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What Comes Next?: Shaping the Future in an Ever-Changing World - A Guide for Christian Leaders
What if, instead of keeping up with change, you could get ahead of it? Our mission as Christians was the same yesterday as it is today and will be tomorrow. The world, however, is changing faster than ever before, and keeping up feels impossible. The realities of human life—from how we develop relationships to how we use technology to have impact —therefore change rapidly too. It’s critical that Christian leaders take this into consideration as they plan for their organizations’ future. In What Comes Next? , strategists and innovation experts Nick Skytland and Ali Llewellyn use the eight elements of their Futures Framework to teach us how to help shape the future, be visionary, and grow our businesses and ministries. This futures-thinking process is a proven solution for executives, entrepreneurs, pastors, and anyone in between who struggles to respond to an ever-changing world.
208 pages, Paperback
Published January 5, 2021
6 people are currently reading
41 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 5, 2021
In What Comes Next?, Nick Skytland and Ali Llewellyn provide us accessible concept frameworks that make the elements of strategic foresight ("futuring") meaningful and manageable. I find that motivating! Church, ministry, and agency leaders don't need (or want) yet another book that is too simplistic--cool, but not practical; or too complicated--erudite, but inscrutable. Because navigating current chaos and future uncertainty is too strategic to our congregations and organizations for us to miss the mark on this.
As futurists, Ali and Nick have years of experience applying their professional expertise to help leaders work with relevant principles and practices. They aren't here to TELL us what our future holds and what to do. Instead, they provide a roadmap that SHOWS us how to figure out what is POSSIBLE and then apply foresight principles in our own context for what is PREFERABLE. I see this as inspiring hope, and hope is an active verb.
While they acknowledge our mixed feelings about things to come and how emotions can hold us back, they help us hearken back to when we were all futurists as children. They use relatable examples of how play, imagination, curiosity, and exploration set the course for things to come. They implant and feed the seed that we can be active shapers of the future instead of passive clay that takes the imprint of whatever may happen. Yes, we really can impact the way things go! But how?
Nick and Ali detail Four Forces that form their main framework in understanding and applying What Comes Next?--purpose, people, place, and technology. This is not just a set of factors, but a system of forces. A system implies more interconnections and interactions among the members, not just a bunch of independent pieces thrown into a set list. So, various intersections among these Four Forces bring out important questions that help us find clarity in our current times, so we can then navigate our own local situations.
And, as they emphasize, "Clarity precedes strategy. " So, their equipping process facilitates better discussing, discerning, and deciding. Leaders will (1) learn about navigating uncertainty, (2) apply curiosity and creativity to have more "successful failures," and, ultimately, (3) use these experiences for a more positive trajectory in ministry endeavors.
I appreciate how they've made this book engaging for people like myself who process information better in pictures more than words. And in fact, they provide elements that connect with a diverse range of ways people learn: theory and story, principles and practices, statements and questions. But then, that makes sense, if we're to lead a flock or a team, we need a field guide to conducting and compositing a theologically sound “spiritual MRI” on trends and issues that directly affect us, so we can navigate our way forward together with hope and confidence, even in the midst of turmoil and uncertainty.
What Comes Next? is definitely is a five-star field guide to equip us as explorers and shapers of our group's most preferable future!
Note: I received an advance readers copy of this book as part of the launch team.
As futurists, Ali and Nick have years of experience applying their professional expertise to help leaders work with relevant principles and practices. They aren't here to TELL us what our future holds and what to do. Instead, they provide a roadmap that SHOWS us how to figure out what is POSSIBLE and then apply foresight principles in our own context for what is PREFERABLE. I see this as inspiring hope, and hope is an active verb.
While they acknowledge our mixed feelings about things to come and how emotions can hold us back, they help us hearken back to when we were all futurists as children. They use relatable examples of how play, imagination, curiosity, and exploration set the course for things to come. They implant and feed the seed that we can be active shapers of the future instead of passive clay that takes the imprint of whatever may happen. Yes, we really can impact the way things go! But how?
Nick and Ali detail Four Forces that form their main framework in understanding and applying What Comes Next?--purpose, people, place, and technology. This is not just a set of factors, but a system of forces. A system implies more interconnections and interactions among the members, not just a bunch of independent pieces thrown into a set list. So, various intersections among these Four Forces bring out important questions that help us find clarity in our current times, so we can then navigate our own local situations.
And, as they emphasize, "Clarity precedes strategy. " So, their equipping process facilitates better discussing, discerning, and deciding. Leaders will (1) learn about navigating uncertainty, (2) apply curiosity and creativity to have more "successful failures," and, ultimately, (3) use these experiences for a more positive trajectory in ministry endeavors.
I appreciate how they've made this book engaging for people like myself who process information better in pictures more than words. And in fact, they provide elements that connect with a diverse range of ways people learn: theory and story, principles and practices, statements and questions. But then, that makes sense, if we're to lead a flock or a team, we need a field guide to conducting and compositing a theologically sound “spiritual MRI” on trends and issues that directly affect us, so we can navigate our way forward together with hope and confidence, even in the midst of turmoil and uncertainty.
What Comes Next? is definitely is a five-star field guide to equip us as explorers and shapers of our group's most preferable future!
Note: I received an advance readers copy of this book as part of the launch team.
January 5, 2021
“Our planning for the future often depends on an approach we learned in childhood. We draw a straight line from today to next year and prepare for the future based on our recent experiences, best guesses, and current gut feelings,” write Nicholas Skytland and Alicia Llewellyn. “The problem with this is that the potential of this approach is limited by what we currently know and have personally experienced. We don’t make room for the unknown and unfamiliar.”
In What Comes Next: Shaping the Future in an Ever-Changing World, Skytland and Llewellyn lay out a better strategy for planning for that uncertain future, viewing the world as though looking through a kaleidoscope, creating controlled sections of the uncertain chaos. In the book, they present what they call the Futures Framework, a framework that uses the Four Forces of purpose, people, place, and technology, as well as the areas where those forces intersect, to plan out a set of potential futures.
Designed for Christian leaders in ministry, church, or nonprofit vocation, What Comes Next is a quick and easy read. It tackles a lot of complex topics without getting bogged down into technical jargon or overly academic writing. The book is meant to be put into action, part theoretical and part workbook, each chapter including a lot of reflection questions and ending with action steps. The book is designed to guide you through your own future planning, for you to apply concepts as you read them, finishing the book with an actionable plan.
With a separate chapter for each of the eight intersections of the Four Forces, Skytland and Llewellyn give enough detail in each part of framework for leaders to take action — dreaming up possible futures, laying out pathways, creating action steps – without getting too bogged down into details.
While working at NASA, Skytland and Llewellyn had a lot of experience designing “paper rockets” — plans that were visionary, affordable, and doable but still were never implemented, instead being placed on a dusty shelf in an office building. “The reason that many grand visions never turn into anything other than gravitationally challenged paper studies isn’t that the idea itself was flawed, but because the will to implement the vision wasn’t there,” they write. “It’s not enough to have a great idea. You have to actually launch it.” What Comes Next is intended to help Christian leaders not only come up with the right ideas based on futures thinking, but also to help them launch those ideas.
Most leaders have become disillusioned with the traditional planning and budgeting process, knowing that the system doesn’t work because they’re not accounting for an uncertain future. For anyone who wants to take an educated, systematic look at their future to more accurately plan for what’s ahead, What Comes Next is a must-read.
In What Comes Next: Shaping the Future in an Ever-Changing World, Skytland and Llewellyn lay out a better strategy for planning for that uncertain future, viewing the world as though looking through a kaleidoscope, creating controlled sections of the uncertain chaos. In the book, they present what they call the Futures Framework, a framework that uses the Four Forces of purpose, people, place, and technology, as well as the areas where those forces intersect, to plan out a set of potential futures.
Designed for Christian leaders in ministry, church, or nonprofit vocation, What Comes Next is a quick and easy read. It tackles a lot of complex topics without getting bogged down into technical jargon or overly academic writing. The book is meant to be put into action, part theoretical and part workbook, each chapter including a lot of reflection questions and ending with action steps. The book is designed to guide you through your own future planning, for you to apply concepts as you read them, finishing the book with an actionable plan.
With a separate chapter for each of the eight intersections of the Four Forces, Skytland and Llewellyn give enough detail in each part of framework for leaders to take action — dreaming up possible futures, laying out pathways, creating action steps – without getting too bogged down into details.
While working at NASA, Skytland and Llewellyn had a lot of experience designing “paper rockets” — plans that were visionary, affordable, and doable but still were never implemented, instead being placed on a dusty shelf in an office building. “The reason that many grand visions never turn into anything other than gravitationally challenged paper studies isn’t that the idea itself was flawed, but because the will to implement the vision wasn’t there,” they write. “It’s not enough to have a great idea. You have to actually launch it.” What Comes Next is intended to help Christian leaders not only come up with the right ideas based on futures thinking, but also to help them launch those ideas.
Most leaders have become disillusioned with the traditional planning and budgeting process, knowing that the system doesn’t work because they’re not accounting for an uncertain future. For anyone who wants to take an educated, systematic look at their future to more accurately plan for what’s ahead, What Comes Next is a must-read.
January 7, 2021
This book is a phenomenal resource to strengthened one’s path as a leader. There are many tangible examples from history that illuminate a framework of successful leadership. It is based in truth and factual evidence while being bolstered in Scripture.
When it comes to the world of business and ministry, it is important to find a balanced approach to anticipate the needs to grow an organization. Anyone, from a first-year college student to an executive of a company, will benefit from all of the practical examples and the guidance of well developed figures. The materials are easy follow in developing one’s intuitive innovation. Furthermore, the framework is applicable in developing a direction for their path which is balanced with challenges to foster these skills. In an ever-changing dynamic of a quickening pace in this world, this book is a guide to bring comfort as one takes up the heavy burden of leadership rooted in scripture as they are prepared for What Comes Next.
When it comes to the world of business and ministry, it is important to find a balanced approach to anticipate the needs to grow an organization. Anyone, from a first-year college student to an executive of a company, will benefit from all of the practical examples and the guidance of well developed figures. The materials are easy follow in developing one’s intuitive innovation. Furthermore, the framework is applicable in developing a direction for their path which is balanced with challenges to foster these skills. In an ever-changing dynamic of a quickening pace in this world, this book is a guide to bring comfort as one takes up the heavy burden of leadership rooted in scripture as they are prepared for What Comes Next.
January 6, 2021
A great read! “What Comes Next?” Could not have come at a better time! In the midst of a global pandemic, change is coming at us more quickly than we can keep up. The four forces of Futures Framework and its eight intersections gives us the tools we need to navigate current challenges and skills to face those yet to come.
January 2, 2022
Some excellent insights and prescriptions. But sometimes a struggle to keep reading.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews