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

with Bob Johansen (view bio)
former CEO, Distinguished Fellow, Institute for the Future

NOTE: Bob was our VisionHolder Interview on Tuesday, June 23
Listen here:

Yesterday's experience cannot serve tomorrow's challenges. Bob will speak to the ten skills that will help leaders see connections in larger systems, embrace shared assets and opportunities, and cut through the chaos to build a better future.

According to Bob, 2009 is a “Springboard Year.” It is always easier to do ten-year forecasting than one-year forecasting, but it is especially true now. Now is exactly the time when ten-year forecasting can be most valuable. 2009 is authentically frightening, but it also has great potential to be a springboard year.

Volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity are likely to get worse in 2009. Many people are already choking on uncertainty most of the time. Some leaders are still expecting a return to predictability. If we stew ourselves in 2009, we’ll never get to 2019. Those organizations that do nothing but hunker down in this crisis will be way behind when things start getting better.

As someone who has been doing ten-year forecasting for more than thirty-five years, Bob notes that if you are not confused by 2009 and the future we are facing, you are not paying attention. The future cannot help you unless you are willing to listen through the confusion. You cannot learn from the future if you are overwhelmed by the present or stuck in the past.

The next decade, beginning in 2009, will be characterized by both danger and opportunity. Leaders will be buffeted, but must do more than just respond to crises. Leaders can be positive change agents in the midst of chaos. Organizations need a readiness discipline that assumes uncertainty, but achieves success nonetheless

Problem-solvers beware: even though solvable problems will still abound in the next decade, top leaders will deal mostly with dilemmas where there is no solution—but where you have to make decisions anyway. The best leaders will thrive in the space between judgment too soon (the classic mistake of the problem solver) and deciding too late (the classic mistake of the academic). Leaders must learn how to see through the mess with a global futures perspective, to sense patterns of change. That is what ten-year forecasting is all about.

We know that we will be even more connected in 2019 than we are today. I believe that the more connected we are, the safer we are, the more free we are, and the more powerful we are—if we realize the benefits of connectivity. In every organization, there should be at least a small band of leaders with license to think about and plan for the future. 2009 is threatening, but it is also an ideal time to be looking ahead—beyond the current crises.

Leaders can make the future, but they won’t make it all at once and they can’t make it alone. 2009 can be a springboard year, if leaders use foresight to spark their own insight and inform their own action. 

Schedule for the session:
7:45-8:15 am: Check-in and breakfast
8:15 am-12:30 pm: Thought Leader Session
12:45 pm: Lunch (optional, dutch treat)