Chief Impact Officer
There's nothing artificial about the intelligence required to drive change
Chief Impact Officer is a leadership memoir that redefines what transformation actually requires. Through two decades of technology leadership at Nordstrom, REI, and lululemon, Julie Averill shows that the companies winning in the AI era aren't deploying the most technology - they're developing the human capabilities that determine whether technology creates value.
Her journey from a leader who hid behind masks of competence to one who built globally inclusive teams offers a compelling counter-narrative to the "move fast and break things" mentality. The book weaves together personal stories - from her dad teaching systems thinking behind home plate, to adopting her son Ermias from Ethiopia, to coming out publicly at a leadership summit - with hard-won lessons about building culture that scales across continents and survives crisis.
Coming May 2026 from Microsoft 8080 Books
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Honest About Triumph and Failure
What makes this book distinctive is its unflinching honesty about both triumph and failure. Averill doesn't just celebrate the wins (scaling lululemon from $2B to $10B, building an India Tech Hub with nearly 50% women engineers, winning NASSCOM's AI Game Changer Award). She also names the mistakes: deferring foundational data work that later became a bottleneck, opening remote hiring without redesigning culture for it, and the uncomfortable tension of return-to-office decisions. This willingness to show the mess alongside the method makes the lessons actually usable.
The book's framework - that authenticity, psychological safety, and truth-telling aren't soft skills but competitive infrastructure - arrives at exactly the moment leaders need it most.
AI is exposing a fundamental truth: you can't automate your way past weak foundations, and technology amplifies whatever culture already exists. If teams are afraid to admit what they don't know, AI will bury problems faster than humans can find them. If organizations treat global teams as "offshore" rather than equal partners, they're leaving innovation on the table.
Averill's story proves that the leaders who will thrive aren't the ones with the biggest budgets or the flashiest pilots - they're the ones willing to do the unglamorous work of building trust, developing people, and creating cultures where truth surfaces before it becomes crisis.
This is a guide for anyone who suspects that real transformation is a human challenge first, and wants a practical roadmap for what that actually looks like.
What You'll Learn
Real examples from Nordstrom, REI, and lululemon
Part 1: Foundations
The capabilities that matter most for transformation aren't learned in the moment you need them. Explore the foundational experiences that shape how leaders think, lead, and transform.
Part 2: Transformation
Inside the lululemon years. The opportunities seized, the foundations built, and the culture that enabled scaling from $2 billion to over $10 billion.
Part 3: Leading Forward
What endures when you're gone. When to stay and when to leave. And the question every leader eventually faces: was the transformation real?
Sample Excerpts
Stories and insights from the book
Introduction
"AI makes human capability more important, not less. It changes how decisions get made and who has insight worth hearing. It rewards leaders who build alignment early, learn fast, and create space for others to contribute."
Chapter 1: Before I Even Started
"Three days before I officially joined lululemon, I was sitting in my living room with my wife Cindy and our oldest son Mason. They were watching a football game, and I was on the phone with the interim CIO, getting oriented. 'Check out the ABC pant,' he said. 'One of our bestsellers.' I pulled up the website. 404 Error."
On the crisis that revealed everything about the company's culture
Chapter 5: When Love Expands
"When we stepped out of the coffee house, Ermias stopped and turned toward me. He lifted his arms to me. I carried him back across the street, feeling the shift in that moment. For the first time, he had chosen connection over independence. From that point forward, he considered us family and never looked back. Never, not once."
On adopting her son from Ethiopia
Chapter 2: Behind Home Plate
"My father was a catcher. While the rest of the team faced the batter, he crouched low, looking out at both his team and the competitors. He saw the whole field. He noticed things. He paid attention. That vantage point was more than a position. It was who he was."
On learning systems thinking from her father
Chapter 10: Building Bangalore
"Here's what we discovered: In India's overall workforce, women represent just 24% of workers. In the IT sector, that number rises to 34%. But nearly 47% of IT and computing postgraduates in India are women. That's not a pipeline problem. That's millions of educated, capable women who either can't find companies willing to hire them or can't find environments where they can succeed."
On building the India Tech Hub with nearly 50% women
Chapter 9: The Real Stress Test
"What I learned during COVID is that when disruption hits, culture is what keeps you steady through the storm. You can have the best technology and the most detailed processes, but if people don't trust each other, if they're afraid to admit when they're stuck, if they're protecting their turf instead of solving problems together, you'll collapse under the pressure."
On leading through the pandemic
Who This Book Is For
This book is for anyone leading change without absolute authority, and for those who govern and guide organizations through transformation.
- • Board members and executives navigating AI strategy
- • Product and business leaders shaping how work gets done
- • HR and culture leaders who know people drive performance
- • Managers connecting strategy and execution
- • Entrepreneurs who only have influence to work with
- • Anyone aiming to reach their full potential
If your impact depends on other people's belief and commitment, this book gives you the tools.
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Coming May 2026 from Microsoft 8080 Books