The New Nimble

Transform your organization into an adaptable and flexible innovator In The New Nimble: Leading in the Age of Change, accomplished author, professor, and consultant Jay Sullivan delivers a clear, tangible, and actionable guide to implementing flexibility and creativity in your enterprise. Through interviews with senior leaders from a variety of industries and disciplines, the author shows you the trends and behaviors that allowed successful companies to navigate the changing realities and complexities that have defined recent years, including the COVID-19 crisis, the increasing awareness of racial injustice in society, and the January 6th insurrection. The New Nimble demonstrates how organizations can internalize and institutionalize lessons from recent paradigm shifts in thinking and learn how to apply those lessons to their everyday operations and to prepare for the next major challenge. You’ll discover: How crucial it is to clearly articulate your mission, values, and parameters as an organization How to gather the types of data and insights that will allow you to make decisions quickly when the next change takes us all by surprise How building trust within your organization and with your external stakeholders gives you the confidence to take action in times of crisis The questions at the end of each chapter become your playbook for debriefing how your organization handled the myriad shifting realities of the last few years. That ongoing discussion with your team will prepare you to be more nimble as the next change appears. As managers, executives, founders, directors, and entrepreneurs, we will all face enormous decisions in the coming years regarding environmental challenges, shifts in the supply chain and the global economy, and the runaway freight train that is AI. As those and other issues come fast and furious, The New Nimble is the hands-on leadership guide that we'll all need as we do our best to manage our way through chaotic and volatile environments.

Introduction xi Part I Understand Your Essence 1 Chapter 1 Know Yourself (and Let Others Know You, Too) 3 Chapter 2 Be Your Better Self 21 Chapter 3 Accept Your Limits 39 Part II Ask the Right Questions 59 Chapter 4 Think Beyond Yourself 61 Chapter 5 Learn What Others Value 77 Chapter 6 Seek “Meaningful Knowledge” 99 Part III Be Bold 123 Chapter 7 Keep It Moving 125 Chapter 8 Get It Done 145 Chapter 9 See the Opportunity 157 Conclusion 171 Acknowledgments 175 About the Author 179 Notes 181 Index 185