The Thinking Leader Episode 8 With Dr. Virginia Cha

4 October 2021

Episode 008: Professor Virginia Cha: Coping with a Hyperconnected World
How leaders can develop a more flexible and adaptive mindset

Welcome to another episode of The Thinking Leader podcast, brought to you by Red Team Thinking. In this episode, Bryce Hoffman talks with Professor Virginia Cha of the National University of Singapore (NUS) about today's hyperconnected world and the “AAA Mindset” she says leaders need to cultivate to successfully navigate it.

Dr. Cha is a leading teacher of innovation and entrepreneurship in Asia, not only at the NUS Business School, but also at INSEAD and SMART, the Singapore MIT Alliance for Research and Technology. She also has founded or co-founded multiple high-tech companies in Singapore and China, with listings on the NASDAQ and HKSE. She is co-author of the book, Asia's Entrepreneurs: Dilemmas, Risks and Opportunities and she serves on the World Economic Forum's Future Council.

“Rule number one – have multiple models from multiple disciplines. Do not be dogmatic about the discipline you come from.”

– Dr. Virginia Cha

Top 10 Takeaways:

[01:48] VUCAH: volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity, and hyperconnectivity.

[08:34] How leaders can cope with hyperconnectivity.

[10:02] The AAA Mindset.

[14:27] We have to admit we don’t know what the future holds.

[17:16] The limits of AI and the ways human decision makers can leverage its promise.

[19:28] The cognitive skills executives need to succeed today.

[22:52] How to train your brain with “Architectural Reasoning.”

[24:31] The problem with processes.

[27:49] How leaders can overcome cognitive biases.

[33:45] The “Three Gear Framework.”