The pandemic brought into sharp relief the pitfalls of strategies that envision moving from point A to point B on a static path, and that assume that one has years, not months or weeks, in which to rethink outdated views and establish a new set of truths.

As we all learned the hard way, in an environment that can shift from moment to moment, the paths and time frames to achieving one's goals must shift as well. Having a plan to deal with the unexpected, as important as it is, isn't all organizations need in such an environment.

Even more necessary is to make a fundamental mindset shift: from a focus on surviving to the pursuit of thriving. In a world of perpetual disruption, a focus on surviving restricts one's aspirations to accepting each new reality and working within it to accomplish what an organization has always done.

A survival mindset views disruptions as point-in-time crises to be addressed with the expectation that the organization will revert to "business as usual" once the crises are over. Organizations with a survival mindset aim to deal with the reality that the world imposes; it's about doing what's necessary to succeed today.

Continue reading this article on Deloitte's website to learn how making this shift depends on an organization's becoming — and remaining — distinctly human at its core, because today's environment of extreme dynamism calls for a degree of courage, judgment, and flexibility that only humans can bring.

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