In our world of incessant change, we are all threatened by VUCA volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity—at the individual and organizational levels.

Today's book offers you a new lens through which to consider change as an opportunity rather than an obstacle. You'll be inspired to consider the big questions of today:

What does the future hold?

What does the exponential growth of technology mean for the world of work?

What does a changing job market mean for future generations? What do waves of disruption mean for business leaders? S

ociety is evolving at breakneck speed.

What does this mean for all of us?

While we cannot see into the future, there are repeatable patterns that we can understand. The first step to becoming Undisruptable is to realize that evolution is a natural part of life, and nature provides many examples. If you haven't guessed already that is the blurb for my own book and because of so many requests from former guests and listeners. I will be interviewed today by guest host, a friend of the innovation and professional friend, Whitney Johnson.

Have you ever wanted to disagree with your boss?

Speak up about your company's lack of diversity or unequal pay practices?

Make a tough decision you knew would be unpopular? We all have opportunities to be courageous at work.

But since courage requires risk—to our reputations, our social standing, and, in some cases, our jobs—we often fail to act, which leaves us feeling powerless and regretful for not doing what we know is right. There's a better way to handle these crucial moments—and today's book provides the moral imperative and research-based tactics to help you become more competently courageous at work.

Our guest is the world's foremost expert on workplace courage, He explains that courage isn't a character trait that only a few possess; it's a virtue developed through practice. And with the right attitude and approach, you can learn to hone it like any other skill and incorporate it into your everyday life. We welcome a friend of the Innovation Show and one of our very early guests, author of Choosing Courage: The Everyday Guide to Being Brave at Work Jim Detert

More about Jim here: https://jimdetert.com

If you're a shaper, you put your stamp on your work.

You earn your stripes. You sync with a rhythm of life that lights you up.

At times, work may be a frightening obstacle (and obsession), but shapers move through adversity with temperament and tenacity.

A determination to continually improve and evolve.

A willingness to experiment and learn from mistakes.

To create on the fly. To work fluidly.

To persevere and be patient in equal measure.

To nourish the soul.

A shaper is someone who becomes energised by work.

The way they work provides for the highest expression of self.

They lead deeper and more fulfilling lives because what they do every day serves them and the greater good.

We welcome the author of Shapers, Jonas Altman

More about Jonas www.shapers.life

Flex is a manifesto for living and working on your terms. It means looking at the established, rigid ways of doing things and asking: 'Is this really working for me?' If the answer to that question is 'No' then read on because this book is for you.

When we learn how to flex we gain a superpower that allows us to challenge what is holding us back and reinvent the rules for a smarter, happier life. Because things are changing for women across the globe. We are getting married and having children later, if at all. Dual-income families have replaced the traditional template of man as breadwinner and woman as homemaker.

Technology allows us to work differently and understand ourselves better. But the old systems still persist. We're continually bashing up against inflexible structures that were built by, and for, men. We are trying to do everything, but following a rulebook, we didn't write. We welcome the author of Flex: Reinventing Work for a Smarter, Happier Life, Annie Auerbach

More about Annie: https://starlingstrategy.co.uk

It's no coincidence that most of the top 100 most valuable global brands invest heavily in technology to drive innovation into every aspect of their business: product development, operations, marketing, and customer service.

In the next decade, a suite of six strategic technologies—artificial intelligence (AI), Blockchain, the Internet of Things (IoT), augmented reality, autonomous machines, and 5G networks—will drive unprecedented innovation into products and services, creating entirely new business models along the way. Investment in information technology (IT) will be a strategic imperative for every company.

Every company will become a technology company, and every company will become a data company. Business operations will be retooled using both process automation and worker augmentation. Today's book is both a call to innovate for survival in a rapidly evolving competitive environment, and a moral imperative to use these six technologies to serve people, elevate work, and make a lasting, positive impact on the world.

We welcome the author of "The Innovation Ultimatum How six strategic technologies will reshape every business in the 2020s" Steve Brown

More about Steve: https://www.baldfuturist.com

Do you spend too much time learning with disappointing results? Do you find it difficult to remember what you read? Do you put off studying because it's boring and you're easily distracted? Today's book is for you.

Our guest struggled in the past with our learning. But has found techniques to help us master material—any material. Building on insights from neuroscience and cognitive psychology, she gives us a crash course to improve your ability to learn, whether you're studying maths, language, coding, karate, cooking, or anything else. You'll see why the strategies work because you'll see what's happening in the brain when you use them. No, this isn't a little book of miracles.

But you will find that reducing frustration and improving your study success may sometimes feel miraculous.

We welcome author of "Learn Like a Pro", Barbara Oakley

Innovators. Changemakers. Entrepreneurs. Intrapreneurs. Catalysts. One of these things is not like the other. That is to say, each of these types of people can make a whole lot of change happen in the world, but within any group of innovators, changemakers, entrepreneurs, and intrapreneurs, are those people called Catalysts, Those of us who have a deep-rooted need to create positive change. Among Catalysts, there is an unmet need to be seen and valued for who we are and how we show up in the world. We move so fast that we lose people. We can break shit without intentionality. And all of that can lead to burnout—frequently.

Catalysts feel a deep sense of drive toward a better future state. We can't help but see potential change and set it in motion, wherever we are. We're energized and we're driven by it.

We welcome the author of Move Fast. Break Stuff. Burn Out.: The Catalyst's Guide to Working Well, Shannon Lucas, welcome to the show.

Even before the pandemic, it seemed the world was spinning so fast it's difficult to keep up. Arguably a lot of the technological disruption that was around in 2019 simply got accelerated – remote working, digitisation and AI to name just three.

Our guest today notes in his new book: Two hundred and fifty years ago the Industrial Revolution replaced our arms and legs at work. The fourth Industrial Revolution is now replacing our brains. He says The Machine Age is engulfing both organisations and people. This shift is challenging the very essence of what it means to be human.

His book won Business Book of the year in 2020.

We welcome the author of The Human Edge: How curiosity and creativity are your superpowers in the digital economy, Greg Orme.

Leaders have experimented with open innovation programs, corporate accelerators, venture capital arms, skunkworks, and innovation contests. They've travelled the world to learn from today's hottest, most successful tech companies. Yet most would admit they've failed to create truly innovative cultures.

There's a better way. And it all starts with the power of habit. The central argument in today's book is that the world's biggest untapped source of energy isn't the wind, water, or sun. It is inside existing organisations, which are brimming with innovation energy. Today that energy is largely constrained and contained. You need to release, harness, and amplify it.

Today's book will show you how. We welcome a friend of the innovation show, 3-time guest and author of a plethora of titles author of Eat, Sleep, Innovate Scott D. Anthony welcome back to the show.

More about Scott: https://www.innosight.com/insight/eat-sleep-innovate/

Faced with the choice of starting a company or joining a large corporation, Steve Jobs believed that it was 'more fun to be a pirate than to join the navy'. But for innovators inside established companies, making a distinction between being a pirate and joining the navy is a fallacy.

We have to figure out a way to become pirates in the navy! There is nothing harder in business than trying to innovate within large corporations. Innovators in big companies often face internal opposition as well as their external competitors. It is the management of the core business that tends to get in the way of innovation.

If you work in corporate innovation, if you run an innovation lab or work in one, if you are a pirate I'm the navy, there is so much in this episode, there are some hard truths to face, some butter pills to swallow, I certainly know I've made some of the mistakes our guest identifies.

More about Tendayi here:

https://tendayiviki.com