Page 22 - Harvard Business Review, November-December 2018

is the only way to outlast existential crises, adapt, and thrive into the future. Much as some

parents focus on raising an inquisitive child rather than an obedient one, Sinek urges that leaders

think less about endgames and more about new opportunities. Strive to build a customer
relationship rather than close a sale; be attentive to the growth of individuals rather than

quarterly earnings.

In On the Future: Prospects for Humanity, Martin Rees doesn’t tell us how we should think about

the future; instead he lays out his own predictions. A celebrated cosmologist and astrophysicist,

Rees has written many books on popular science. This one examines trends in biotech, AI, the

global climate, and spaceflight. In prognosticating about AI, Rees notes that machines will enable
us to make better predictions about everything from which stocks will soar to which diseases will

do us in. Of course, they also reveal the overwhelming complexity of our world, as technologist

David Weinberger warns in a recent Wired article, forcing us to confront the fact that uncertainty

isn’t going away anytime soon. (Disclosure: I’m editing Weinberger’s forthcoming book from HBR

Press.)

A common thread across these volumes is the importance, and difficulty, of combating climate
change. Rees laments the ongoing destruction of our planet, sorting out what we can predict—

say, how much our CO emissions will warm the planet—from what we can’t—how the associated
2
changes in clouds and water vapor will influence further climate change. Comstock’s story of

bringing the Ecomagination strategy to life at GE exemplifies the challenges of getting a big

organization to tackle global ecological problems. Sinek sees federal legislation to reduce
emissions as an act of an infinite mindset. And Johnson opens his book with a critique of the

shortsighted decision to fill in Manhattan’s only source of fresh water in the early 19th century.

Johnson maintains that we’re much more deliberate in our predictions and decisions today, but

I’m not so sure. Leaders seem unable to agree on what to do in the face of a warming planet.

These books point to the need for a stronger response to looming challenges like climate change.
We must push ourselves to imagine the fast-approaching future, counteract short-termism and

other biases clouding our perspective, look for opportunities to innovate, and recognize that,

although it may seem impossible to chart a course in an unpredictable world, inaction itself is

also a decision.

A version of this article appeared in the November–December 2018 issue (p.148–149) of Harvard Business Review.