Big Picture: Watershed and Global Transformation

A Perspective on a Global Correction

By Sana Bagersh

The way I see it, we are living in a perfect storm for the kind of change that could redefine our relationship with the planet. Innovation is accelerating partly because of the sweeping socio, political and economic changes of the past decade, driven more recently by events such as the 2008 financial crisis, the recent Covid pandemic, and the Russian-Ukraine war.

The pandemic disrupted our lives, but more significantly it offered us an unprecedented test bed to explore new ways of doing things. The energy and supply chain crises are also reorganizing geopolitical alliances and economies, in ways that are still unfolding and will become clear to us in the coming years.

Apart from climate change and environmental degradation, we are likely to see the growing effects of social inequality, migration, globalization, nuclear proliferation, and political instability, as well as sweeping aging populations and demographic shifts across many countries. 

Technological innovations are already affecting our relationships with each other and the way we work, play and live. As we adopt these changes en masse, the hope is as nations of the world led by enlightened leaders, we can study the lasting human impact of this transformation and institute universal safeguards to manage new and less understood solutions.

The younger generation, who will inherit the earth, will become increasingly more politically assertive, and demand to be part of the conversation, as they should. This is especially in areas such as climate change, which is evolving rapidly and will threaten civilization unless more rigid measures are taken immediately to curb this runaway train towards irreversible calamaties. These actions will require leaders who are enlightened, courageous and resolute – and able to recognize that to solve our global problems we must all collaborate together.

Regardless of the drivers of change, we are at a cusp of great opportunity, where we can, with the help of compassionate leadership and the emergence of super-technologies, reinvent human existence, enhance lives, and improve our stewardship over our planet.

Governments and institutions are facing a new reality as new geopolitical, economic, and cultural challenges and alliances reshape our world. At the same time, the new ‘normal’ requires governments to match the speed of technological advancement, in order to deliver higher standards of economic prosperity, sustainability and security for their people.

These new developments demand a big rethink in the way we serve our people and in how we can help communities become more resilient. We need to shift towards greater human centricity in government and institutions to better understand and navigate these fractious times. We need greater empathy and agility to develop new models and mindsets.

The digital world has transformed the way we relate to each other in both positive and negative ways, and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence carry great promise, but they must be accompanied by systems that will retain and protect the value of people, uphold their contribution, and keep them safe.

Industries are being disrupted by technological advancement, from finance, which is already being redefined by blockchain and cryptocurrencies, to content creation, which is entering a new age of many unknowns as AI unleashes solutions that will affect almost every other industry as well. These tectonic shifts will challenge governments which will need to engage in hyper-informed leadership interventions to navigate and manage changes effectively.

The digital transformation is growing at an explosive speed, fueled not only by economic and social needs, but by the speed of invention. This change could be a global watershed moment for nations and institutions to pivot towards a deeper understanding of human problems, and to learn how to work together and solve problems using technology and compassionate leadership.

Our world has long been due for a recalibration anyway, but change requires courage, and a new breed of individual thinkers can lead the world into a new era of better human existence.

Excerpt from “What a Leader Should Be” on Amazon – by Sana Bagersh