Is there a secret to thriving in this period of accelerating change and digital disruption? We think the answer lies in a new competency - the ability to anticipate the future and related skills to adapt and lead in this rapidly changing world.

This week we were on the Digital CPA webcast with Erik Asgeirsson CEO of CPA.COM, global futurist Daniel Burrus, and Joey Havens, Horne, LLP Executive Partner,  talking about how 'anticipation' and being proactive can be learned and applied across an entire organization.

Our research at BLI and surveys of thousands of CPAs, accounting and finance professionals shows the top five skills most in demand are:

1. Strategic and critical thinking;
2. Communication;
3. Anticipating and serving evolving needs;
4. Inspiring and motivating others;
5. Collaboration and mobilizing consensus

Anticipating is at the core of these skills and the key to being 'future ready', the ability to be aware, predictive and adaptive to emerging trends, technology changes, and demographic shifts. Now there is a clear process to teach these highly abstract leadership competencies and make them attainable and trainable.

Joey Havens, told the story of why he chose to make the Anticipatory Organization: Accounting and Finance Edition (AOAF) the foundation for all 400+ team members of Horne. Horne was the first CPA firm to use the AOAF across their firm. Since then several more firms and organizations have adopted this learning system as a core way to give these critical skills across their entire organizations.

Joey Havens talked about the impact to his firm, "The Anticipatory Organization Learning System helps establish a mindset, a common language and eventually a culture of being anticipatory for our clients. By making this anticipatory skillset a core strength of our teams, it brings creative and new ideas that make us more valuable to our clients and it creates a game changer for our firm."

DeLeon and Stang is an example of another firm that has put their entire team through the learning system and used this learning system to transform their practice. Al DeLeon sat down with Daniel Burrus to talk about how they are applying the learning to their firm and clients in this post, Anticipation in action.

Here is the presentation from Erik, Dan, Joey and I:

[embed]http://www.slideshare.net/thoodcpa/will-your-firm-thrive-or-just-survive-anticipation-the-critical-competency-for-todays-firm[/embed]

CPAs have been asking for these skills for the past five years, now there is a way to provide them the future ready skills needed to thrive in this rapidly changing world.

The Anticipatory Organization: Accounting and Finance Edition is an on-demand, mobile learning system that features bite-sized chunks of learning (imagine a series of 3-4 minute single-concepts Ted Talks), with rapid application templates to apply the learning immediately to the job, and visual job aids for reference. The online curriculum lets you learn at your own pace in as little as an hour a week. It is designed to provide deeper learning and retention in less time than traditional learning and CPE formats. You can see a brief overview in this two minute video and download the product overview here.

Don't miss Daniel Burrus live at the DigitalCPA Conference on December 5-7, 2016 in Las Vegas and a panel of firms (Horne, K-Coe Isom and Deleon and Stang) using this learning system to transform their firms into proactive business advisors.

More posts about this exciting new learning system:

Anticipatory is a big word - Joey Havens, CPA

Learning the skill of Anticipation is game changing and required - Kathy Watts, CPA

Our journey to become an anticipatory rrganization - Tom Hood, CPA