FuturePod

In quite an amazing career trajectory, studying strategic foresight provided new tools for Rob in his quest to find ways to introduce new ways of working.

Rene Rohrbeck explains his maturity model for organisational foresight, describes how corporate foresight moves beyond just trend analysis and also gives some interesting advice on parenting children too.

Jim Dator is a Futurist who in some ways did not have a past. Raised without significant men in his life his approach to Futures is both unique and so valuable for all of us.

As one of the few women working in the fields of foreign affairs, international security and defense, Kate Delaney’s career has morphed into a successful business in Australia applying her own brand of Futures and Foresight in Government and Not For Profit organisations.

John Sweeney is blazing a new path for Futures in Central Asia, namely Kazakhstan. John's passions are Futures Gaming, and working with diverse communities. He is an experienced consultant and educator who is also a very entertaining interviewee.

Tanja, raised into Nelson Mandela's revolution in South Africa works all around the world trying to support a good Anthropocene.

Fabienne takes you through her meta-methodology that frames how she does foresight work and she also discusses how to approach wicked futures like handling a ball of wool.

Bia explains how she integrates Agile Design, Futures and Wellbeing to create thriving workplaces and successful change initiatives.

Riel explains how he transforms the future by designing processes that help people think about the future. He explains his key concepts of Anticipatory Assumptions and the Futures Literacy Laboratory.

Zia explains his ideas of the Familiar Future and the Unspoken Future and he challenges those who work in our field to actually make a contribution to ensure that the Future is open and is not 'colonised' by those currently holding power and privilege.

Verne explains the contribution that Futures has made to society and the power of the Futures Wheel. He exemplifies that it’s never too late to learn something new about yourself and the world.

Debra (Deb) Bateman has great breadth and depth in learning and teaching, infusing her curriculum with futures thinking in both schools and higher education. She shares her eclectic futures tools; a must listen for those in the Education sphere.

Andrew takes us into the genesis and elaboration of the “real” Three Horizons method and how it can be used for a lot more by practitioners, and shares other Futures gems.

Meet Pupul, a storyteller, and let her help you open the doors in your own thinking to find your own "different way" to practice foresight.

Listen to Andy as he explains the Houston Framework, his work on Beyond Market Capitalism, how you 'find the fringe', and how you work with Futures 'learners'.

Clem Bezold takes you through the use of scenarios and visioning and discusses equity rising and abundance advances.

Jorge brings his nerdiness to help people and organisations understand what is changing around them and how to use that to help decision-making. He believes that the work of people like him in Mexico and others elsewhere is re-enchanting our field.

Richard speaks about COVID-19 as not just being a threat, it is also a gift. He explains there is an opportunity to understand more deeply what are we doing that works in our favour and what in fact works against us in society. It is also an opportunity for nature to re-establish itself.

Riel provides us with positive perspectives during this time of shock. Discussing how this pandemic is a powerful opportunity to make a fundamental change in how humans make choices, and the immense power of a capability we all hold, imagination.

John reminds us that futures are still plural, and the importance of holding the space for possibilities. One of the most immediate things each of us can do, is pay careful attention to the language we use to navigate this time.

Peter Bishop speaks about how a new era is possible, though not guaranteed; this historical moment breaks the frame, opening up the possibility for innovation, or we might snap back to how we were before.

Bridgette speaks about her interest in the unintended consequences of the pandemic, including to her pet projects such as the ‘future of work’, and her day to day existence as a Senior Lecturer at a University who has moved completely online.

Paul talks through his publicly available COVID-19 scenarios for organisational strategy. He also speaks about some of potential changes for working visas to Australia, from skilled migrants, to partner visas to permanent residency.

Kieran speaks about the importance of making sure reinvention is still part of our stories, and his use of Jim Dator’s ‘Four Archetypes’ to help clients make sense of, and respond well and capitalise on opportunities from the disruption.

Stuart Candy is another of the new generation of hybrid futures practitioners who works with thinking, imagery, narrative and experience to create powerful and personal experiences in both academic, policy and life spaces.

Donna is passionate about how Emergency Management and how foresight can help them. She sees herself as a bridge between the two professional domains. The evolutionary paradigm of resilience gives her hope that we can manage the current and future emergency challenges we all face.

Peter has some important reflections on how we have come on-board an outdated old vessel and the difference between snapping back to spend more and more money in keeping her afloat or taking only what we need to re-set the future.

Listen to Frank get jazzed up about complexity, and discuss how Foresight is our destiny. He explains that we need Holoptic Foresight, and that leadership needs to be a collective and cooperative process.

Victor introduces you to the twin brothers of the Wise and Ignorant mind as part of how he seeks integral futures. He also discusses the Pandamic (China’s general influence) and also the Pandemic (COVID-19).

Deb talks about this as the perfect time to use futures thinking in all levels of education. She also discusses the new language and identification that is arising and their impacts, from ‘essential’, to ‘global citizen’.

Rob encourages us to pause and look at this unique opportunity that could never be planned, to think about what the world ‘could’ look like. He personally is looking for examples of leadership and signals of change in our global structures.

Rowena speaks about how COVID-19 is allowing us to view our cultural and societal cracks. She also observes how the futures tool of scenarios has been quickly and broadly taken up and used by leadership in Australia to help navigate this time.

Sohail speaks about, science and spirit, the connection between environment and conciousness, slowing down and the symbolic security of the face mask during the time of COVID-19. His guidance is to chose frames wisely when thinking about the future beyond COVID.

Tom takes you through his journey from being a graduate at university, to hospital psychologist, to educator and finally author. The twin ideas of Futures Consciousness and the centrality of Science Fiction emerged from that journey.

Patricia is an internationally recognised, self-taught, pragmatic futures practitioner who works in the people-space when the problem is not technical. She believes we should all use our foresight muscle and focus on making it stronger.

Yvonne's is a story of how we grow up as human beings and also the journey of both inward and outward honesty.

Charles describes how he finds it easy to have conversations about the future with everyone he meets. He explains the use of his favourite tool, the Futures Cone, and his long-time engagement with Schools and Futures.

Conversation question: “Should the field abandon preferred futures? Recently, Richard Slaughter even called into question the efficacy of 'alternative futures'...How can (and must) the futures field shift in both theory and practice to deal with this core tension?“

A futures powerhouse and greatly respected globally, Wendy speaks about art, poetry and music; the tools of culture, to create more evocative, vivid and more densely experiential futures, and much more.

Bryan discusses scanning as a client service and product, the notion of human identity, the globalisation of culture and the future of Higher Education.

Hazel saw first hand the evolution of technology and business with its impacts on political power and from that came her life work, tracking and promoting the technologies and mind sets for the Solar Age.

Conversation question: “What next for the field of foresight? How can we move on from the foundation methods and tools that seem to have us locked in their grip? How can we become more relevant and more practical? How can we approach design from different ontological frameworks.“

Rebecca explains the importance of effective and powerful communication and she discusses whether generational change is 'a thing' or not.

Mark talks about the unlikely connection of horse manure and foresight, and explains how ‘pre’ mortems could improve decision-making. He also speaks of his interest in life extension.

Jordi discusses how change itself is changing, and how we need to up our game to better navigate our lives. He also speaks of how the dignity of younger generations can explain their anger with how post normal times are being managed.

Conversation question: “What are some of the possible scenarios of the USA post-election period (whoever wins) that sees changes that begin the journey to bring America together rather than to drive it further apart?“

Shermon chats about history, culture, gross national cool and how the story of Rip Van Winkle is a great way to introduce futures thinking.

Roger believes that we need to allow the disruptive patterns to emerge to make the wisest choices. He also speaks of embracing the beginners mind to lead ourselves, our organisations and our societies through an increasingly disruptive world.

Conversation question: “How can we make our individual and collective foresight capacities ‘real’ in futures practice and processes?“

Listen to Jerry Glenn, Ted Gordon and Paul Saffo from the Millennium Project speak about the newly released set of COVID scenarios for the American Red Cross.