It seems as if every article on leadership starts with the statement that we are living in times of growing change, complexity, and uncertainty. It has become the standard introduction of why one’s thoughts about leadership are timely.

It’s just as true as it is false.

It’s there, and much of it has been there all along. We’ve simply not been as connected to it in the past as we can be now. Much of it is what people are adding themselves to the decisions they are making. It is as if the availability of information makes everything described relevant. It rarely is.

But it indeed means that people need to learn to sort through the available information or find means to organize the incoming information. Not necessarily by changing the inflow of messages, but mostly by considering what that information is for. That is when it may be relevant.

Change, complexity, and uncertainty are a function of the available information and its speed. It transforms our personal experience as much as we let it do so. That is, as much as focus more on the future and the past than the present.