The Emergence: How Leaders Break Free From Outdated Thinking

PRAISE FOR EMERGENCE “Your greatest competitive advantage today is quietly becoming your most dangerous blind spot tomorrow. In this book, Jennifer Vessels distills two decades of experience to provide an approach for leaders ready to trade the comfort of expertise for the courage of navigation.”—SUNIL GUPTA, Professor, Digital Strategy/Innovation, Harvard “Intensely personal and universal, challenging and practical, future looking and grounded, informative and demanding, Emergence is an important book. Jennifer Vessels has captured the new reality but also powerfully lays out how we can navigate productive ways into the future.”—STUART CRAINER, Co-founder, Thinkers50 “We are living through an unprecedented period of rapid change and convergence. Jennifer Vessels has spent over twenty years building her approach for moving with P.E.A.C.E. in uncertain times. Emergence gives leaders a compass to navigate through uncertainty and cause for optimism about what lies ahead.”—DAVID CHUN, CEO, Equilar “What if change isn’t just a risk to avoid, but an opportunity to seize? Drawing on decades of transformation experience in companies such as Adobe and Cisco, Jennifer Vessels shows—with rigor and optimism—how leaders can navigate the future—no matter what.”—TERENCE MAURI, Founder of Hack Future Lab and author of The Upside of Disruption “Most leaders know the old playbook is dead but aren’t clear how to move. Jennifer Vessels has spent decades alongside the ones who do. Emergence distills how they broke free to read the moment and navigate perpetual uncertainty—toward outcomes they never could have planned.”—NANCY GIORDANO, Futurist and Founder of Play Big Navigate leadership transformation when Industrial Age strategies no longer apply In Emergence: How Leaders Break Free from Outdated Thinking, Jennifer Vessels — CEO of Next Step and the change agent who led Adobe's shift from packaged software to cloud subscriptions, from during which its market value grew from $16 billion to $250 billion — delivers a proven approach for leading organizations through rapid, converging disruptions in which traditional planning approaches consistently fail to produce results. The book introduces the P.E.A.C.E. compass — Purpose, Exploration, Action, Collaboration, Empowerment — a structured approach for thriving when predetermined paths disappear. Drawing on transformation work with Adobe, Cisco, Novartis, Schneider Electric, and IKEA, Vessels shows how to integrate AI with human talent, empower multi-generational teams, and build organizations that are ready for continuous change. Readers will also discover: Strategies for navigating five converging forces — Speed, Confidence, Meaning, Pressure, and Human/AI disruption — reshaping the leadership landscape Practical AI integration approaches used within global enterprises including Van Ameyde, IKEA, and Barloworld How to shift from fear-based decision-making to intuition-driven, experiential leadership that produces measurable organizational results Tiger team structures and empowerment approaches that release collective capability at scale across large organizations The story of Marie, a young woman who navigated wartime Europe on purpose and confidence alone — proof that the P.E.A.C.E. principles are timeless and accessible to anyone, regardless of title or authority Lessons from IKEA's six-year Korean market entry and Novartis's approach to restructuring every six months Designed for CEOs, executives, managers, and anyone struggling to keep up, Emergence provides the approach leaders need when markets shift faster than traditional planning allows, with tested lessons from engagements with Adobe, Cisco, Google, IKEA, Microsoft, and Novartis. The future is emerging. Take action now — before it moves without you. "Jennifer Vessels has captured the new reality but also powerfully lays out how we can navigate productive ways into the future."—Stuart Crainer, cofounder Thinkers50 "Your greatest competitive advantage today is quietly becoming your most dangerous blind spot tomorrow. In this book, Jennifer Vessels distills two decades of experience to provide an approach for leaders ready to trade the comfort of expertise for the courage of navigation."—Sunil Gupta, Professor Digital Strategy/Innovation, Harvard