The future is BANI—Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, and Incomprehensible—but it doesn't have to be. IFTF Distinguished Fellows Bob Johansen and Jamais Cascio, along with United Way Worldwide CEO Angela Williams, have co-authored this critical book to make sense of our chaotic world.
Available now for pre-orders, until Oct 28.
Even more so than before, the future is uncertain—and yet we must act. But if we can’t have certainty, we can have clarity.
Navigating the Age of Chaos introduces a new way of thinking about our future and how we can best engage with accelerating upheaval. It offers a lens through which we can identify the various ways in which our present and future chaos will manifest, allowing us to recognize and focus on possible paths forward through that chaos.
This book opens our eyes and helps us understand new phenomena and pivotal changes in the world, see their impact and trajectory, and learn what actions we need to take now. Chaotic disruption is well on its way to becoming the new normal. We need better language to make sense out of a world that is changing in ways that the old terminology can no longer capture. The BANI framework—Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, Incomprehensible—is that new language. It helps us describe what’s going on and explore better alternatives.
BANI describes a reality where expected patterns fail, and the illusions we have built about what we can do and how we live have been swept away.
The lead author of this book, Jamais Cascio, is a scenario-planning futurist and the original creator of the BANI concept. In this book, he and his coauthors will explain and expand upon the idea, bringing both greater clarity to the framework and a better understanding of how today’s leaders can use it to illuminate events and guide strategy.
Jamais and coauthor Bob Johansen, Distinguished Fellow at Institute for the Future and a leadership futurist, worked together to create a “positive BANI,” or BANI+, a way to take the BANI logic and show the kinds of responses and approaches that create the best path forward in a chaotic, BANI world. Jamais, Bob, and coauthor Angela F. Williams, visionary on-the-ground nonprofit leader and CEO of United Way Worldwide, dig into real-world examples of BANI environments and how we can respond.
In the first part of Navigating the Age of Chaos, we illuminate the immensity of the challenges we face now and will face in the future, emphasizing that the difficulties they present come not just from their individual attributes, but from the combination and intermixing of these disruptive forces. A brittle system presents a dilemma not just because it’s brittle, for example, but because it’s brittle amid a larger environment of the anxieties the endangered system triggers, the nonlinearity it displays, and the utter incomprehensibility of the situation. In other words, it’s not just that the world is Brittle; the world is BANI.
Brittle is perilous, is endemic, and will not fail gracefully. It matters because we experience its consequences; it can do real damage to real people.
Anxious is the engine of BANI, the measure of the chaos we experience. It’s the inescapable feeling of being crushed by the visible consequences of choices.
Nonlinear is the imbalance between cause and effect. We see it in the environment, our economies, and especially in the hoarding of power.
Incomprehensible is confusing, even ridiculous. It’s absurd and unthinkable. It’s the language of a world that has simply stopped making sense.
In the second part of the book, we flip the story to show the kinds of strategies, beliefs, and perspectives that let us respond to, even push back against, the stresses of a BANI world. BANI+ describes a way to disrupt the disruption of BANI. We cite examples of both individuals and organizations successfully facing BANI-like conditions. BANI+ isn’t just a collection of strategies; it’s a paradigm shift. When you adopt a BANI+ approach, you alter your understanding of how the world works.
Bendable is adaptive and resilient. Bendable recognizes the scale of the challenges we face, but it asks us not to resist until we break but to evolve past the crisis.
Attentive is empathetic and aware. It’s the recognition that others are experiencing the enormity of a BANI world, too, and seeks outcomes that can be shared.
Neuroflexible is improvisational and experimental. It shows us that established behaviors and scripted responses can worsen a crisis in a BANI world.
Interconnected is inclusive of a multiplicity of perspectives. When we seek out different sources of knowledge and ideas, we can see crises in new ways.
Creating a positive BANI requires us to reexamine our assumptions, overcome embedded or habitual behaviors and ideas, be aware of our environments, and be nimble in our strategies.
The third part of the book covers two different ways in which the BANI/BANI+ lens can focus how we work and live. The first chapter looks at scenarios, asking us to imagine in detail the different ways in which a BANI environment and BANI+ choices can create new worlds. The second chapter looks at leadership, guiding us through the complexities of informing, inspiring, and navigating through a BANI Future that poses unprecedented challenges.
The use of scenario world-building turns the idea of an uncertain future into a usable process. We can investigate and imagine the possible consequences of our choices today, looking for the surprises and nuances that might emerge as our world evolves.
The skills needed for leadership in a BANI Future let us draw a map of intent, the realization of action amid chaos. Our goals as leaders of organizations, communities, even nations must be to build clarity and to set aside any notions of certainty.
Navigating the Age of Chaos illuminates where we are, indicates where we are going, and demonstrates the tools that will enable us to thrive. The direction the world takes is in our hands. It’s only by seeing the reality of what lies before us that we can make informed, wise choices about where we go from here.
This book will be released on October 28, 2025.