I always try to think, in organizations I am a part of and in the work I do for clients how I should play my role as a futurist. What can the futures perspective add that helps? Should my role be to provoke, to inform, or to bring a fresh perspective? How assertive should I [...]
Linda Lieberman is a U.S. National Park Service ranger with years of experience interpreting nature for National Park visitors. This Summer, we met her in Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska, and she led us on a glacier cruise where we saw lots of wildlife, including a grizzly bear and her cubs, foraging on the rocky [...]
I have been travelling in the Yukon, and exploring the history of the 1897-98 Gold Rush. I have not put careful thought to my work in foresight, but have dwelled on the work of Jack London, who, like my great grandfather, headed for the Klondike Gold Rush. I like London’s prose, and something about the [...]
Guilty as charged! Even futurists can fall into the trap of denying the forces of change, wishing they didn’t exist. What happened to me is that I caught myself being unwilling to look at how a system is changing because I didn’t want it to change.
I am a big fan of baseball, and spend a [...]
We may often get a breakthrough in thinking by changing the words we use. Linguists and psychologists have long debated how much language shapes how we think, but there’s little debate that it does. A powerful way to break down barriers to new thinking is to reconsider what words we use.I’ve learned a lot about [...]
Earl Nightingale was a hugely successful self-help guru in the 1950s and 1960s. His recording The Strangest Secret sold over 1 million copies. That video, in 3 parts, may be found on YouTube.
Nightingale’s Strangest Secret is that “you become what you think about.” In the videos Nightingale lays out his notion of how most of [...]
The blog Innovation Weblog cited Gary Hamel’s book The Future of Management a few months ago, and I’ve meant to share it’s key points on impediments to innovation. Here they are along with my interpretations:
Creative apartheid–The long-held notion that creativity is a gift few have and that creative things should, and perhaps can only come [...]
Don’t blink! Malcolm Gladwell’s insightful book Blink on what he calls “rapid cognition” is not wrong, just easily misinterpreted. It would seem to tell people to go with their first “gut” response to something.
But your first response to new information, an issue, or an idea may be too limited, too narrow, and incomplete. The problem [...]
While at home the other morning, I walked by my 9-year-old’s microscope left on the kitchen counter. Normally, clutter and forgotten belongings plague me at home, but I had the thought, what kind of Dad would tell his curious son, “put your damn microscope away!”? Wouldn’t that be like Louis Armstrong’s Mom saying “stop playing [...]
I have created a page here of quotes I like that are in the spirit of better foresight. It’s an idiosyncratic thing to collect quotes, so you may find some surprises here and some favorites missing. I’d love to hear about sayings and wisdom you like, and will be adding to this set. The page [...]
