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