With support from The Rockefeller Foundation, Foresight Alliance recently completed an 18-month research project on the global future of work and workers. Our report,The Futures of Work, is intended to help the philanthropic and development communities understand and address the challenges that poor and vulnerable workers may meet going forward. But the changing nature of work…
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Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today. Fifty-nine percent of Americans are afraid of falling out of their current economic class, a poll finds. In this video interview, Dr. Susan Katz, a retired pediatrician and biochemist, discusses new research on “obesogens”–chemicals that may promote weight gain in humans and…
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Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today. New iPhone app in Iceland ensures that cousins don’t become “kissing cousins.” Phillips has developed prototypes of a tubular LED light that could be retrofit into existing overhead fluorescent fixtures. Although the tubular LED bulbs will have a significant cost…
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In a bit of serendipity, there were three different articles published this week on futures and foresight work, detailing what a futures company concerns itself with and how these firms go about their work. Writing in Quartz, friend of Foresight Alliance Scott Smith detailed some of the reasons why the futures field has seen a…
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In an earlier post I described how Ernie and Mr. Hoots, of Sesame Street fame, reminded me of an important strategy principle. Ernie is having trouble playing the sax while holding onto his rubber duckie, and Mr. Hoots tells him (in a wonderful musical number), “You gotta put down the duckie if you wanna play…
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I recently had the opportunity to be futurist in the “ask a futurist booth” at the American Association of Museums conference. The intent of the booth was to pose alternative scenarios that would encourage museum folks to think about different possible future environments and what changes they might suggest for the museum experience. The theme…
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I’m finishing up Iain McGilchrist’s brilliant journey of a book The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, looking for (and finding!) implications for futures studies and foresight. (I have a forthcoming article exploring the “I” of the beholder in relation to our discipline). But more on that…
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The foresight work we do for clients seems to have two primary applications: as a stimulus for innovation and as a key part of the situation analysis that supports strategy development. I was recently reminded of one of the most important principles of strategy by an unlikely coach—Mr. Hoots, the Muppet. My kids (now thirty…
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