Category Archives: Futurist

Debbie Mannas, group head of human resources, Wallem, believes culturally inclusive hiring practices are essential for the continued success of businesses.

When it comes to talent acquisition, HR practitioners must purposefully ensure culturally inclusive hiring continues into the future or risk losing their place as talent protagonists.

As we have seen, an increasing trend toward nationalism has recently led to some governments throwing out the proverbial baby with the bathwater when it comes to bias and political correctness.

Some anecdotal evidence points to business leaders following suit, swinging from a dont say/do it or we will get sued culture to an anything goes because our nations leader is OK with it culture.

Ironically, history tells us that with an influx of new minds and new ways actually come huge strides in progress, innovation and growth.

HR teams are often the first point of contact for candidates, and the business culture is reflected in their mindset. Their mindset, in return, is based on that of the business leaders. So if the mindset of the leadership, and therefore the HR team, is to hire in their own likeness, the extent of innovation, growth and sustainability will be limited.

Therefore, HR must resist the nationalistic bandwagon and evolve past generalisations. For the sake of business, and indeed, national interests, we must be culturally inclusive, and influence our teams as well as our leadership to embrace collaboration and idea sharing. D&I initiatives must be seen as a talent imperative, not just a CSR box to check.

In a number of Asian countries, I have noticed an insistence on specific language skills in job ads, even if the role requires very little comprehension of that language; rather than worrying about rarer skills such as problem solving, creativity and communication.

Similarly, certain cultures are considered lazy and their CVs discarded just by looking at their names. On the flipside, someone from a native English speaking country may be hired as a teacher, even if their English is appalling.

If branded as biased, HR will lose its place as a talent attractor. Good candidates will instead contact others higher up in the organisation, or worse reach out to a competitor. Ive witnessed talented individuals from diverse backgrounds gravitate towards organisations that display openness and inclusivity, leaving organisations that dont, behind.

To build teams for the future, we must be agnostic towards all else but talent. Until we can look past the stereotypes that ethnicity, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, etc, conjure up, we will continue to see a push for such identifying data to be left off applications, forcing the issue.

In short, unless you created the world in six days and rested on the seventh, its best not to attempt to create teams in your own image. Your business depends on you being open to all people.

Photo / Provided

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The Futurist: Be open to all comers - Human Resources Online

Futurist Dr Paul Higgins on agriculture in the future

Farming future: Dr Paul Higgins said farmers need to act now to prepare for changes in the future. Picture: Brodie Weeding

The future on earth will bring more people with more wealth and a demand for more animal protein.

From this premise, futurist Dr Paul Higgins told the audience at the Yolla Co-Op open day that it was possible to move into a golden age of agriculture if the right strategies were put in place today.

Digital systems will underpin new value in agriculture, he said.

The former dairy cattle veterinarian, abattoir manager, farmer and agribusiness consultant now works with Emergent Futures as a futurist consultant.

He said farmers were already seeing the benefits of data analytics which reduce costs but in the future, big data could be used in real time to model various scenarios, such as with a Fitbit for cows device.

Robotics and automation would be a big part of running a productive farm, from robotic apple pickers to automated cucumber sorters, that would move some processes onto the farm.

Drones would also play a part in managing crops and livestock.

A recent Goldman Sachs report identified the agriculture industry as the second biggest market in the world for drones.

Dr Higgins sees drones being used as a shared utility in the future, where farms can collect and share data, and put out bids for companies to create value from the data.

He believes that cooperatives will have a competitive advantage in the future in that they will be able to pool their data, expertise and political power to get ahead.

Dr Higgins challenged farmers to scan wide, think deep.

Unless you get started now, youll get left behind.

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Data, drones and robots: futurist's vision of the future of farming - The Advocate

Scarborough Borough Council has confirmed that it did sell a piano that was taken from the Futurist Theatre.

Last week we told you that it as going on sale through local auctioneers David Duggleby's.

Nick Edwards is the Borough Council Director, he said:

The Steinway & Sons piano that was used in the Futurist theatre was sold last weekend at local auction for a gross sale of 12,600. The net proceeds will be used to support the councils capital programme.

Supporters trying to save the venue have expressed their unhappiness about the sale of a piece of the theatre.

The Save The Futurist Campaign Group is looking to raise funds to start legal proceedings against the council after the decision to demolish the theatre was made back in January.

Next month, the group will meet up with a lawyer and they need to raise 10,000 in order to start proceedings.

So far, they've raised just under 2,000.

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Scarborough Borough Council Did Sell Futurist Piano - Yorkshire Coast Radio

New York Times

Jacque Fresco, Futurist Who Envisioned a Society Without Money, Dies at 101 New York Times Jacque Fresco and a model of the Venus Project, which he began on 21 acres in Florida in 1980. Credit The Venus Project. Jacque Fresco, a self-taught and passionate industrial designer who envisioned an alternative society where money would be ...

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Jacque Fresco, Futurist Who Envisioned a Society Without Money, Dies at 101 - New York Times

Day One of Compliance Week 2017 is in the books. The event is the largest ever with over 650 attendees. The conference opened this year with a Futurist, Dr. Brian David Johnson, who talked to the assembled group about where the compliance profession might be headed in 10 or 20 years out. It was a fascinating talk, and Dr. Johnson brought a high energy to the opening Keynote session. He also had some very significant things to say about the future of the compliance profession and the position of the chief compliance officer (CCO).

Of course, one of his key themes was Artificial Intelligence (AI). Dr. Johnson said there would be multiple grades of AI and most of them would fall into the range of what he called Industrial Grade AI. In this highest category would be sentient tools which will be aware, be able to process information in a manner which allows them to think and will be social. While there is talk about this type of AI in the realm of compliance, Dr. Johnson related he is not seeing much be actually done in this area.

Dr. Johnson did relate that the importance of compliance would grow, together with the increasing importance around ethics and corporate governance. He related that AI would increase the speed at which business decisions could be made will make a robust compliance program, operationalized into the fabric of an organization more critical. AI will first allow more and quicker business decisions. It will be the compliance program which is most closely integrated into the DNA of an organization so it can respond to ever-shifting market conditions. Not simply in sales but moving seamlessly between third party sales representatives and those from the Supply Chain. A robust compliance program does not slow down a business but properly functioning, allows it to move more quickly and more nimbly.

Dr. Johnson sees the necessity for compliance to be integrated into an organization. The Justice Department says compliance should be operationalized into a company. It seems that the legal side of things is pointing the direction in which you should be moving your compliance regime. Dr. Johnson would agree.

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A Futurist on compliance - Compliance Week (subscription) (blog)

By David Houle

My last column in this space provoked the most number of positive responses I have had since I started contributing to Business Weekly. That column was about the massive amount of disruption that will occur in the next 20 years.

Whenever there is a lot of disruption or, to use a more traditional phrase, creative destruction, there will be a lot of economic uncertainty and pain. The old order crumbles and the new order emerges. Holding on to the past becomes costly and even dangerous. In this column, I want to suggest that, along with all this change and with baggage from the Great Recession, significant economic disruptions also are ahead.

First, a few caveats. I am not an economist. I do not deal with economic theory when looking at the future. Second, I am not a financial adviser, and I do not give people advice on their investments or on market timing. I am a futurist and so I look at what was and what is to be able to best forecast what will be.

Here are some things I see that have great likelihood of happening in the next few years;

I think the stock market is in for a significant correction. It will be triggered by several things, some of which I mention below. I was dumbfounded that the Snap IPO was so strong out of the gate. Its day of reckoning began arriving with its earnings report. I think this IPO and the emerging difficulties of the unicorns, such as Uber, will severely dampen the blind fever around tech stocks. The current market is fueled by speculation and the lack of alternative investments and is more sensitive to external events than earnings.

I think the Eurozone is shaky at best and beginning its move to its demise at worst. I have been consistent on this since 2011. The Great Recession may well be looked back upon as the beginning of the end of the Eurozone. A massive amount of debt was run up, there is no real growth, interest rates have been negative at times and unemployment and, certainly, youth unemployment are in double digits in many European countries. Twentieth-century thinking has not evolved in this century

China may well be headed for some unpleasant economic times. There seems to be a looming debt crisis, the government is being ham-handed in some of its efforts, there is an opacity that hides any true weakness and growth has slowed dramatically. One must remember that there are 1.4 billion people in China and that 1 billion of them live in relative poverty and have yet to participate in the economic miracle that created 300 billion-plus new members of the global middle class. That may soon cause social unrest. Lastly, the wealthy are moving vast amounts of money out of the country, creating huge currency outflows.

Russia is only now emerging from two years of significant GDP contraction as it is selling oil for less than cost. In addition, it is the largest country in the world geographically with a shrinking population. The Putin dictatorship has not created a dynamic market economy, so there is no real growth. Many more people are walking through the exit door than the entrance door.

The above two points about China and Russia are exactly why they are both being bellicose and nationalistic on the global stage. When there is nothing to praise internally with the economy, national leaders, and specifically autocrats, do some external saber rattling. This will continue. This will only increase tension and make markets jittery.

Our federal government has been in gridlock for almost two decades. This means that such necessary things as legislation and goals so essential at this time in our countrys history are not being dealt with intelligently. Now layer over that the emerging crises President Trump is creating with the country and his own party and you dont have any of the certainty that markets and investors like. The partisanship afflicting Washington will create growing problems for this country for the next few years. More than 20,000 bridges are approaching collapse and what is Washington focusing on?

In my last column, I wrote about the coming transformation of the auto industry to electric cars and autonomous automobiles. This will cause old players to fade away and new ones to emerge. The gearheads of Detroit are ceding ground to the techies of Silicon Valley. And what are the existing car companies doing? They are committing fraud and have racked up a record number of recalls. How can you trust a company such as Volkswagen, which overtly committed fraud in multiple countries, apparently colluding with suppliers? In addition, multiple car companies knowingly sold new cars with airbags that had deadly faults.

When your industry faces its largest existential crisis, it is plain stupid to commit fraud. No wonder Tesla is valued more than many much larger companies. Invest in what is being born, rather than what is dying or committing suicide.

The biggest economic transition in the next 10 years will be the global movement away from fossil fuels to alternative and renewable energy sources. Fossil fuels are now a no-growth industry. I have forecast for years that the collapse of the price of oil will cause economic upheaval that will lead to the collapse of national economies. Take a look at Venezuela and Nigeria for the first examples of this phenomenon.

Lastly, there will be hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars of property value lost globally due to sea-level rise and climate change between now and 2030-'35. Florida has some 5,000 miles of shoreline and much of it will be worth much less in the future. Real estate will be underwater before it is under water.

Oh, one more thing: The national debt of the United States may be $20 trillion, but the debt and all the unsecured liabilities of the country now add up to almost $100 trillion if you include unfunded Social Security, unfunded Medicare, pension and retiree benefits and publicly held debt. One-hundred trillion dollars is more than the global aggregate GDP. Any good ideas on how to retire it?

This list could go on. The single thing to keep in mind is that the reality you have assumed would continue will not. So dont invest in thinking it will.

Sarasota resident David Houle is a globally recognized futurist. He has given speeches on six continents, written seven books and is futurist in residence at the Ringling College of Art + Design. His website is davidhoule.com. Email him at david@davidhoule.com.

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THE FUTURIST: Significant economic disruption ahead - Sarasota Herald-Tribune

A grand piano from Scarborough's Futurist Theatre is going to auction tomorrow (Saturday 20 May.)

It is estimated to be worth around 5,000-7,000 and is being auctioned through David Duggleby's Auctioneers. On Duggleby's website, it is described as:

"Steinway & Sons concert grand piano, circa 1900, iron framed over strung movement in ebonised case, No. 96292, on gadroon carved turned and fluted supports (W152cm, H100cm, L275cm), with early 20th century ebonised stool, with adjustable leather upholstered stool - PROVENANCE - Futurist Theatre, Scarborough."

It's not know who is selling the piano as the details are classified.

However, this has been met with discontent from the group trying to save the Futurist. At the moment, the group are trying to raise funds in order to take legal action against Scarborough Borough Council following the decision to demolish the building, which was taken in January.

Next month, they'll meet with a lawyer to decide if a judicial review can go ahead. They need to raise 10,000 in order to fund the legal services and have so far raised just under 2,000.

Debi Silver is from the Save the Futurist Campaign Group, she said:

"Whilst we are struggling as representing people of Scarborough and everywhere else to get money, the council can quite freely take stuff out of the theatre and sell it.

I would like to think that it hasn't been taken out of the Futurist Theatre by Scarborough Borough Council and put into Duggleby's.

That may well be the case, who knows? But it's rather strange that this piano is in for sale and it says 'PROVENANCE-Futurist Theatre.'"

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Scarborough's Futurist Theatre Piano To Go To Auction - Yorkshire Coast Radio

Why Your Company Needs A Futurist CBS St. Louis Now, more and more businesses are opting to hire futurists, whose job it is to research and predict trends. Think of a futurist as an anthropologist for the business world. It's his or her job to research trends, talk to people of varying backgrounds ...

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Why Your Company Needs A Futurist - CBS St. Louis

5/10/2017 11:15 AM

NAPERVILLE, ILL., May 1, 2017 Technological advancements, drastically changing consumer behaviors, megamergers, globalization and the convergence of services are all factors that are transforming our industry. Business as usual is not an option for companies seeking to continue their success, resulting in this years theme for CTHRAs HR Symposium: Disruptive Thinking. The event will be held on October 26, 2017 at the DoubleTree Hilton Hotel in Philadelphia.

Understanding disruption is hard. Disrupting is even harder. If youve ever wondered what the future of human resources looks like, I invite you to attend CTHRAs 2017 HR Symposium, said Michele Parks, Symposium committee chair, CTHRA board member and vice president of talent management for Cox Communications.

Noted futurist, Bob Johansen, Ph.D. (pictured), distinguished fellow at the Institute for the Future, will open and close CTHRAs Symposium. During the opening general session titled The New Leadership Literacies, Johansen will share his projections for the future workplace including how current practices at centralized organizations will become brittle in a future where authority is not just decentralized but distributed. He will also explain how HR leaders can leap into the future by learning five new leadership literaciescombinations of disciplines, practices and worldviewsto thrive in a world of increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. The new literacies Johansen will share are: 1. Look backward from the future, 2. Voluntarily engage in fear, 3. Embrace shape-shifting organizations, 4. Be there even when youre not there and 5. Create and sustain positive energy. Johansen will return to the stage in the afternoon to outline practical strategies that HR professionals can leverage to channel uncertainty into success. His closing general session is titled, How HR Can Thrive in a Future of Extreme Disruption. As a parting gift, registered Symposium attendees will receive a copy of Johansens book, The New Leadership Literacies.

In addition to Johansens general sessions, CTHRAs HR Symposium will feature breakout sessions, several networking opportunities and the Excellence in HR Awards Luncheon (nominations are being accepted through June 15 at http://www.CTHRA.com). For more Symposium details and online registration, please visit http://www.CTHRASymposium.com. Early bird registration rates are available now through August 25.

ABOUT CTHRA The Cable and Telecommunications Human Resources Association (CTHRA) is the premier human capital resource for the industry and a growing nonprofit organization with more than 3,000 members spanning 50 companies. CTHRA provides industry-specific benchmarks, information and resources, as well as networking and educational opportunities. Its groundbreaking initiatives include compensation and employee benefits surveys and its Annual HR Symposium. For more information, visit http://www.cthra.com. # # #

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Futurist Bob Johansen Will Headline CTHRA's Disruptive Thinking HR Symposium - Multichannel News

If you've ever had the pleasure of seeing lifelong Chicagoan and Neo-Futurist alumna Jessica Anne perform, then you know that her voice the physical instrument by which she makes her words heard onstage is an unforgettable phenomenon: clear, sharp, piping and incisive. If you give yourself the pleasure of reading her debut book, the delightful hybrid "A Manual for Nothing," then you will no doubt notice that her literary voice the tone and attitude with which she makes her words manifest on the page is equally memorable. Published by Noemi Press and written in the second person, her manual feels passionate and compassionate, an urgent emergency written for you. Anne answered the following questions by email; the transcript has been edited for clarity and space.

Q: This book incorporates fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama. Why blend genres like this? And did the book's hybridity and brevity it's just 162 pages make it tricky to publish?

A: I got excited reading unclassifiable books by authors like Maggie Nelson and Lidia Yuknavitch, and I wanted to try it.

I was concerned with form. I thought committing to the form of the manual would be a neat way to hold the story together, and then within that form I had fun doing whatever I wanted. Making this messy object of many genres helped me to get closer to a truth. Even though that truth might not be the truth.

I only submitted the manual as fiction, and publishers seemed to be OK with that. I got my fair share of rejection, of course, but nobody pushed back saying, this isn't fiction, young lady. I think the trick was submitting to presses that seemed to be known for publishing genre-bending work.

Q: How did your background as a performer in general and as a Neo-Futurist in particular help shape this book? How does that sensibility affect your writing?

A: Neo-Futurists are very concerned with balance, both in the late-night show ("The Infinite Wrench," the new title for the program formerly known as "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind") and in the prime-time programming. We are constantly sticking our same thermometers into the meat of the material to make sure there aren't too many monologues, too many deconstructions, is there enough political material? And that mindset has definitely carried over into my book-writing pursuits. Making the manual I would think, OK, now I need an interview, have to make sure I get an anthem in there and at least one scene, and so on.

And overall, my background in theater mostly affects my writing process. Writing still feels very physical to me and often starts out loud, pacing around my apartment or walking through the park.

Q: In recent years, you've been a fixture in Chicago's theater, live lit and literary communities, even organizing last summer's Andersonville Lit Crawl and currently serving as an editor of MAKE magazine. How do these pursuits inform one another and how has Chicago impacted you as an artist?

A: Whether it's a theatrical show or a neighborhood event or a magazine or a live magazine the thing I'm looking for is warm bodies. Sitting around writing or editing or emailing the chamber of commerce can be so lonely. But, if there are lots of other people pulling their own weight under the same project, that helps me to keep a steady pace so that no one person gets crushed. And then when it all comes together everyone claps because it's all so much better in company than it ever could have been on its own. And Chicago just has a really good attitude. Times I've had auditions and or work in bigger cities, I noticed how cold and quick the people were behind the tables. Go to a reading or a show in Chicago, and hang out as long as you want. Talk to everybody you like and want to work with. They're happy to see you.

Jessica Anne will appear at 7 p.m. May 25, at Unabridged Books, 3251 N. Broadway.

Kathleen Rooney is the author, most recently, of the novel "Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk."

By Jessica Anne, Noemi, 162 pages, $15

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Chicagoan, Neo-Futurist alumna Jessica Anne debuts new book - Chicago Tribune