle, followers is like a normal bird who just follow the leader. Lastly, humorously true, people who are resistant to change is like a dodo bird. Those who resistant to change will struggle in their life and eventually be left behind.

Another interesting concept to me that was introduced through a youtube video, is the 'lone nut' video. It it very insightful for me. The video was started with one guy dance alone in front of a crowd, and he looked like an idiot. However as more people joined him, in the end those who didn't join him dancing look like an idiot. This is an interesting yet insightful video, at first leader who bring out a revolutionary changes might look silly, but as time goes and people become more receptive, it is those who resistance to it that look silly, and eventually be left behind.

The lesson last week was interesting, however it would be much better if we discussed more on the Drivers of the World's Changes itself, instead of the World's Changes only. On top of that overall the lesson last week is interesting enough with all the interesting concepts that were introduced. I would rate last week class 8/10.