Get There Early: Sensing the Future to Compete in the Present

by Bob Johansen

These days, every leader struggles with a you can’t predict the future, but you have to be able to make sense of it to thrive. In the age of the Internet, everyone knows what’s new, but to succeed you have to be able to sort out what’s important, devise strategies based on your own point of view, and get there ahead of the crowd.Bob Johansen shares techniques the Institute for the Future has been refining for nearly forty years to help leaders navigate what, borrowing a term from the Army War College, he calls the VUCA a world characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. As the institute’s ten-year forecast makes clear, leaders now face fewer problems with neat solutions and more recurring, complex, messy, and puzzling situations. Get There Early lays out the institute’s three-step Foresight to Insight to Action Cycle that will allow readers to sense, make sense of, and win with dilemmas. Johansen offers specific techniques, ranging from storytelling to simulation gaming, as well as real-world examples to help readers turn the VUCA world on its head through creative use of vision, understanding, clarity, and agility. This book offers hope for leaders facing the constant tension—a dilemma in itself—between judging too soon and deciding too late.

Genres: Leadership, Business, Unfinished

285 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Bob Johansen is distinguished fellow at the Institute for the Future in Silicon Valley, where he helps top leaders around the world prepare for and shape the future. Bob works with corporations such as McKinsey, Tesco, UPS, Kellogg, Syngenta, and McDonald's - as well as a range of major universities and non profits. "The Reciprocity Advantage" is Bob's ninth book. A social scientist by training, Bob holds a BS from the University of Illinois, where he played varsity basketball, and a PhD from Northwestern University. To learn more about "The Reciprocity Advantage" visit the book's site at reciprocityadvantage.com

Reviews

[Salvador Vazquez PerezGrovas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice work by Johansen, good start on the futurism

[Ravi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought provoking, and comforting if you've recently been struggling with strategic planning. Author's voice comes through and rings of both some eccentricity, lots of thoughtfulness, and warm regard for leaders struggling. Thought it provided nice layer of thought-provoking ways to approach the Institute for the Future 10 year forecast.

[Jenreese · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm honored to have met the author and heard him speak. CEEP (the org where I work) is working with this book. Imagine making sense of the MAJOR dilemmas of our time in order to seek insight and, ultimately, breakthroughs. In a word, provocative.

[Gregory · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent future path strategies!

[Lori Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A should-read book on competition for knowledge workers who want to be in executive role and entrepreneurs.

[Mills College Library]

658.4012 J652 2007