AFTERSHOCK TO 2030
A CEO's Guide to Reinvention in the Age of AI, Climate, and Societal Collapse
CAROLINE STOKES
Foreword by Darrell M. West
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How does a CEO transform their business when the last playbook died before the pandemic?
Welcome to the AfterShock era.
In a world of polycrisis—where climate collapse, AI acceleration, societal fragmentation, and economic instability collide—business leaders can no longer maintain the status quo. From now until 2030, CEOs will be expected to lead the reinvention in this volatile new reality.
Caroline Stokes, author of Elephants Before Unicorns and founder of Workplace EQ, delivers a bold new guide for CEOs, founders, and aspiring changemakers who refuse to wait for the future to overtake them. Blending neuroscience, emotional intelligence, and systems thinking with urgent global trends, AfterShock to 2030 explores:
How to kickstart your company’s transformation in 100 days
How to develop adaptive intelligence to avoid obsolescence and thrive
Why trauma-informed leadership is essential for sustainable innovation
How to integrate emotionally intelligent AI into rapid decision-making across your organization
What “Catalyst-Citizen” leadership means in a post-growth economy
How to rethink resilience, reinvention, and responsibility in real time
If you’ve ever sensed something is broken in your organization—and in our world—this book offers the language, mindset, and strategic scaffolding to imagine and build what comes next. Fast.
Product Details
Publisher: Broad Book Press
Release Date: July 2025
Available in Digital Edition
ISBN: 9781963549263 (eb)
Page Count: 220
About the Author
Caroline Stokes is the author of AfterShock to 2030, a radical roadmap for leaders navigating climate collapse, AI acceleration, and economic and societal turmoil. Her groundbreaking coaching model guides CEOs and culture-first leaders to successfully recalibrate their approach toward the mega-changes defining our new era.
A former Sony executive who helped launch PlayStation, and a PCC-level, EQ 2.0–certified coach, Caroline evolved from executive headhunter to a global authority on trauma-aware, AI-integrated leadership transformation. She works with founders, boards, and leadership teams to design intelligent, sovereign, and trust-based systems that meet the complexity of our time.
A pioneer of emotionally intelligent coaching, Caroline is the author of Elephants Before Unicorns: Emotionally Intelligent HR Strategies to Save Your Company (Entrepreneur Press, 2019). She is also co-author of a chapter in the HBR Guide to Navigating the Toxic Workplace (Harvard Business Review Press, 2024), and contributor to Coach Me! Your Personal Board of Directors (Wiley, 2022).
Caroline has spoken globally—from the World Bank in Washington, D.C., to IEEE-USA in Alaska, to innovation summits in London, Singapore, and Los Angeles. Her insights have been featured in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Chief Executive Magazine, Success, Bulletproof Radio, and The Globe and Mail.
Her 2025 book marks a definitive break from obsolete leadership theatre, preparing a new kind of leader for the age of collapse and convergence.
Caroline lives in Vancouver, Canada, and works globally as a strategic facilitator and leadership guide.