Work Futurist Gary Bolles on the Transformation Mindset

Hear Bolles’s thoughts on why directors need to evolve their mindset to ensure transformation succeeds.

What will the boardroom look like in a decade? NACD’s Board Leadership Futurist Program brings NACD executives into conversation with leading futurists, historians, and business thinkers to examine the forces that will shape governance in the years ahead. 

As companies undergo transformation, new technology and related performance metrics get the most attention. Yet Gary Bolles believes it is stakeholders’ mindset—starting with directors’ own—that determines whether transformation succeeds or fails.

Bolles is a future-of-work strategist at Singularity University, a global think tank focused on exponential technologies and their impact on society. He is a member of the board of advisors of TR2050, an initiative dedicated to innovating and testing new approaches to total rewards. Bolles is the author of The Next Rules of Work: The Mindset, Skillset and Toolset to Lead Your Organization through Uncertainty.

In this interview, Bolles and NACD senior vice president of content Mohamed Younis explore the board’s role in helping businesses navigate uncertainty and management synchronize what employees want with what a company needs. They also discuss how foresight practices help directors spot workforce-related threats and opportunities.