Join getAbstract to access the summary!

Navigating the Badlands

Join getAbstract to access the summary!

Navigating the Badlands

Thriving in the Decade of Radical Transformation

Jossey-Bass,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Text available

What's inside?

Social, technological and political upheaval peaks in 75-year cycles called the Badlands. Now, survive the journey.

Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative

Recommendation

Every few hundred years, the Western world takes itself apart and puts itself together again. Peter Drucker observed that this process of dissolution and reconstitution occurs so decisively that, afterward, people who live in the new world cannot even imagine the world of their parents or grandparents. Author Mary O’Hara-Devereaux believes that we are about three-quarters through a 75-year period of such disruptive innovation. She calls the transition "the Badlands." Like the barren Dakota Badlands of the Old West, they are a painful trial that makes or breaks people, and either way leaves them with a new sense of identity. The author identifies several distinct transitional pains for which she prescribes an equal number of palliatives. Her analyses and prescriptions can be thought provoking, though they are seldom trail blazing. While the book may be more smoke than fire, getAbstract.com finds that smoke signals can be useful for the long-range vistas in the Badlands. (And, by the way, the author includes a chapter on China that seems almost as parenthetical as this sentence, though interesting enough. In reality, China looks like the pivot point of Badlands transitions, and how it comes through may affect how your neighborhood comes through, as well.)

Summary

Change and its Discontents

Society has entered "the Badlands," a tortuous period of economic, social and technological transformation. By the time this conversion is complete, humanity will have an entirely new identity and will live in a completely new world. Four themes define this transition:

  1. Globalization - It is indispensably necessary to think globally. The forces at work remaking the world are changing not only the business world, but the whole world. They are changing not just one country or region, but all countries and regions. These influences include an older, more highly educated populace, the extension of transnational corporations and the need for workers to retrain and rebuild themselves for new kinds of work. The relationships between organizations and their stakeholders are changing. Social bargains, such as loyalty in return for employment security, are out the window. The role of women is changing, and this means the meaning of marriage and family are shifting. Thinking globally means considering all of these factors, and more.
  2. The leadership ordeal - The Badlands provide an opportunity for leaders to test themselves. Crossing the Badlands...

About the Author

Mary O'Hara-Devereaux is the CEO of Global Foresight and has been a senior faculty member at the University of California, the University of Hawaii, Peking University and the Institute for the Future. She is co-author of Globalwork.

Comment on this summary