The future has come knocking: Review of the Swiss Leadership Forum 2019
What will characterize a good leader in the future? What does Generation Z expect from its leaders? How can we move from transhumanism to a self-organized culture that pays attention to all relevant dimensions - people, environment, ecology? Answers to burning questions were provided by the Swiss Leadership Forum, which moved and awakened leaders across all industries on November 21, 2019.
450 participants, executives, managing directors and managers, together with the keynote speakers, took a look at the digital future that needs to be shaped. Because "if we don't shape, we will be shaped and will have to accept various scenarios as they seem to be emerging," said host, initiator and CEO of the Swiss Leadership Forum, Stephan Isenschmid.
Digital empowerment called for
As voluntary members of the global data society, we enjoy a high level of comfort on the one hand, but also give control out of our hands. Prof. Dr. Dirk Helbing, Professor of Computational Social Science at ETH Zurich, strongly advises against this. In his opening keynote, he pleaded for a redesign of society and "digital empowerment": "By means of IoT in combination with blockchain, one could realize multidimensional real-time feedback that promotes companies and people according to (environmentally sustainable) objectives. Out of this comes a circular economy and a sharing economy that allows for combinatorial innovation, collective intelligence that strengthens democracy, and real-time multidimensional feedback that saves nature. Because we are not sustainable if we don't have a sustainable economy."
How our memory "cheats" us
Legal psychologist and artificial intelligence expert Dr. Julia Shaw gave an impressive demonstration of how memories can be manipulated. We can even remember things that never happened. Our "false memory" is to blame: "Memories are a personal simulation. That's why I recommend always writing down or recording important things, always assuming that they will be forgotten," says the author of "Deceptive Memory." This has nothing to do with "digital amnesia. Although we don't have to memorize so many things today, we do have to think in a more networked way - which is also a great memory feat.
"Innovation happens when ideas have sex"
What will life, society and the economy look like in the future? And how can we prepare ourselves for it? In his 7 theses for the future, leading futurologist and "intellectual accupuncturist" Magnus Lindkvist recommends not copying but experimenting, not resting on one's success but seeking meaning, having an "open relationship" with rules, cultivating diversity in the company, looking for creative friction and not capitulating when the first attempts fail: "Even companies like Nestlé, Twitter and Roomba had to accept failure at the beginning."
Many other highlights at the Swiss Leadership Forum 2019
Youth researcher Simon Schnetzer found out what young talent wants from their work: meaning, fun and security. Charlotte de Brabandt, 30 Under 30 Megawatt Supply Chain Star, shared insights on what makes a good leader: excellent communication and influencing skills, soft skills and emotional intelligence, curiosity, intuition, change management, and an agile and collaborative leadership style. For a new leadership away from "Command and Control", towards the authentic, inspiring leader with self, social and implementation competence encourages the author of "A strong WE starts with YOU", Jürgen Balhuber. And the strategic-empirical researcher Dr. Andreas Bausch from the Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Germany, was able to prove that the past has never been as insignificant for success as it is today, but that the CEO or CEOs have an enormous influence on the success of a company.
The next Swiss Leadership Forum
During the conference breaks and at the concluding standing dinner, participants enjoyed the stimulating exchange of ideas among like-minded people, discussed the new food for thought and engaged in in-depth conversations. The 17th edition of the Swiss Leadership Forum will take place on November 19, 2020 at The Dolder Grand Hotel.
