We live in days of radical uncertainty. Everything seems difficult. Much is dangerous. The fear that might grip us in circumstances such as these might push us in two wrong directions.   

It might hold out the hope that it is enough to resist because then everything will go back to the way it was. And what seems to no longer work today, from the business model of companies and supply chains to the leadership style of entrepreneurs and managers, from consumer behavior patterns to the way younger people experience work, will instead go back to being as good as before. But history repeats itself in cyclical form only in appearance: in reality, each era must find new answers to old and new problems. In a spiral that can be one of progress or regression, depending on the choices we make. The night surely will pass but we do not know if and how we will wake up at dawn tomorrow. We must work hard if we want the awakening to be the sign of progress.   

The other temptation is to save ourselves. We try to protect ourselves from what is happening around us in a selfish way, interpreting the moment as a re-run of a huge zero-sum game, where one wins what someone else loses. Wars are the tragic version of this game. But the very wars show that the calculation is wrong: no one wins, really, ever this way. Studies in evolutionary anthropology show, moreover, that if we have survived to this day, it is because we are a social species. Women and men who make collaborate and share the keys necessary to make even competition useful for survival and sustainable growth.   

If these are wrong answers, Linkontro 2023 invites us to choose two better strategies instead. Both start with continuing and deepening our thinking about uncertainty. Which has at least two important causal vectors. The first is the one that immediately draws our energy and attention: things around us change unpredictably. Sometimes we needlessly delude ourselves that we are taming the world and slowing it down to the extent of our capabilities. Better to focus on the fact that uncertainty is also the reciprocal of our ignorance. The more things we understand, the more the light of our knowledge makes its way into the darkness of what appears to us as unpredictable but reveals itself simply as misunderstood. Linkontro has also always served to move forward the boundary, shifting thankfully, of our ignorance. It serves to gain an inch of competence in our encounter with the knowledge of others and in our personal reflection. We will still have to improvise in the face of the unexpected. Better to do it from more informed and competent people.  

The second strategy is to have, however, a compass even in the most perfect of storms. If we cannot master what happens to us, we can, however, remind ourselves of who we are and what we want to affirm with our lives, with our work, and in our relationships. Rooting ourselves in values. Say clear yeses and noes. Thus building trust around us. Values such as those of caring for life, fairness, loyalty, and freedom can inspire uncomfortable but just stances. Feeling, thinking, and behaving as morally grounded actors can make the difference between decline and rebirth. Especially if we accompany it with a newfound sense of “we,” capable of overcoming the many fractures and polarizations that are dividing our society. Our roots are firm on the seashore of Sardinia. We will meet again this year with the spirit of those who know that they must be nurtured with good ideas and better behavior if they are to bear fruit in peace and prosperity. That is why you are invited to Linkontro 2023. 

Prof. Vincenzo Perrone