In the contemporary world of uncertainty and chaos, the business community is searching for a means to determine how its world will change. The future, although undefined, is commonly referred to as the “New Normal.” It is realigning your perceptions of the new status quo, seeking a comfortable replacement, a low risk state of incremental change. This marginal approach to change has resulted in our broken world of economic inequity, climate threats, mass starvation, lack of inclusiveness and delayed action for Covid-19.

The response must rather be an imperative that businesses and organizations- adopt the heresy To Unlearn… to Transform. Leadership must let go of their assumptions, expectations and what worked before. Their post Covid priority is to redefine a dynamic, exponential approach to Strategic Transformation. It reflects a creative and practical tension between harmonizing the stakeholders’ need for Value, Trust and Empathy and the businesses’ purposeful best practices. This state is the New Harmony as Confucius noted “open-mindedness and a balance of firmness and gentleness…a proper equilibrium.”

In response, focus on Strategic Harmony…a concept we pioneered to bridge the internal force of Love (Harmony) with the external force of Power (Strategy) to transform organizations’ business models and social impact. It turns a crisis 180° — from an enemy to an opportunity; from corporate chaos to catalytic transformation; and from disruption to a strategic direction.

Strategic Harmony is ongoing transformation –reinventing how we transform internally (as an individual and organization) and how to translate that change externally (through business models, offerings, and impact). The aggregation of how each of us and our organizations respond to a crisis (e.g., climate threat, pandemic, exponential technology) will determine the state of New Harmony.

Strategic Harmony challenges us to reframe our words and actions. Otherwise, our minds become lazy and strategies impotent. We must prioritize continuous transformation that blends a deepened sense of the social impact of actions with the organizational ethos that drives us. If we don’t transform, we will lose a critical opportunity to redirect the global trajectory and harmonize the pieces of our sustainability puzzle.