Books by Bob Johansen

We are in a time of accelerating disruptive change. In a VUCA world - one characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity - traditional leadership skills won't be enough, noted futurist Bob Johansen argues. Drawing on the latest forecasts from the Institute for the Future - the first futures think tank ever to outlive its forecasts - this powerful book explores the external forces that are shaking the foundations of leadership and unveils ten critical new leadership skills. How adroit are you at dilemma flipping - turning problems that can't be solved into opportunities? Can you develop bio - empathy - the ability to learn from and apply the principles of nature in your leadership? Are you able to practice immersive learning - dive into very different - from - you physical and online worlds and learn from them? Johansen provides role models, tools, and advice to help you develop these and seven other future leadership skills. In addition, Johansen deals with two new forces that are shaping the future. The first is the ''digital natives'' - people fifteen years and younger who have grown up in a digital world. The second is cloud - based supercomputing, which will enable extraordinarily rich new forms of connection, collaboration, and commerce. In this thoroughly updated and expanded second edition, Johansen is joined by the prestigious Center for Creative Leadership. CCL's contributions help readers understand the new leadership skills by linking them to existing skills, and they provide analytics and exercises so readers can more fully develop these new skills.

Over the next decade, today's connected world will be explosively more connected. Anything that can be distributed will be distributed: workforces, organizations, supply webs, and more. The tired practices of centralized organizations will become brittle in a future where authority is radically decentralized. Rigid hierarchies will give way to liquid structures. Most leaders-and most organizations-aren't ready for this future. Are you? It's too late to catch up, but it's a great time to leapfrog. Noted futurist Bob Johansen goes beyond skills and competencies to propose five new leadership literacies-combinations of disciplines, practices, and worldviews-that will be needed to thrive in a VUCA world of increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. This book shows how to (1) forecast likely futures so you can ''look back'' and make sure you're prepared now for the changes to come, (2) use low-risk gaming spaces to work through your concerns about the future and hone your leadership skills, (3) lead shape-shifting organizations where you can't just tell people what to do, (4) be a dynamic presence even when you're not there in person, and (5) keep your personal energy high and transmit that energy throughout your organization. This visionary book provides a vivid description of the ideal talent profile for future leaders. It is written for current, rising star, and aspiring leaders; talent scouts searching for leaders; and executive coaches seeking a fresh view of how leaders will need to prepare. To get ready for this future, we will all need new leadership literacies.

According to Bob Johansen and Karl Ronn, the new way to succeed is to give what you have away. They call it the reciprocity advantage: sharing your assets with carefully chosen partners in order to learn how to make money in new ways - think give to grow.Johansen and Ronn explain each of the four steps involved in achieving reciprocity advantage, beginning with uncovering your "right-of-way": the space, resources, or technologies you control and have trust and permission to share with others. The next step is choosing the best partners to share these assets with, which can be surprising - for example, the authors tell how Microsoft partnered with the people who'd been hacking their Kinnect platform to find new uses for it. Then the authors explain how to experiment with your partners to figure out which new products or services might be scalable, and how to look at new technologies that can make scaling up faster than ever.Johansen and Ronn also identify four future forces that will dramatically impact each of these four steps, and include numerous examples of businesses that have succeeded by applying reciprocity principles as well as those that failed by sticking to shortsighted business practices. And they provide detailed, practical guidance for any business that wants to discover its own reciprocity advantage.