We work with a lot of clients who are struggling with what to do about the future. They feel overwhelmed. They are tired. They aren’t doubting the truth of the Gospel or the reliability of the Scripture as their plumbline – it’s the world around them that they don’t know how to find their way through! They feel responsible for shepherding the organization, church or startup that they have invested their careers building and growing. But they don’t know what to do next. They need to reassess how they are finding their way.
There are a lot of books written about strategies and advice given on how to implement the plan. Most of us line up for them, hoping for a prepackaged answer to our questions and challenges. But this isn’t that – and we don’t want it to be. There are few books written about how to have a vision for where you are going. More precisely, there are few books that are helpful in providing a methodology for developing a vision.
One of three things happens instead.
- Your organization has a vision statement, but nobody cares about it because it doesn’t seem applicable to what you are doing. (It ends up being a nice motto on a wall, but doesn’t actually connect.)
- Your organization has tried to develop a vision statement, but got frustrated by the lack of clarity about the future, so you looked around and copied someone else’s vision statement. (How many versions of Just Do It! and the like are we surrounded by.)
- Or, your organization just focuses on today, and doesn’t know where they are going.
We wrote What Comes Next? was written out of selfish necessity. We needed it as much as you need it. We have worked in and with organizations for years that have struggled with where they are going. This has resulted in frustrated employees, frustrated managers, frustrated executives… and keeps the team or the organization from doing what’s really possible.
Over time, through many discussions about what didn’t work, we started to recognize some common themes about how the world was changing and observed how leaders reacted and responded to this change. We realized that it really boiled down to four forces and eight intersections. Those intersections drive how we live and grow in a networked world.
If any of those things sound familiar, What Comes Next? is for you. This is the book you should read before the other books. It’ll help you clarify where you are now and where you are going. It’ll give you a systematic way to think about the future, how it applies to the mission of your organization, and what you should do about it. We’ll even give you some next steps on where to start first, tips on how to talk others in your organization about it, and the building blocks to your strategy to make it happen.
We’re excited about this adventure and can’t wait to hear about what you discover along the way!
