Leaders Make the Future: Ten New Leadership Skills for an Uncertain World

As a fellow futurist but a different breed than most, I was pleasantly surprised to read how a professional colleague with such stellar credentials in futures work could point to the usefulness of gaining insight from foresight rather than being right or making predictions (which can often become self-fulfilling prophecies). Foresight yielding to insight so as to change course if need be is a more enlightened approach. Hats off to you, Bob. Well done!

'Leaders Make the Future: Ten New Leadership Skills for an Uncertain World', by Bob Johansen Having read sociologist-turned-futurist Bob Johansen's earlier book, entitled 'Get There Early: Sensing the Future to Compete in the Present', about two years ago, I am naturally attracted to read his latest book, entitled 'Leaders Make The Future: Ten New Leadership Skills for an Uncertain World'. Besides understanding the 'Foresight to Action' cycle as well as the proven anticipatory management methodology, originally developed by the Institute for Future (reportedly the only futures think-tank to outlive its forecasts), where he had served as President & CEO from 1996 to 2004, to deal with the challenges of a "volatile, uncertain, complex & ambiguous" (VUCA) world, I am cartainly impressed by his personal insights as well as professional wisdom on anticipating & making the future. I certainly like the way he demystifies the forecasting process. On top of that, I also like his clear distinctions between problem solving & dilemma sense-making as well as flipping. [Actually, his 'What's Different about Dilemmas?' & 'It Takes a Story to Understand a Dilemma' in the earlier book are marvellous pieces of original thought. As a matter of fact, for me, the author's apt use of Frank Stockton's short story (1882), 'The Lady, or the Tiger', in the earlier book is a superb tale of dilemma & ambiguity.] Although he continues to backtrack in his new book, i.e still touching on old grounds already covered in the earlier book, especially the VUCA perspectives, I nonetheless have enjoyed reading his artful exposition of the ten new leadership skills, which leaders need to create the future. They certainly made my day. Here is a quick summary: 1. Maker Instinct: The ability to exploit your inner drive to build and grow things, as well as connect with others in the making. 2. Clarity: The ability to see through messes and contradictions to a future that others cannot see. Leaders are very clear about what they are making, but very flexible about how it gets made. 3. Dilemma Flipping: The ability to turn dilemmas - which, unlike problems, cannot be solved - into advantages and opportunities. 4. Immersive Learning Ability: The ability to immerse yourself in unfamiliar environments; to learn from them in a first-person way. 5. Bio-Empathy: The ability to see things from nature's point of view; to understand, respect, and learn from nature's patterns. 6. Constructive Depolarizing: The ability to calm tense situations where differences dominate and communication has broken down - and bring people from divergent cultures toward constructive engagement. 7. Quiet Transparency: The ability to be open and authentic about what matters to you - without advertising yourself. 8. Rapid Prototyping: The ability to create quick early versions of innovations, with the expectation that later success will require early failures. 9. Smart Mob Organizing: Th

When I started reading this book, I thought it will be just like another leadership book with the same skills as available in plenty of other texts, repackaged with new definitions and different examples. However, it turned out to be a really useful book with an apt focus on the leadership skills required for our uncertain and improbable world. (As appropriately mentioned in the title). Author provides the following three basic assumptions about our world and bases the new skills around them: 1. The VUCA world of volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity will get worse in future. 2. The VUCA world wlll have both danger and opportunity. 3. Leaders must learn new skills in order to make a new future. In his Introduction, he tells us about the forces of future which will shape the future. There is also a "forecast Map" in the inside flap whic links the new leadership skills with these forces of future. It is a nice visual to learn & understand these new dynamics. Each chapter then is devoted to these new skills with everyday examples, definitions, and examples from companies. I won't delineate these skills separately, as other reviews here have covered them. Overall, it is a recommended read.

This is a highly useful and intriguing book that offers truly innovative ideas about leadership, for use now and through the next decade. Author Bob Johansen presents a number of breakthrough concepts that will give readers new ways to think about moving groups of people from one point to another, which is one way I like to define leadership. One idea I especially connect with is that in the past leaders were expected to solve problems. Now and for the coming 10 years or so, however, leaders will be faced with dilemmas not problems. Dilemmas, says Johansen, are by their nature not solvable. There are no cut-and-dried answers, which means that leaders will be called upon to navigate through confusing situations that persist and that also change shape as time passes. Thus, those who would lead will need to hone their senses of timing so that they take action at the right moment. This involves finding the window of opportunity between judging and acting too soon, before the dilemma fully reveals itself, and acting too late because of a desire to collect additional information. Another interesting concept is Johansen's observation that people are increasingly networked in new ways, one of which he calls "corporate diasporas." These are extensions on the classic idea of diaspora, in which people of a similar race, ethnicity or national origin are scattered over a wide geographical territory. In the corporate diaspora, former employees of a company (or, it seems to me, a nonprofit or government organization) remain in touch with the employer and with each other. This creates a network with certain shared values, as well as shared channels of communication and influence. I thought of social media such as LinkedIn, which organize people according to where they work/ed. And there are also the college alumni networks, which thanks to technology, are increasingly organized into affinity groups that can be mobilized at the drop of an email message to take action on an issue or donate to a cause. And there is much, much more in this valuable little book that make it a "must own" for any serious student of leadership and, by extension, effective communications. I plan to make this required reading in a graduate course that I am teaching on leadership this fall.

In this book, sociologist Bob Johansen takes lessons learned from his experience leading the Instuute for the Future (IFTF)and describes the effetiveness of leading when considering the driving forces of nature. It's not so much a business leadership textbook as a philosophical analysis of what makes a good leader, and how he/she can be effective in shaping the future of an individual, an enterprise, a nation or the world (all of which are tightly connected). I frequently thought "He's right!" as I read the book. I feel that if the leaders of the big financial institutions and auto makers undwerstood these concepts, we would not be experiencing the current economic challenges. The book suggests each of us can control our own futures if we will just consider the big picture before we take any action, and develope healthy habits that promote sustainability.