Wow! eBook
Navigating the Age of Chaos: A Sense-Making Guide to a BANI World That Doesnt Make Sense
Author(s): Jamais Cascio (Author), Bob Johansen (Author), Angela F. Williams (Author)
- Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
- Publication Date: October 28, 2025
- Language: English
- Print length: 256 pages
- ISBN-10: B0DVBG9FYR
- ISBN-13: 9798890571212
Book Description
The BANI framework, developed by futurist Jamais Cascio and expanded here with leadership expert Bob Johansen and United Way Worldwide CEO Angela F. Williams, gives leaders a shared language for conditions that traditional strategic tools were never designed to handle. Where VUCA described volatility and uncertainty, BANI goes further, naming the deeper texture of today’s disruption.
The book moves in two directions, first diagnosing each BANI condition with real-world examples, then offering a counterpart for each one:
- Brittle systems → build Bendable resilience
- Anxious environments → lead with Attentive empathy
- Nonlinear causality → develop Neuroflexible, improvisational thinking
- Incomprehensible complexity → respond with Interconnected, full-spectrum perspectives
Designed for executives, nonprofit leaders, policymakers, and teams navigating sustained disruption, the book closes with 7 leadership strategies grounded in future scenarios and includes a discussion guide for group use.
If your organization is operating in conditions that no longer respond to standard playbooks, this is a structured starting point.
Editorial Reviews
Review
—Kerry Kennedy, President, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
“In this insightful book, the authors provide us with not just a framework for understanding but also a roadmap to negotiate this disrupted world characterized by constant change, complexity, and uncertainty.”
“The BANI future will be incomprehensible, but we still must act, and this brilliant, provocative, and compelling book will help us prepare for and thrive in the looming, chaotic future.”
“We live in a moment of huge conflicting forces creating a highly uncertain future. Creating clarity out of chaos is the ambitious goal set by this insightful and practical guide to the turbulent future immediately at hand.”
“Thriving in the BANI future will require us all to hone personal coping skills, and this book provides a vital jumpstart.”
“The authors present an essential perspective on how to tackle complex challenges using pragmatic and practical insights—an indispensable work for thriving in today’s chaotic world.”
“This seminal work is a textbook outlining the challenges that await us in the age of chaos, and a workbook offering coping skills for survival.”
“A crucial guide offering an essential framework for leaders and innovators seeking a guide for action in times of rapid change.”
