MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Five Rules for Leading in a Digital World

Times of rapid change call for a new leadership model.

For years now, everyone has been talking about VUCA, the U.S. military’s acronym for the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world we live in. However, we now have VUCA on steroids as we try to keep up with the increasing speed of change in a business environment where the amount of data generated doubles every two years, reflecting a 50-fold growth from 2010 to 2020.

To thrive in this landscape, organizations that have long been siloed and bureaucratic must become nimble and customer-centric, and command-and-control models must give way to distributed leadership.

About the Author

Deborah Ancona is the Seley Distinguished Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and is the founder of the MIT Leadership Center.

Learn more about MIT SMR.