The Story of Next (Is A Human Story)

9 June 2016 | Getting to Next

In 2012, when The Nextsensing Project began, I wanted to write a series of three e-books to explain (1) the mindset, (2) the toolset, and (3) the skill set of a 21C leader.

The journey since then has been filled with a lot of happy surprises — and only a few minor delays. Our website now has some 135 blog posts (quite a few by guests), a NextBrief report on the future of television, and a number of videos — all of which have helped us communicate both the research and the views of the project.

And all of this would not have been possible without the assistance of our project team, which has grown dramatically. Members of the Nextsensing project team are called NextSensors. The 27 team members have diverse backgrounds and interests, and they are definitely a global group. They represent 17 different nationalities based in 24 cities — from Madrid, Spain, to Cordoba, Argentina; from Sydney, Australia, to Boston, Massachusetts; from St. Petersburg, Russia, to St. Petersburg, Florida.

Today’s news: we are posting not only the third e-book in the series but also a companion video, both tied to The Story of Next.

What's next?

Because I know that managers are incredibly jammed for time, the e-book format has always been made as easy-access PDFs and so easy-to-read that anyone should be able to digest each e-book in 15 minutes or less. But that does not mean there isn’t sufficient “meat” in the publications — and that is emphatically true for our latest. Similarly, the new video runs about three minutes; but, it, too, communicates a lot in the short space of time.

Story of Next CoverAs the final e-book in the three-part series, as noted, the subject at hand is the skill set that a nextsensing leader needs to survive in the turbulent times in which we all live. You’ll find, in both the e-book and video, a list of four key skills that our project team believes are essential for anyone leading an enterprise of any size. These four abilities are so essential we have tagged them “nextabilities”.

Just to give you a feel, the new e-book talks about expanding one’s senses to the world of change, standing for needed change, creating a new order that will enhance the promise of change, and leading with foresense — which means leading today with the future always in mind.

I hope you enjoy, and benefit, from The Story of Next. While the e-book is about the four nextabilities, it’s also about the extraordinary power of a very simple question: what’s next?


Here are some links to help you start your own “next” journey. Thank you, as always, for your continued interest and support in our work.

For the third e-book, The Story of Next, you can download the e-book here [link] and watch any or all of our videos here [link].

For the first and second e-books, you can find them listed here [link].