the New Nimble: Leading in Age of Change

PRAISE FOR THE NEW NIMBLE “People naturally hunger for stability, but nothing under the sun is permanent and every facet of your work and life are continuously changing. At bottom, the future is fundamentally unknowable. This means great leaders are those that can rapidly adjust and adapt. Jay Sullivan lays out, through carefully selected stories, how to practice the art of being nimble. He gives life to the wise adage that one should be confident but never certain and confront change with an insatiable curiosity.” —MICHAEL POWELL, Former Chairman of the FCC “Jay Sullivan’s The New Nimble is the book for the present, and the future. The New Nimble provides clear guidance, from a range of examples drawn from different industries, sectors, and settings, for anyone who wants to understand how to remain agile and responsive to change. It is essential reading in this time when even the pace of change is accelerating.” —RAY BRESCIA, Hon. Harold R. Tyler Chair in Law and Technology and Professor of Law at Albany Law School, and author of The Future of Change “In The New Nimble, Sullivan does a masterful job at capturing the heart of what it takes to truly be nimble in times of change. He challenges you to Understand Your Essence, Ask the Right Questions, and Be Bold, three keys to being successful in this new time of constant, rapid, unpredictable change. Please read this book! It will shape you, change you, inspire you!” —ERIC HUTCHERSON, Executive Vice President, Chief People and Inclusion Officer, Universal Music Group “Jay Sullivan has done a huge service to leaders everywhere in this wise, engaging, and immensely practical book. Eager to leave the hard days of Covid behind us, we’ve failed to learn the real lessons of that awful time, which is that we are more capable of living with—and managing through—profound uncertainty than we ever guessed.” —SANDRA J. SUCHER, Professor of Management Practice, Harvard Business School and Co-author of The Power of Trust: How Companies Build It, Lose It, Regain It 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.