The best books for leaders who want to know how to lead in and for the future

I absolutely loved the optimism and excitement of this book.

Justin unpacks six megatrends that will shape and affect every sector, all of which are leading to a more inclusive, equitable, and regenerative world. 

I cited this book at a recent event I ran called The Future of Leadership and one of the participants asked me why I was so positive about the trends that Justin featured.

"What about all the negatives and downsides?" I answered, "we go naturally to what could go wrong, it’s actually an effort to see what might go right," as the book title indicates.

But this book is not just a Pollyanna look at the future technologies, it’s a call to action for leaders to create the future we want by first imagining it.

When I interviewed Justin for my podcast, I was struck by how much foresight and deep thinking he brings to the challenging issues we face, and has the courage to imagine a better future.

The book is not just an expose of what is happening. The author includes suggestions for guiding principles of how we might craft the future of the economy, of education, of prisons, and of business.

It’s a high-level thought experiment that helps leaders map out the possibilities and the pathways.

Highly recommended.

This is a smart and broad analysis of global economies and cultures being affected by the collision of emerging technologies. 

What’s amazing about this book is its scope, its wry humour, and its balanced approach to solutions.

They showcase very well current global challenges: the pyramid of inequality, climate change chaos, tech trillionnaires taking over where governments leave huge holes, and the failure of capitalism to deliver on its promised golden land. 

It’s not just throwing rocks and wringing hands. The authors provide a pathway through that will mitigate the worst of these threats.

These include taxing robots and A.I. to provide a Universal Basic Income for the technologically displaced. It was the first time I have truly understood how UBI might actually work and be funded properly.

From a leadership point of view, some important shifts need to happen, and technology will pressure some of these to occur.

The shifts include expanding the purpose of business from making profits and going for growth, to a focus on more for all - a way of business doing well by doing good (because as they say, revolution due to inequality is bad for business).

I loved this book for its sweeping scope, balanced assessment, and practical suggestions of how our global societies might shift - for the better, and by doing so avoid the worst of what might happen.

It left me feeling optimistic and hopeful about our future and renewed my commitment to continue assisting leaders in thinking strategically about the future and how to skirt the threats while making the most of the opportunities. 

A must-read for big thinkers.

This book had me laughing, smiling, nodding, cheering, approving in self-righteous affirmation of a dearly held opinion, shrinking in painful self-awareness, and weeping in despair.

Despair for how badly we tend to think of one another and how we are terrible at thinking critically.

Tim’s blog, Wait But Why, is a popular for the same reasons his book is awesome: an in-depth dive look at the foibles of human nature and societies. All illustrated with funny, charming stick figure drawings.

It’s not just quirky though. This book does an incredible job of unpacking the brain science of why we are fear-based animals in simple analogies and pointed stick-figure illustrations. 

His models show how we become enemies in spite of our best intentions: our fear-based primitive brains are wary of the unknown, and it takes effort to ‘go up the ladder’ and to think more openly and critically.

He points out that we need to avoid thought echo chambers and create conversational round tables that are great at throwing around ideas without getting too attached to them. It’s the difference between being an ‘enlightenment kid descendant' (able to think critically) and a narrow-minded ‘ideologue’. 

The best part from my point of view is that this is a wonderful showcase of the perils of later stages of leadership maturity. This is the individualist/pluralist/green stages of ego leadership maturity and values development.

This stage is characteristic of being inclusive, environmentally focused, and egalitarian, or ‘woke’ in critical terms. (Don’t worry, Tim also does a critical unpack of conservatism too).

The downside of this stage is that we can get very judgemental about others who are not as inclusive, tolerant, and politically correct.

In other words, we can be hypocritical and devalue and debase others who don’t think like us. This can lead to very toxic behaviours and situations. These can lead to autocracy just as much as blind conservatism can.

How to escape this? And this is where the glimmer of hope came in. We can interrogate our beliefs, be open and curious about them and others. We can commit to going up the critical thinking ladder and lean into exposing ideas on their merits rather than their tribal affiliations.

This is a very important book that will help leaders move forward in their humility and curiosity, and hopefully their wisdom and compassion. 

Highly recommended.

This was an inspiring and motivating book.

The case studies of leaders, businesses, government, and agencies implementing new technologies for the improvement of work, agriculture, nutrition, productivity, and the climate is amazing.

My favourite case study snapshot is of Vivobarefoot footwear brand that partners with algae technology startup Bloom and their patented BLOOM foam - which takes harmful algae blooms out of waterways.

Shoes made out of algae blooms. By making shoes, it’s actually making the environment better. This is the ‘beyond net zero’ promise and potential. So cool.

The authors offer provocative ‘what if…’ questions at the beginning and end of each chapter to help the reader explore what the trends mean and how they might affect their current leadership paradigm.

One of the most useful aspects of the book is the ‘industry playlist’ infographic at the back of the book. You can look up your own industry and see which of the meta trends might have the biggest impact on your sector. 

If you need an inspirational hit, with some deep thinking prompts, and quick insights into what is happening everywhere, then this is the leadership for the future book to get you kickstarted.

Who doesn’t love reading about themselves? 

Chromey has a whole different way of looking at generational differences. When I interviewed him on my podcast, he did a fair critique of the typical division of generations by arbitrary birth years.

Far more important, he says, is to look at the technology that shaped the environment, and hence the mindsets and attitudes of the people who adopted and used that technology as part of their growing up during their ‘coming of age’ years.

Huh. It’s obvious and makes complete sense to me. 

The book outlines the chief technologies that shaped attitudes: transportation-telephone, motion pictures, radio, vinyl, television, space, gamer, cable television, personal computer-cell phone, internet, iTech, robotics. And I’d add coming now - artificial intelligence.

On top of all that is the pattern of swinging between optimism and pessimism across the generations across a spring/summer/winter/autumn cyclical model. Very smart.

Chromey includes timeline of events and technologies for each generation, alongside iconic figures/entertainers/authors/artists.

Read this if you want to get a cultural and tech insight into the multiple generations you find in your life and work. Very fun!