Storytellers, makers, and collaborators

What should your kids be when they grow up? Choose one of the above — better yet, incorporate all three into a brand called “you.” After 24 hours of This year’s APF Gathering, this combination of storytelling, making, and collaborating seems to be what the future wants.

A heavyweight duo of Chris Ertel and Art Kleiner and kicked off the meeting last night with some fabulous stories about, well, storytelling. (I suppose that shouldn’t surprise us). But it wasn’t just stories — there was lots of practical technique and tips, and the opportunity to practice and share with colleagues.

This morning we got a glimpse of the makers via a Learning Journey in which we left the conference room, braved the elements and a little street car mayhem to visit TechShop. We got a firehose immersion into digital design, microcontrollers, 3D printing, mashups, and laser cutting. What may surprise some is that these tools are out there and for you! I kinda sorta built a mini-circuit, I think. Think “power to the the people.” At the same time, my sense at this point is that these tools are not going to replace the mass production manufacturing, but complement it.

Before lunch we visited the Impact Hub, a co-working collective with individuals, companies, and B-corporations sharing space and one another’s companies to not only get their work done, but to — you guessed it — collaborate. .

The big three of storytelling, making, and collaborating are setting the table of the future. Will you have a seat? Andy Hines

Chris Ertel

Ran through his book Moments of Impact.

Use of internal networks, such as yammer, which provides employees a means to talk, and leadership a means to see what they are talking about, and get a “pre-read” on what they are thinking before important decisions, prompting jennifer to suggest that there is a storm brewing on the use of these internal networks

In terms of preparing for a strategic conversation, need to frame the questions/issues properly – you can’t just pour content at people

Short-termism in US business and politics is a disease

Art Kleiner

1. What is the story you want to tell?

• Foresight Grows
• Foresight is widely and effectively used

 

• Professionalizing foresight could help that

A good story changes the read a little bit

The experience of the producer in not anything like the receiver

Reality is circular, but media consumption is linear

“If you got that, what would it get you”

Can only be in one of the four orientations at a time

Purpose

1. Professionalizing foresight
2. Building of foresight profession will help spread more effective foresight and make the world a better place
3. A great passion of mine and presently leading a task force on it

Discussion with nancy

A foresight profession would provide jobs for student s

Personally, I choose this as a way to make a contribution to the world – think we should give a part of our time for this purpose

To have more influence in the world, because this stuff works (RESEARCH- does it really?)

So it could become widely used?

Access: Looking for access to people with influence in business and government in making decisions, because I believe foresight would help and as, chris said, short-termism is a disease?)

Research

Case studies of other communities professionalizing – do they apply?

What works? What doesn’t?

Validity – other fields have done it

The credibility of your story is based on the quality of your research

Are you willing to build the case brick by brick

What have you done and haven’t you done

What about cases where professionalization has failed (in terms of greater access)

Just because it worked before doesn’t mean it will work againa

Takes huge persistence to stay true to the data

A balance of looking at pure data and “having a feel for phenomena”

There is a difference between imagination and observation – you need both

Also have the problem of — does it work – would it lead to more effective decision-making (face validity)

Audience

The first audience is the futurist community and the second is decision-makers/the public;

Is it really the mid-level person who wants to make a difference – rather than the C-Suite? Or is that a cop out

“The audience needs use because we have something they need to know”

Futurists don’t know that we are not unique and that other fields have struggled to find their identity

Story

People are natural story hearers, not story tellers

An effective story makes you see the reader/hearer different

Once upon a time, some people started calling themselves futurists. They developed and borrowed methods for studying the future. A few wrote a few bestsellers and had their 15 minutes. Some of the rest formed a professional assn. they grew a little but were still on the margins of business and society. Others came along, bigger and stronger, and started taking their tools. The professional futurists said that’s okay, because now more people are suing them. And less people started coming to professional futurists, but we called ourselves jedi knights. And we know how that story turned out.