The Upside of Disruption

Discover why not taking a risk is the biggest risk of all

In The Upside of Disruption: The Path To Leading and Thriving in the Unknown, renowned disruption thinker and best-selling author Terence Mauri delivers a compelling set of mindset shifts for today's unique leadership challenges. In the book, you'll find the future-ready insights and tools you need to lead for today and prepare your organization for tomorrow.

The author explains why so many of us continually overestimate the risks of bold decisions while underestimating the downsides of standing still for too long in an increasingly complex and volatile world. You'll learn about the upside of disruption and how to turn it into a tailwind for laser-like focus and strategic courage. You'll also find:

• Discussions of why good leaders learn but great leaders unlearn
• The key to unlocking cultures of courage over conformity
• Actionable strategies to sharpen the future readiness muscle and find the upside in disruption

A singularly engaging new take on leading the future that uniquely favors the bold, The Upside of Disruption will earn a place in the libraries of managers, executives, board members, entrepreneurs, and founders looking for a new and resilient path forward.

Chapter 1 A Wake- up Call from the Future 1

Leadership on the Ballot 5

Future- ready Mindsets 7

Questions Are the Answer 14

Don’t Mention the ‘D’ Word 16

Disruption Is the Norm; the Upside Is a Choice 17

The Upside Is the Answer 18

The Nutritional Value of Leadership 21

Chapter 2 Data: Lead with AI 31

Leadership Disrupted 35

Making the Impossible Possible 36

Amazonification Principles 38

The Most Significant Risk Is Not AI 39

Underhyped Versus Overhyped 40

A Brief History of AI 42

The AI-Intelligence Illusion 47

Attention Is the New Oil 50

Matching AI with Leadership and Humanity 54

The Anything Workforce 55

Be a Future-maker 60

Takeaways 61

Chapter 3 Agility: Great Leaders Unlearn 65

Learning for Today While Unlearning for Tomorrow 68

Mind the Agility Gap 71

Slow, Siloed, and Complicated 74

Measure My Bureaucratic BS (Score Yourself on a Scale of 1–5) 5 = “Strongly Agree” 75

Failure to Reimagine Failure 79

A Brief History of Failure 81

From Action, I Learn (FAIL) 84

A Story of Unlearning a Toxic Culture 87

Unlearning Is the Answer 92

Unlearning Equals Agility and Humility 95

Takeaways 96

Chapter 4 Risk: The Courage Advantage 101

The Courage Dividend 108

Courage Calling 108

Willful Contrarianism 115

The Mindset Advantage 120

The Beyonders 122

Wanted – Leaders of Courage 127

Takeaways 127

Chapter 5 Evolution: In Trust, We Grow 133

Truth Decay in Organizations 136

Trust on the Ballot 136

Trust in Humans 137

Trust Decay 139

The Trust Mindset 142

Believing 146

Belonging 146

Braving 147

Becoming 148

Who We Are Is What We Do 148

The Future of Trust 157

Trust Is The Ultimate Human Currency 164

Takeaways 165

Chapter 6 Beyond Is Where We Begin 169

First, When Disruption Is the Norm, Rethinking Is the Answer 171

Second, Technology Changes Fast. Humans Don’t 173

Third, In the Human-Technology Nexus, Courage Skills Are the New Leadership 175

Beware of the Rubber Band Effect 177

The Dogs That Don’t Bark 179

Frontier Leadership 180

Chapter 7 The Dare Leadership Test 187

Data 189

Agility 190

Risk 190

Evolution 190

Notes 191

Acknowledgments 209

About the Author 211

Index 213

TERENCE MAURI is the founder of the management think tank Hack Future Lab and a world-leading expert on leadership, AI, and disruption. He has been described as an ‘influential and outspoken thinker on the future of leadership’ by Thinkers50, the global ranking authority of top management thinkers. He is an adjunct professor at IE Business School and a mentor at MIT.

Artificial Intelligence, talent scarcity, a loneliness epidemic—it’s time to rethink leadership for a post-AI world. Research shows that two-thirds of business leaders expect significant disruption to their business models over the next five years. Still, only one-third say they have the right mindsets, cultures, and capabilities to turn volatility into a tailwind for laser-like focus, strategic courage, and long-term value creation. In The Upside of Disruption: The Path to Leading and Thriving in the Unknown, world-renowned disruption thinker Terence Mauri offers a breakthrough framework for shifting from a ‘wait and see’ to a ‘challenge and explore’ mindset.

Disruption is the norm, and bold leadership is the answer. Historically, leaders were preservers of the status quo, but that model is broken, and too many of us are over-managed and under-led. Now, leaders must evolve into challengers of the status quo because the future isn’t just about technology or trends. It’s about mindsets and choices, too. This book guides readers on the journey of building a future-ready mindset of courage over conformity, prioritizing learning, growth, and reimagination— the values we need to thrive in the unknown.

When we crave the comfort of certainty we too often miss the upside of disruption. With the right mindset, it’s possible to see the best is yet to come and that the future favors the brave. How can we take advantage of this opportunity to forge ahead? The Upside of Disruption describes the actionable, research-led principles leaders can harness to reenergize their organizations: unlearning the old ways, eliminating useless work, inspiring collective trust through courage and vulnerability, and beyond. This framework will help leaders in organizations of all sizes, in all industries, to create lightning speed value and agility in the face of extreme adversity. A must-read for the leaders of today and tomorrow.

NOT TAKING A RISK IS A RISK

New customers. New competition. New technologies. Exponential challenges can’t be solved with linear thinking. As AI-led disruption accelerates and leadership models decay faster, leaders are tested in terms of future readiness and organizational agility: they must stop and ask—“How do I seize the future boldly?”

In The Upside of Disruption, author Terence Mauri, a global thought leader on disruption, shares groundbreaking insights to become a resilient and daring leader who can push through the unknown and define a bolder, growth-led, and purpose-driven future. Mauri explains how to:

• Embrace a culture of deliberate unlearning as a way to stay ahead of disruption
• Lead with courage over conformity, inspiring others to challenge their limits
• Eliminate bureaucratic nonsense, so you shift focus to intelligent work

The Upside of Disruption will equip you with the mindsets and choices to sharpen your future-readiness muscle so you can lead for today and transform for tomorrow.