![manage change](https://33charts.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/matt-ridley-Lyl8RL7imrw-unsplash-1024x576.jpg)
![manage change](https://33charts.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/matt-ridley-Lyl8RL7imrw-unsplash-1024x576.jpg)
Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, inspired an entire generation of leaders with his quote: “We can't manage change. We can only be ahead.”
This needs to be reconsidered. Because there's the fantasy of staying ahead of change, and then there's modern reality. At the start of this century, technological advances outpaced the system's ability to keep pace. It is therefore no longer possible to anticipate change. You can create changes (as Drucker adds in the reference below). You can respond nimbly to change. You can evolve with change. But our systems and structures were not designed to handle change on this scale.
Drucker leads in a local and linear world. But this is not General Motors in 1965. We live in exponential, non-linear times. What worked then won't work today.
If you liked this article, you might like our Management Archives. photo by Matt Ridley on Unsplash. Drucker's quote comes from Management challenges of the 21st century.