Lessons from COVID, AI, and the Rise of Change Accelerators in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Why Internal Capability Decides Who Fails or Thrives

External shocks are unavoidable.
The Financial Crisis. Brexit. COVID. And now AI.
They arrive without warning, and they expose the same thing every time:

Internal capability decides who fails—or thrives.

For years, I’ve taught that leaders need three specific capabilities to navigate the Fourth Industrial Revolution:

1. Understanding complexity
2. Leading change
3. Solving problems

For a long time, most people didn’t understand why those three mattered.
Then COVID happened.

What COVID Exposed
During COVID, my phone didn’t stop ringing.

“John, what do we do?”
“How do we get through this?”
“What do we need to put in place?”

Leaders weren’t weak or unwilling—they were unprepared for the scale of disruption.
COVID showed how quickly external shocks overwhelm organisations that haven’t built internal capability in advance.

It wasn’t strategy that failed.
It was capability under pressure.

Now AI Has Become the New Change Accelerator
AI is multiplying change in the same way COVID did—but faster.

Where previous disruptions exposed gaps annually or quarterly, AI exposes them daily.
It accelerates problems faster than organisations can name them.

This is why the three capabilities I taught in 2015 are now non-negotiable:

• Understanding complexity → seeing the broader system
• Leading change → influencing behaviour under uncertainty
• Solving problems → turning disruption into progress

Without these, even strong strategies collapse under pressure.

Why the Sprint Exists
After CONNECT 2025, leaders asked me the same question:

“How do we actually build the capability to control the Change Loop, not just understand it?”

The CHANGE Sprint was built to answer that question.

In a single 60-minute, practice-based masterclass, you will:

• Diagnose your current capability
• Run a Change Loop assessment
• Work through a real-world case
• Create a personalised 30-day improvement plan

This is not theoretical learning.
It’s capability building for leaders facing real disruption.

The Core Truth

External shocks are unavoidable.
AI will not slow down.
But capability can scale—if leaders build it intentionally.

This is your opportunity to get ahead before the next shock hits.

Join the Waitlist — 5 Places Left for January 2026

Premium facilitation. Personal feedback.
Limited places to protect quality.

👉 Join the Waitlist
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