A NEW BOOK BY JIM SCULLY
SHAPERS
The future is too precious to leave to chance.
The future is being shaped right now. The question is whether we're actively shaping it or leaving it to others.
Shapers explores the choices, mindsets and practical moves that help us create better futures for ourselves, our organisations and our communities.
Coming Christmas 2026.
Why Shapers?
Every day, we make decisions that shape the future of our people, organisations and communities.
Yet much of what shapes our future happens without us stopping to question it. We get caught up in today's demands, familiar ways of thinking and the pressure to keep things moving.
Over more than 30 years working alongside leaders and changemakers, I've seen just how much becomes possible when people recognise they have more influence over the future than they realise.
That's why I wrote Shapers.
It's an invitation to think differently about the future, and to take a more active role in creating it.
Give hope a future
The future you shape is never only yours
Stay awake to possibility
Defence is a reflex. Shaping is a choice
Be the most curious person in the room
Create a mess, create sense and make meaning
Claim your agency. Don't surrender it
Design for the moments that matter most
Team up. The biggest futures are never shaped alone.
Collect experiences, not applause
Wisdom is everywhere, in everyone, in everything
Dream big. It rarely costs more than thinking small
Give hope a future The future you shape is never only yours Stay awake to possibility Defence is a reflex. Shaping is a choice Be the most curious person in the room Create a mess, create sense and make meaning Claim your agency. Don't surrender it Design for the moments that matter most Team up. The biggest futures are never shaped alone. Collect experiences, not applause Wisdom is everywhere, in everyone, in everything Dream big. It rarely costs more than thinking small
Four Stances
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Shapers
Designs the future and brings everyone else with them.
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Hoarders
Sees the future clearly, and keeps it for themselves.
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Enhancers
Makes what already exists genuinely better, and does it well.
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Maintainers
Protects what matters, until protection becomes habit rather than purpose.
Six Shaper Mindsets
Shapers see the world through six interconnected mindsets: Agency, Possibility, Futures, Systems Seeing, Collective and Wake-crafting.
Each opens up new ways of seeing and acting. Together, they help us recognise possibilities, understand the systems around us, bring others into the work and create something that lasts beyond our own involvement.
Praise for Shapers
“Great leaders understand that success is measured not only by what they achieve today, but also by what they make possible for generations to come. Shapers challenges business leaders to look beyond the pressures of the moment, recognize the potential within their reach, and take an active role in shaping a better future.
In an increasingly uncertain and complex world, Jim Scully offers a truly inspiring guide for leaders who want their decisions to reach beyond the present—to create lasting value, strengthen the communities they serve, and make a meaningful difference for decades to come.”
Professor Flemming Besenbacher, Founder and Chairperson of UNLEASH, Former Chairman of Carlsberg Group and Carlsberg Foundation.“After decades working with changemakers around the world, Jim’s thinking gets to something fundamental about high performance: the people who make a difference are the ones who take ownership of what happens next. A wonderful storyteller with a gift for creative insight, Jim brings these ideas to life in ways that are both thought-provoking and inspiring.”
John Fowlie, former Australian Institute of Sport coach, whose swimmers won nine Olympic medals, including four gold, and high performance coach.“In this timely book, veteran innovation strategist Jim Scully makes a compelling case that one of the most consequential choices leaders face is the stance from which they approach the future. At a pivotal moment in human history, he argues that the world needs leaders who do more than respond to change—it needs leaders who actively shape the future. And he shows how every leader can unlock the capacity to become one."
Banny Banerjee, Founder, Global ChangeLabs and Adjunct Professor, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, Stanford University.PUTTING SHAPERS INTO PRACTICE
Put the ideas into action
Shapers in Action
I'm developing a new learning experience for established senior leaders who want to strengthen their ability to shape what comes next.
Built around the ideas in Shapers, it brings together experienced leaders from different organisations to explore fresh perspectives, learn practical approaches and work on real challenges they are facing.
Get in touch if you'd like to hear about the first cohort..
Interested in finding out more?