Why your mindset matters!

Terence Mauri , founder of the future trends think tank Hack Future Lab and author of ‘The Upside of Disruption’, says the future isn’t just about tech or trends. It’s about mindsets and choices, too.  

Today’s leaders navigate an increasingly complex and volatile world that changes by the minute, facing uncharted forces from AI-driven disruption to talent scarcity and geopolitical risk. Yet – according to Terence Mauri – we often overestimate the risks of bold decisions and underestimate the downside of standing still. We spoke to Terence to find out more about this and to hear more about his new book, ‘The Upside of Disruption’.  

Tell us about ‘The Upside of Disruption’ and what led you to write it. 

I feel that, as humans, we crave the comfort of certainty. It’s like a warm blanket: It makes us feel safe and secure. While that’s a good thing, it sometimes means that we miss opportunities: The opportunity to renew ourselves, the opportunity to grow, the opportunity to eliminate something. That’s not working for us on a business level or a personal level. So, the big idea of the book is that when uncertainty is high and volatility is high, not taking a risk is a risk.  

How do business leaders traditionally respond to disruption? How can this inhibit success? 

When we think of disruption, we automatically think of change, and we are often resistant to that. I want to reframe the word disruption a little bit. For me, disruption is a source code for learning, renewal, and courage over conformity. What I mean by that is when we have courage, we embrace ideas, new ways of thinking, and new ways of working that challenge the status quo. When we have cultures or mindsets of conformity, we reject ideas that challenge the status quo. So, whether they are working in politics, the public sector, non-profit or the private sector, I think everyone can learn to reframe their relationship with disruption and look at it as a way of taking ownership of their future. 

In your research, what were some of the most surprising or counterintuitive insights about the companies or leaders who thrive in disruptive environments? 

What I discovered is that, despite the proliferation of AI and automation technology, a lot of the way we work still needs to evolve. For example, two out of three people surveyed said they were still over-managed and under-led. Moreover, one in two workers said that they did not get to put their top skills to work in a meaningful way which seems like such a wasted opportunity and wasted talent. We also uncovered the growing issue of ‘boreout’. Boreout is the opposite of burnout – it means cognitive underload and it is on the rise. There was an example of an employee in France successfully suing their company for boreout.  

Another counterintuitive finding was that most organizations today prioritize what we refer to as ‘cold AI’ – that is AI that is laser-focused on efficiency optimization and profit maximization. This is often at the expense of well-being and humanity.

I think it’s a really interesting finding that isn’t being discussed by businesses at the moment. 

Can you share some actionable strategies that help harness the upside of disruption? 

I think one of the most interesting ones is to harness a reductionist mindset. We’re hardwired, especially in business, to add complexity and bureaucracy to everything we do. Right now, four billion pieces of paper are handled every day, and one in three meetings is considered a complete waste of time, costing organizations billions in lost productivity, lost talent, and lost engagement.   Embracing a reductionist mindset means we let go of old ways of working and old ways of thinking and detox, declutter, and delete. It allows us to harness the upside of disruption and refuse to add complexity for the sake of it. It allows us to do more meaningful work, to feel more empowered, and to solve challenges that make a difference to humanity.  

You say good leaders learn, but great leaders unlearn. Can you explain what you mean by this? 

As the late futurist Alvin Toffler said, over 50 years ago, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” Unlearning and relearning are blind spots in most organizations, but unless we’ve got an unlearning strategy to let go of some of these old ways of thinking or working, we end up spending most of our week on bureaucratic work rather than intelligent, value-creating work. The bottom line is, if we don't unlearn, we’re not agile. It means that we’re spending more time ticking boxes and less time learning at the speed of the market or learning at the speed of the customer. 

Tell us about what you describe as the ‘future readiness’ muscle. How can leaders benefit from strengthening this? 

To me, this is about never underestimating the huge power of thinking like a kid. Kids are born future-ready. They are agile, they embrace failure. They play, they have fun and they never stop learning. They’re curious and they’re always experimenting and iterating. So, how can we bottle mindset as adults? I don’t mean act like a kid. But I think we can all benefit from taking wisdom from our children – the way that they bounce back from a failure and keep going, the way that they show resilience in the in face of adversity, and the way that they are passionately curious. These are all future-ready skills.   

What role do emerging technologies play in driving disruption?  

AI is a cross-sector disruptor. It’s disrupting every vertical and every industry. It is supercharging blockchain, energy storage, automation, robotics, DNA sequencing, and fusion power, to name but a few.  

We are also seeing steep declines in the cost of AI. It is halving every four months which is up to six times faster than the semiconductor market.

There’s no question that these technologies will play an important role in driving disruption. That said, one of the interesting dilemmas I’ve recently discovered is that, because of the electricity and cooling requirements, a hundred-word search using a generative AI platform uses half a liter of water – that’s about 16 times more than Google search. It’s projected that AI data centers will be using up to 25% of global electricity in the not-too-distant future. This is a real blind spot. We can see a whole range of new challenges and risks emerging because of the pace of change and the pace of transformation.  

With remote work, AI and automation transforming industries, what skills or mindsets do you think will be most crucial for future professionals? 

I take inspiration from the late psychotherapist Oliver Sacks, who spoke about the human need for bonding, belonging, and believing.  

For me, this means we need a purpose. A purpose at work, but also a life purpose. That’s like a light force in itself. It gives us focus, direction, energy, and resilience. It’s more important than ever in this age of AI and hybrid working where we suffer from dislocation and decentralization.  

What’s one piece of advice you’ve personally adopted that has helped you navigate disruption in your own life or career? 

I would say it is to be aware of the rubber band effect. The rubber band effect is this kind of bias. For example, when we read a new book or it’s New Year’s Eve, or we’re trying to make some new plans and aspirations, our rubber band stretches and we have all these ideas, commitments and dreams. 

Then day-to-day life takes over again: E-mails, meetings, friends, family commitments, and so forth. Then the rubber band snaps back into place, and nothing actually changes. As a result, the gap between aspiration and action is often bigger than we’d like it to be.  

To overcome the rubber band effect, it’s important to start small. Focus on a one percent improvement every day and you can get a 37x gain within nine to 12 months.  

If you had to summarize the core message of ‘The Upside of Disruption’ in one sentence, what would it be? 

Not taking a risk is a risk. We always overestimate the risk of doing something new and underestimate the risk of standing still. 

For our readers who want to dive deeper into disruption and innovative thinking, what resources, books, or thinkers do you recommend? 

I think it is important to go beyond business and leadership books. Research shows that reading fiction strengthens empathy, self-compassion, and imagination. These are muscles that we need to develop more than ever. A book that I've been reading recently is ‘The Brooklyn Follies’ by Paul Auster. It’s a great book, all about some of the blind spots of humanity and how a lot of history repeats itself in different cycles. I’m also really enjoying ‘Slow Productivity’ by Cal Newport. He argues that the antidote to this age of acceleration is to slow down and take more strategic pauses. We need to take more time for reflection and to do less so that we can do things better and protect our minds, our space, and our time.  

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