UK expert urges African leaders/CEOs to adjust to global polycrisis

Caroline Lucas, Director, Special Projects at TEXEM UK, the United Kingdom based leadership development organisation has urged African leaders and CEOs to adjust to global realities with respect to dealing with ongoing crises and uncertainties.

In a statement on TEXEM website, www.texem.co.uk, Lucas noted that linear disruption crises have now given way to polycrisis in the global environment.

She said TEXEM will be hosting a leadership development programme in June in Newcastle, the United Kingdom, for African delegates with the títle, Leading in an Age of Polycrisis, where the issue will be adequately addressed.

Lucas said that for decades, leadership manuals were written for a world where challenges arrived in a predictable queue.

“We managed a financial dip, then pivoted to address a security threat, then perhaps adjusted for a climate shift. That era of “linear disruption” is over.

“Today, across the African continent, from the boardroom in Lagos to the policy hubs in Nairobi, we are facing a Polycrisis.

“This is not merely a collection of problems; it is a tangled web where the whole is more dangerous than the sum of its parts,” she said.

Lucas asserts that in the new reality, crises no longer wait their turn; they overlap, feed off one another, and accelerate in tandem.

Speaking on the anatomy of African polycrisis, she said that in Nigeria and across sister nations, the people are witnessing a phenomenon where systemic pressures “compound” rather than “add.”

Lucas said under the current landscape currency instability and debt strain are catalysts of polycrisis due to their aggravating nature.

“Volatile exchange rates do not exist in a vacuum. They immediately aggravate sovereign debt servicing, which in turn shrinks the fiscal space for social investment,” the TEXEM director said.

On security and economic disruption, Lucas said insecurity in agricultural belts directly triggers food inflation, which further destabilizes the economy and fuels social unrest, creating a feedback loop that is difficult to break.

On climate shocks and institutional pressure, she said a single flood or drought doesn’t just destroy crops; it displaces populations, straining already fragile urban infrastructure and testing the limits of institutional trust.

Lucas said the core reality of today is that leaders are no longer managing “incidents” but are managing a permanent state of interconnected volatility.

She told the African CEOs and leaders that standard operating procedures will not save them in a polycrisis.

“If your strategy assumes that the “storm will pass,” you are preparing for a world that no longer exists,” Lucas said.

She said leading in the present age requires some fundamental shifts in mindset.

Lucas said the first shift is that of Systems Thinking over Silos, adding that leaders must stop looking at departmental or sectoral risks in isolation.

“You must understand how a climate event in the North impacts your supply chain costs in the South and your talent retention globally,” she said.

Lucas further spoke of Agility as a structural requirement, saying that when crises overlap, “long-term planning” must be replaced by “dynamic navigation.”

“Resilience is not about standing still; it is about the ability to pivot while under extreme pressure,” she said.

While calling for radical collaboration, the leadership expert said no single institution, be it a corporation or a government, has the resources to solve a polycrisis alone.

“We must build “ecosystems of resilience” where private capital, public policy, and social enterprise converge,” Lucas said.

Speaking on the coming Newcastle leadership development programme, “Leading in an Age of Polycrisis”, she said three reputable TEXEM faculty will handle them from 14th to 18th June.

The faculty are, Lord Jonny Oates, Prof. Roger Delves and John Peters.

Lord Jonny Oates is a Member of the UK House of Lords, and former Chief of Staff to the UK Deputy Prime Minister.

He chairs and serves on parliamentary groups with strong Africa and international development focus.

He is an experienced communicator on governance, public policy and international affairs.

Prof. Roger Delves is a Professor of Leadership Practice and served as Dean of Qualifications at Ashridge Business School, part of Hult International Business School.

He is a world-renowned, transformational leadership, EQ at work, authenticity in leadership, purpose, values and the role of integrity expert.

John Peters is a former Chair of Association of MBAs (Accreditors of top Business Schools such as Harvard, London Business School, Stanford and IMD).

He is a world-renowned Resilience expert and documentary on his life won Independent Documentary of the Year and was also nominated for a BAFTA award.

Interested participants in the June programme are expected to click on the link, https://texem.co.uk/leading-in-an-age-of-polycrisis/

The statement also shared testimonials of past delegates of TEXEM programmes.

“We’re dealing with an organisation that’s relevant in today’s world and bringing in all that knowledge to bear. And so its quite a remarkable organisation. So TEXEM will be good on my lips for recommendations going forward. Thank you,” -Previous TEXEM delegate, Mr Abel Nsa Senior Technical Adviser (TSA) to the Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ministry of Petroleum Resources Abuja.

“Wow! It’s so fully packed and the quality of the faculty is second to none…I think the quality of their presentation really got to me. I’ve realized… that practical and operational issues can be left to the middle level officers in the organisation while I focus more on the strategy to deliver and make my organisation better able to achieve its objective”. -Previous TEXEM delegate, Mr Oluwatoyin Ahmed Edu, Executive Director, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Bank of Industry.

“The programme is quite rich, the content is very insightful, impactful and the content is in fact directed and tailored towards the contemporary leadership challenges we have in the country, or specific and that are directed towards leadership challenges in the country which is strategic leadership in the digital age because we are evolving and we have to be futuristic”. -Previous TEXEM delegate, Kingsley Emeka Egwuh, Assistant Comptroller General, Nigeria Customs Service.