ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book has taken more than twenty-five years to form. It has been a joy, an honor, and an adventure to write. My gratitude for the people, perspectives, and cultures that helped shape it stretches far beyond these pages. I’ll do my best to share as much as I can here—it’s a lot of Flux to remember!

This book would have never seen the light of day if it weren’t for my parents, Roland Eugene Rinne and Penny Jo (Loffler) Rinne. In life and after life, they have been signals and guideposts for flux. What really matters? What would Dad say? I miss you, and I’m delighted that Flux can help keep your spirits alive.

I’ll never be able to thank enough the people who saw me through the darkest depths of my parents’ deaths. Above all, my sister, Allison (Rinne) Douglas, helped me see what is, and is not, and to this day is an unwavering inspiration. Mom’s identical twin sister Paula Yingst, younger sister Donna Flinders, and the entire extended Loffler family surrounded me with love from the moment I got the phone call until this very day. Nieces Ella and Amelia keep flux and future generations front of mind. Roger and Barbara Rinne and Stefan, Roger, and Carolyn Douglas, thank you as well.

My extended families of choice brought love in the most beautiful ways I could ever have imagined. The Raggi-Moores—Judy, Danny, Jessica, Francesca (Nonna), and Frances (Meema)—added a whole new, full layer of family, love, and belonging. My heart has had a safe place to land ever since. Linda Nelson, Steve and Terry Casey, and the No More Cru showed me that love and joy can show up anywhere. Baine and Sally Kerr taught me what it means to empower others and gave me an early glimpse of listening to my inner voice. Mom and Dad’s closest friends kept tabs on me and my parents’ memories alive.

My dad was a teacher and my best friend. I was fortunate to have several teachers early on who saw my potential (even when I struggled to see it myself) and to whom I looked up (even when life looked down). From elementary school to law school, and both inside and outside the classroom: Karen Crosson, Patty Weed, Thomas Lancaster, Priscilla Echols, Jody Usher, Ngaire Woods, Elizabeth Warren, Jonathan Zittrain, Jon Hanson, and Laurent Jacques powered my curiosity, encouraged me to see what was beyond the test or title of the class, and in their own ways helped me lay a foundation for my new script to emerge.

I now understand why authors talk about “birthing” a book: ideas gestate, writing is both labor and great joy, and the end result is an act of love that changes you forever. I can’t imagine having better delivery partners than the Berrett-Koehler team. BK represents how publishing should be done. Steve Piersanti is an author’s dream editor. He spent (by my guesstimate) hundreds of hours helping make this manuscript stronger, and each round of revisions opened my eyes further to the book’s potential. Jeevan Sivasubramaniam, Katie Sheehan, Kristin Frantz, Valerie Caldwell: the BK dream team! Thank you all. Mark Fortier and Jessica Pellien, thank you for helping introduce Flux to the world with extraordinary kindness, wit, and savvy. Elan Morgan, Debbie Berne, and Joaquín González Dorao, thank you for your creativity and ability to visualize my fluxy ideas to be shared with the world. Ariane Conrad, Ed Frauenheim, John Kador, Stewart Levine, Tim Brandhorst, Carla Banc, the TEDxFrankfurt team, and the BK Authors community: thank you for being catalysts for this journey as well.

Mental health has played a subtle and not-so-subtle role within these pages, both personally and in my sensing a broader societal reckoning with flux. Ross Cohen, Bryna Livingston, and Marlys Kvsager: thank you from the bottom of my heart. Wholehearted thanks also to the YoYoYogi community for opening the door to bridge yoga philosophy with today’s world in flux. Alex, Terri and Kristi Cole, Tori Griesing, Isabel Allen, Galen Fairbanks, and Rachel Meyer: you all rock.

I’ve always sought to have colleagues who are also friends: people who care about one another beyond the task at hand and celebrate one another’s life journeys as they unfold. My colleagues at the Harry Walker Agency personify this affection. Don and Ellen Walker, Amy Werner, Meghan Sheehan, Lily Winter, Tiffany Vizcarra, McKinsey Lowrance, Nicki Fleischner, Elizabeth Hernandez, Carolyn Boylan, Molly Cotter, Emily Trievel, Beth Gargano, Suzanne Manzi, John Ksar, Ruben Porras-Sanchez, Gus Menezes, Mirjana Novkovic, Dana Quinn, Miranda Martin: thank you all (and anyone I may have missed as this went to print)!

My portfolio career has allowed me to create a more diverse professional community than would have otherwise been the case. These colleagues have given me a seat at the fifty-yard line of flux in more sectors and organizations than I ever could have pulled off on my own and have consistently helped stretch my brain, challenge my own assumptions, and walk the talk. Over the years many of my colleagues at Airbnb, Allen & Overy, AnyRoad, Butterfield & Robinson, Institute for the Future, Jobbatical, nexxworks, Sharing Cities Alliance, Trōv, Unsettled, and Water.org have become dear friends as well. Change? Bring it on!

No single community has had a more significant effect on my personal-professional journey through flux than the Young Global Leaders at the World Economic Forum. YGLs are a never-ending source of inspiration, as well as a petri dish for what does (and doesn’t) matter. I’m certain I’ll miss a few who should be mentioned, but here’s my best-effort list of YGLs who helped bring this book to life, directly or indirectly: Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir, Geraldine and James Chin-Moody, Lisa Witter, Niko Canner, Raju Narisetti, Amy Cuddy, Elaine Smith, Brett House, Valerie Keller, Nilmini Rubin, Binta Brown, Aaron Maniam, Nili Gilbert, Robyn Scott, Kristen Rechberger, Enric Sala, Dave Hanley, Geoff Davis, Julia Novy-Hildesley, Ailish Campbell, Peter Lacy, David Rosenberg, Cori Lathan, Adam Werbach, Adam Grant, Drue Kataoka, Lucian Tarnowski, Hannah Jones, Ian Solomon, John McArthur, Werner Wutscher, Eduardo Cruz … you are all bright lights for flux. And the YGL team of yesterday and today: John Dutton, Mariah Levin, David Aikman, Eric Roland, Kelsey Goodman, Merit Berhe, Shareena Hatta … thanks for wrangling us all together.

There are so many people who provided ideas, feedback, perspective, and inspiration—occasionally without even knowing it—and helped bring this book to fruition. Marti Spiegelman, Kevin Cavenaugh, Heather McGowan, Mara Zepeda, Vanessa Timmer, Juliet Schor, Gary and Heidi Bolles, Julie Vens de Vos, Peter Hinssen, George Butterfield, David Kessler, David Nebinski, Allegra Calder, Mike Macharg, Estee Solomon Gray, Astrid Scholz, Manisha Thakor, Jonathan Kalan, Michael Youngblood, Karoli Hindriks, Jerry’s Retreaters, and the Relationship Economy eXpedition (REX) and Open Global Mind (OGM) groups have provided insights and inspiration over many years, as well as during the writing process. Joy Batra, Saskia Akyil, Anne Janzer, Chris Shipley, Laura Fronckiewicz, Ann Lemaire, Clark Quinn, Rollie Cole, and Stephi Galloway provided invaluable feedback on my draft manuscript. Dear friends Marta Zoppetti, Daniela Gangale, Jay Turner, Sharon Jones, Jenny Ellickson, Jane Stoever, Anna Tabor, Jen Harrison, Trisha Anderson, Lea Johnston, Gaurav Misra, Noah Messing, Stirling Spencer, and the wonderful members of University College’s Middle Common Room (MCR) in 1993–94 have cheered me on since before I knew this book would see the light of day. Sigh: this is when I start genuinely fretting about leaving someone out.

I launched the Flux Mindset eXplorers Club (FMXC) as a collaborative quest to navigate change. FMXC continues to be a never-ending source of joy, diversity, showing up, and learning and sharing together. Huge thanks to each and every member. (If you’d like to join, please head to fluxmindset.com and sign up!)

Last, yet in so many ways first, thanks to Jerry Michalski in more ways than I can count. Thank you for believing in me, for your unwavering support and love, for understanding my quirks (often better than I do), for your big ideas and extraordinary ability to help me distill mine, and for being such a stellar partner in life, love, travel, and, of course, flux.