Social instability. Trade Wars. The COVID-19 pandemic. The year 2020 will certainly be marked in history.

Yet, although textbooks may recall those extraordinary events, what most people will remember from the year is their experience coping with disrupted life and work routines. Where once a working day had clear start and end times, now the boundary between personal and professional lives has blurred. Where once casual office chatter had built relationships, now connections are forged across the digital divide, while adjusting for time and geographical differences.

Undoubtedly, we are living in an age of uncertainty—and unpredictability. Business leaders are facing entirely new and different situations they couldn’t imagine 10 years ago. And the pace of change is only accelerating, which means many of the management techniques leaders have used in the past may not work anymore today.

In its latest report, ‘Learning Agility’ in the Age of Unrest, the Korn Ferry Institute explores why Learning Agility has become more relevant to leadership than ever before. Taking an in-depth look at two recent Korn Ferry surveys, the paper underscores the critical need for learning agile leadership, particularly in a business landscape that is increasingly complex and uncertain. After all, in an age when the word “unprecedented” is ubiquitous, Learning Agility is at the core of building leaders’ adaptive strength—and can mean the difference between shaping the future and merely surviving in it.