Bob Johansen

Bob Johansen is a noted author, speaker, and futurist in the areas of organizational change and global transformation. He holds a PhD in Political Science from Stanford University and currently serves as a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for the Future, the world’s leading research organization focused on futures thinking. Johansen has been hailed as one of the world’s most influential futurists and an expert on organizational change and adaptation. As a best-selling author, Johansen has written a number of seminal books on the topics of organizational change and global transformation, including "The New Leadership Literacies: Thriving in a Future of Extreme Disruption and Distributed Everything" and "Leaders Make the Future: Ten New Leadership Skills for an Uncertain World."

At the heart of Johansen’s philosophy is a focus on the positive and proactive approaches to leading and managing change in organizations. His research and books focus on three main areas: disruption, distributed anything, and leadership literacies. Through these three areas, Johansen makes the case for new approaches to succeeding in an ever-changing and unpredictable business environment.

Johansen believes that in order for organizations to succeed, they need to be prepared for the “disruption tsunami,” or a rapid and continuous pace of disruption brought about by the changing pace of technology, globalization, and competition. He argues that organizations need to: (1) take advantage of distributed anything, where anything can be created, shared, and scaled, and (2) create a new lexicon of leadership literacies. These new leadership literacies revolve around the idea that leaders must be like navigators with a compass, guiding their organizations through the tumultuous waters of transformation.

In his book "The New Leadership Literacies," Johansen outlines twelve basic skills and "literacies" that leaders need in order to successfully navigate the new business environment: critical thinking, tactical agility, environmental expertise, creativity, communication, collaboration, influencing, empathy, resiliency, customer experience, adaptation, and vision. He argues that these skills are essential for any successful leader or organization who wants to survive and thrive in the future.

Outside of the hallmarks outlined in his books, Johansen’s workshops, keynote speeches and consulting are often focused on cultivating a better understanding of the coming change and enabling leaders to identify and address their disruptions most effectively. He helps organizations shift their cultures and mindsets to embrace the future of work, and offers strategies and frameworks to redesign their approaches to problem solving, agility, visioning, and collaboration.

Famed for his thought-provoking and inspiring speeches and lectures, Johansen shows organizations and business professionals how to continue innovating, growing, and succeeding in a world filled with disruptions. More than simply a book author, he offers insights and advice on how to thrive in a future of continuous and unpredictable change.