Lead your organizations, solve problems, and sustain your company’s growth with effective practices for complex, uncertain, and unpredictable environments
In Move to the Edge, Declare it Center, CEO, entrepreneur, and strategist Everett Harper delivers a powerful and pragmatic take on solving complex problems by, and making decisions through, uncertainty. You’ll learn to discover insights quickly by experimenting, iterating, then building infrastructure to sustain your innovations in your teams and organizations.
The author demonstrates a set of practices, processes, and infrastructure that addresses complex problems alongside a set of methods to systematize, scale, and share best practices throughout an organization. In the book, the author offers a new framework for leadership that’s perfectly suited to an increasingly volatile, uncertain, and unpredictable world. You’ll also get:
- Effective ways to make decisions in situations without complete information
- Strategies for sustaining your team through highly uncertain times
- Techniques for managing personal anxiety - a key leadership skill for the next decade
Case studies of World Central Kitchen, COVID public health policymakers, and California wildfire responders illustrate the framework, while pragmatic playbooks about salary transparency, remote work, and diversity and inclusion will help leaders apply the framework in their own organizations. The author shares personal stories and winning strategies that help leaders maintain high performance, avoid burnout, and enable companies to thrive.
Move to the Edge, Declare it Center is perfect for business leaders facing complex problems that require immediate decisions in the face of uncertain outcomes. It’s also a must-read for anyone interested in modern leadership and looking for a way to help them make solid decisions with incomplete information.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments xi
About the Author xv
Preface xvii
July 7, 2016: Stand Up, Speak Up xvii
Introduction 1
Two Kinds of Problems: Complicated and Complex 4
Complicated Problems 4
Complex Problems 7
The Mismatch 9
Case Study: Introducing Salary Transparency 12
Defeating the Defaults: Making Decisions Under Uncertainty 15
Our Brains: Wired for Shortcuts 16
Our Bodies: Reacting to Stress 20
May 27, 2020: Still a Target, Still a Leader 22
Proposal: Adopt a New Mindset for Making Decisions 24
Part 1 What Is Move to the Edge, Declare It Center? 27
Chapter 1 A Framework to Make Decisions under Complexity and Uncertainty 29
What Is Move to the Edge? 32
What Is Declare It Center? 34
Chapter 2 Exterior Practices: The Methods of Move to the Edge 37
Forming Hypotheses 41
Hypothesis Testing 43
Iteration and Fast Feedback 45
Project Scoping 46
Who Is in the Room Where It Happens? Bringing in Diverse Voices 47
Example: Race and Artificial Intelligence 48
Case Study: How We Made Salaries Transparent 50
Case Study: Jane Jacobs: What Kind of Problem Is a City? 53
Case Study: World Central Kitchen 60
Case Study: Public Health Networks and the Early Days of COVID 63
Chapter 3 Exterior Practices: The Process of Declare It Center 67
Building a Remote-First Company Before the Pandemic 71
Retrospectives (Retros) 74
Exercise: Hold a Retrospective 76
Evolving Retros 81
Truss Values 83
Case Study: How We Made Salaries Transparent (Declare It Center) 87
Case Study: Healthcare.gov 88
What Did We Learn? Changing Mindsets Requires Changing Systems 96
Declare It Center in Modern Government 98
Case Study: Beyond the Scope: Responding to the California Wildfires 101
Declare It Center to Sustain Your Work 103
Case Study: World Central Kitchen 104
Chapter 4 Interior Practices: Get Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable 111
Practice: Meditate/Mindful Training 117
Practice: Learn from Your Body 119
Practice: Find Your Purpose 125
Exercise: The Purpose Playbook 127
Practice: Imagine Your Outcome 133
Exercise: Write a Letter to Yourself 134
Practice: Practice, Practice, Practice 137
Intermission: The New Normal Is Complex. Train for It 139
February 2012: Show Up, Speak Up:
Getting the Call 140
Finding Your Imaginal Cells 143
Ring, Ring, Ring 146
Part 2 Putting Move to the Edge, Declare It Center into Practice 149
Chapter 5 Where Do We Start? 151
Case Study: 2020: West Paw Recruiting for DEI 154
DEI, Recruiting, and Hiring at Truss 157
Chapter 6 Putting Practices into Action: Sustaining a Remote-First Company 173
Exterior Practices 176
Using Hypotheses to Create Company Culture 176
Deciding to Go Remote First 178
Staying Connected 179
Effective Communication 182
Using Decision Records (DRs) 189
Implementing Auxiliary Groups 190
Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Investing in Connection 191
Staying Healthy Is a Practice 194
Picking the Right Tools 198
Interior Practices 205
Exercise: Walking Meditation 205
Exercise: Learning from the Body 207
Exercise: Fear of Missing In 207
Appendix: Further Resources 209
Notes 211
Index 227
