The Importance of Discomfort

I recently had the pleasure of moderating a fireside chat with Toby Redshaw on an NACD Philadelphia Chapter program entitled, “The Acceleration of Tech and its Impact on the Board”. The topic of technology has been in the boardroom throughout my 20+ year tenure as a director. What started as a conversation around systems integration moved to that of cybersecurity. Today, with the advent of generative AI and 5G, that conversation now moves from the functional role of technology to one of becoming a strategic driver. There is no doubt in the next 10 years technology will create tectonic shifts in strategy and displace many of today’s successful companies.

The challenge in boardrooms is how to facilitate the dialogue and create a culture around the board table of learning, curiosity, challenge, and excitement around the role that technology has on our companies. The pace of change in what is being called the 4th Industrial Revolution will undoubtedly sharpen understanding of customers, redefine relationships with suppliers, overhaul logistics planning, and identify new efficiencies in organizations. All of this requires a different conversation (and perhaps participants?) in the boardroom and a willingness to wade into uncharted waters.

It won’t always be comfortable.

It got me thinking about the role that “discomfort” plays when it comes to learning and leadership. Ever since childhood, we’ve all known that discomfort is what causes growth; when we learn, fail, visit new places, or meet new people, we are thrust into feelings of uncertainty and discomfort as we grow. For those of us who have raised children, we know that watching a child fall off a bike is always followed by the words, “just get back up and try again”.

We are conditioned to accept that there are stumbles along the way.

When our kids complain that they can’t do their homework, good parents work with them until they clearly understand the content being taught and watch them emerge feeling satisfied and even confident of the mastery.

We accept that learning requires struggle.

Yet as we advance in our professional lives leading companies as executive and board directors, things often change. We strive for success, and once we have achieved it, we often find ourselves creating environments of familiarity and routine that gives a sense of security and comfort as we examine strategy and measure performance. Particularly in successful companies, we tend to reward steady incremental improvement, provide assurance to investors of expected results, and punish those who make mistakes when they try new approaches or hold new ideas. The term “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” is a mantra that underscores this default behavior…and keeping the ship on an even keel pays the greatest literal and figurative dividends.

This new age of technology is going to change things. If it hasn’t already, it will cause great discomfort in boardrooms as competitors and new entrants define new products and ways to market. With the advent of AR/VR and generative AI – available in record time – new products and offerings will challenge legacy business models. Access to receiving information and ability to quickly disperse it will challenge reputation management and stakeholder communications. Some jobs will be eliminated, some new ones created. Evolving technology coupled with seismic workforce changes will wreak havoc with those boardrooms hanging on to the way things have always been done, and to the comforts of how strategy has been discussed in the past.

The landscape is littered with companies run by those who failed to recognize the need to be “uncomfortable”. Examples of this are numerous as we’ve seen many leaders fail to accept changes taking place. Industry behemoths like Kodak, Sears, Motorola, Borders, Nokia were toppled as they failed to accept the sunsetting of a successful business model or product. Leaders got comfortable, and legacy company boardrooms, often filled with directors who had significant industry experience, were accustomed and far too comfortable with how the business had become successful.

The importance of welcoming “discomfort” is key to any boardroom wishing to be successful in their endeavors. The understanding of technology cannot be outsourced to experts or even to one single “technology expert” on the board. The advent of generative AI and machine learning requires a level of tech literacy that will be critical to set strategy and to compete effectively. It will indeed force many to step outside of our comfort zone and learn new things. For those directors who are hoping just to hang on long enough to meet their “mandatory retirement age”, I suggest earlier board refreshment is imperative. Investors and stakeholders cannot afford to have boards that are too staid and unwilling to accept discomfort in this period of seismic change.