SRQ Daily Columnist Teri A Hansen is president and CEO of Gulf Coast Community Foundation.

Tech entrepreneur turned philanthropist Peter Diamandis opens his new book, BOLD, with an extended metaphor for survival in what he calls “the age of exponentials.” Like the lumbering dinosaurs displaced by more adaptable and agile “small, furry animals” after the Cretaceous Period’s big asteroid bang, today's plodding, linear-minded businesses and organizations are being superseded by nimbler, exponentially oriented upstarts. And accelerating technology is the asteroid.

To illustrate, Diamandis examines how an iconic, 120-year-old company like Kodak could go into bankruptcy at the same time that 13-employee, 18-month-old Instagram sold for $1 billion. He describes—much more insightfully than this—Kodak’s failure to recognize how the exponential growth (i.e., doubling on a regular basis) of digital photo power would disrupt its business.

Kodak, it seems, lost sight of its business model: not making film or even cameras, but making memories convenient to record. Instagram, meanwhile, rode the exponential acceleration of camera-enabled smartphones and leveraged the crowd to make recording and sharing memories instant, easy and ubiquitous.

When it comes to organizational and community leadership, understanding these characteristics of exponential change, which Diamandis makes so accessible, is crucial. Besides technologies, tools like crowdsourcing, crowdfunding and incentive competitions give today’s “exponential entrepreneurs” and leaders unprecedented advantages. As Diamandis states simply: “[F]or the first time ever, a passionate and committed individual has access to the technology, minds, and capital required to take on any challenge.” If that assertion excites you, I highly recommend BOLD, whose aspirational subtitle is “How to Go Big, Create Wealth, and Impact the World.”

But community leadership requires other skills as well. To be leaders, visionaries can’t just stay ahead of the curve; they must get others to follow. So let me recommend another learning opportunity: the Gulf Coast Leadership Institute. (Full disclosure: Gulf Coast Community Foundation created and funds the program.) This 10-week leadership-development class taps aspiring and experienced leaders across the region, from Manatee County down to Boca Grande, and brings them together to enhance their individual knowledge and skills while connecting them as a network. From there, it’s up to the leaders to take action.

The Leadership Institute’s application process is selective, as Gulf Coast aims to assemble a group that reflects the diversity of our region’s communities and our public, private, and independent sectors. (Think young professionals to mature volunteers and anyone in between.) The curriculum covers effective communication, group decision-making, leading community change, and more—all capabilities that, when infused with a “bold” appreciation for exponential growth, grand-scale thinking, and crowd-powered tools, can equip you to go big, create good, and impact the world, starting right here on the Gulf Coast.

You can learn more and apply for Gulf Coast Leadership Institute at GulfCoastCF.org. 

SRQ Daily Columnist Teri A Hansen is president and CEO of Gulf Coast Community Foundation.