Book Review - Leaders Make the Future: Ten New Leadership Skills for an Uncertain World by Bob Johansen
Category Book Review Bob Johansen Leaders Make the Future: Ten New Leadership Skills for an Uncertain World
I received an advanced readers copy of the book Leaders Make the Future: Ten New Leadership Skills for an Uncertain World by Bob Johansen. I always find it interesting to see how people interpret the future in regards to the skills it will take to lead people. Of course, time will tell as to how accurate Johansen will be, but I did find his VUCA acronym quite useful in describing the future: Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity.
Contents:
Making The Future Will Require New Leadership Skills; Maker Instinct; Clarity; Dilemma Flipping; Immersive Learning Ability; Bio-empathy; Constructive Depolarizing; Quiet Transparency; Rapid Prototyping; Smart Mob Organizing; Commons Creating; Readying Yourself For The Future; Appendix; Notes; Bibliography; Acknowledgments; Index; About the Author; About IFTF
Overall, there was material for thought here, but it seemed to lack a cohesive thread to tie it all together. In addition, some of the items can not have a known outcome when you make your move. Therefore you can only judge after the fact, and then you add the element of hindsight to make it appear obvious. For instance, "urgent patience" is the ability to judge when to add new challenges and when to counsel steady persistence. Sounds great, but everyone will draw that line differently. Some will fail and some will succeed, even with the same level of (or lack of) information going into the situation. Even the same person might both fail and succeed in various instances. I find it unlikely that it's possible to have an excellent track record on that front given the increasing levels of VUCA in today's world. On the other hand, "constructive depolarizing", or the ability to calm tense situations when sides are radically opposed to each other, *is* a skill that could be learned and measured in a much more concrete fashion. It's what diplomats and counselors have done for ages...
I agree that these "new" skills are ones that will make sense and play a greater role in the future. I just question how "new" they actually are, and whether we're putting fancy labels on things that we're already trying to do today.
I received an advanced readers copy of the book Leaders Make the Future: Ten New Leadership Skills for an Uncertain World by Bob Johansen. I always find it interesting to see how people interpret the future in regards to the skills it will take to lead people. Of course, time will tell as to how accurate Johansen will be, but I did find his VUCA acronym quite useful in describing the future: Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity.
Contents:
Making The Future Will Require New Leadership Skills; Maker Instinct; Clarity; Dilemma Flipping; Immersive Learning Ability; Bio-empathy; Constructive Depolarizing; Quiet Transparency; Rapid Prototyping; Smart Mob Organizing; Commons Creating; Readying Yourself For The Future; Appendix; Notes; Bibliography; Acknowledgments; Index; About the Author; About IFTF
Overall, there was material for thought here, but it seemed to lack a cohesive thread to tie it all together. In addition, some of the items can not have a known outcome when you make your move. Therefore you can only judge after the fact, and then you add the element of hindsight to make it appear obvious. For instance, "urgent patience" is the ability to judge when to add new challenges and when to counsel steady persistence. Sounds great, but everyone will draw that line differently. Some will fail and some will succeed, even with the same level of (or lack of) information going into the situation. Even the same person might both fail and succeed in various instances. I find it unlikely that it's possible to have an excellent track record on that front given the increasing levels of VUCA in today's world. On the other hand, "constructive depolarizing", or the ability to calm tense situations when sides are radically opposed to each other, *is* a skill that could be learned and measured in a much more concrete fashion. It's what diplomats and counselors have done for ages...
I agree that these "new" skills are ones that will make sense and play a greater role in the future. I just question how "new" they actually are, and whether we're putting fancy labels on things that we're already trying to do today.
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