The Drive to Make Futures Thinking Pragmatic
I’ve writen a fair bit over the years about the need to move futures thinking out of a theoretical approach and into a more applied model.
Recently I’ve come off a 6 month project working with the Asian Productivity Organisation, an entity that brings together 20 member countries and their core government policy makers. The main focus of that project – how to make policy decisions that take into account emerging issues. This is, as the saying goes, ‘right in my wheelhouse’
Policy without future awareness is expecting the same kiond of unchanged future is likely. Future awareness without alignment to operational and policy decisions is just pie in the sky dreaming. Teaching these Government Ministers and Policy directors how to work through tieing both aspects together has seen plenty of ‘ah haaa’ moments and it’s been a dleight traveling to Tokyo, Manila, Bangkok and Colombo to work closely with these groups. The hosts were always generous, the multi country participants always engaged and the outcomes thus far have been surprisingly influential.
There’s more to come later this year too with Fiji hosting representatives from another 8 countries. Strategic Forsight is the pragmatic and applied approach to engaging with the emerging issues so that we can help shape the future towards the kind we want.
In around a week’s time there’ll be a version 2 of a Trump Presidency in the United States. One thing I’d expect to see is a much less bridled Trump presidency. The first time around a number of long standing and experienced people were around to temper and guide some of the thinking. This time…
Read More >Looking Up Feeling Good are delighted with our involvement with Steel Chicks and this session with Dr Kim Hazendonk was another great example of bringing immediately useful insights to the attendees. Dr Hazendonk spoke about ways to use your brain more effectively, how to overcome the distractions both in the workplace and beyond – brilliant…
Read More >Or so it may seem. This quarter has seen me interstate facilitating some strategic planning workshops; overseas working with an established Government client, working with CGD, SELLEN, and Hilton Manufacturing among others here in Oz, a couple of weeks holiday down in Tasmania, and also the occasional radio interview looking at the ‘Future of…’. And…
Read More >Some thoughts flowing from my session discussing challenges in Futures Consulting posted by James Balzer: I’d explained to the group that what I do is engage employees in thinking about their own and their organisation’s future potential. My strong view over twenty years of work in this space is that employee engagement is DIRECTLY driven…
Read More >Tomorrow morning (Friday the 12th) I’ll be joining Elizabeth Kulas on Disrupt Radio discussing the Future Of Workplaces. There’ll be a particular focus on why most organisations choose to struggle because they rely on outdated models of employee management. A 7.15am kick-off where, in about 7 minutes or so, I’ll try to distill 20 years…
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Read More >In the 1760s Josiah Wedgwood changed forever the nature of workplaces. He expanded his pottery business and constructed a new large scale factory that required two critical elements: a) Systemisation of processes to ensure consistent high-quality outcomes b) Skilled workers on site The systemisation required experimentation, observation, trials, failures and recording of data – what…
Read More >We’re delighted to announce that Neuro-Psychologist Dr. Kim Hazendonk of Positive Brain has accepted our offer to join our elite speaker’s group. We’re looking forward to bringing her to more groups across Australasia as she discusses effective workplaces, positive mind management, and managing busy lives. If you have a need for an engaging and passionate…
Read More >I flag my bias towards the need for a vastly improved approach to managing staff in the work environments. V A S T L Y improved. I’m still surprised at how clunky, disorganised or naive some senior managers are when it comes to that part of the business that considers ‘people’. And rather than cover…
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