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

In the age of the Internet, everyone knows what's new, but only the best leaders have the foresight to sense what's important and get there ahead of the rush. In order to get there early, leaders need to tune their foresight abilities-to sense the future, to make sense out of threats and opportunities, and to decide when to decide. The Foresight to Insight to Action Cycle, described in detail in the book, helps leaders make strategic sense out of mounting dilemmas. Get There Early includes a map to the decade of dilemmas that we can already taste in today's current events, drawing from the latest Ten-Year Forecast by Institute for the Future-which has a thirty-eight year track record and is one of the very few futures think tanks ever to outlive its own forecasts.The forecast map unpacks a future that requires new forms of leadership beyond the run-and-gun problem-solver style so common among today's leaders, many of whom love to solve quick problems but hate to deal with ongoing dilemmas. Leaders must develop the same kinds of complex emergent qualities as the challenges they are facing in the "VUCA World" of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity, qualities like Vision, Understanding, Clarity, and Agility. If you hold or aspire to a leadership position in business, government, or a nonprofit agency, this book will help you succeed even when you can't solve. Johansen and his colleagues use foresight to tap into the wisdom of uncertainty, to help leaders resolve the constant tension-a dilemma in itself-between judging too soon and deciding too late.