"Why are you talking so much about these 'unprecedented' changes, turbulence and 'tumultuous times'? Doesn't every generation think they are facing such challenges? What's so different about us and our time?"

These questions came in the midst of a daylong workshop in which I was articulating why leaders seem deeply bewildered and disoriented by our present circumstances and the challenges of contemporary leadership. The challenges seem complex and wicked, not just complicated or hard. Business leaders have begun to describe our time as VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous), and to describe leadership as learning to "navigate in a fog."

How might we account for the volatility, the complexity, the fog? Could identifying the sources of the turbulence help empower us to make better progress in offering solutions? That was where I was headed in my comments.

The particular participant who raised questions about my analysis was clearly frustrated -- and he had a point. There is an all-too-human tendency to romanticize the stability of the past and thus exaggerate the complexities of the present and the challenges of the future. The participant's observation that every era has to address change was a valid one that we neglect at our peril. Also valid was his sense that "turbulence" is a matter of perspective, and that varieties of events cause turbulence and make leadership challenging in any era.