Daily Inspiration: “The future is happening all around you. Are you a part of the discussion?”

“The future is happening all around you. Are you a part of the discussion?” – Futurist Jim Carroll

Are you at the table where the senior executives in your organization are defining the future?

If not, why not?

In many of my talks, I outline the real world strategies that many businesses are pursuing in order to keep up with our faster future – often speaking of what I am witnessing with the companies in my own client base.

It involves real world examples: I’m often brought into global senior leadership meetings to get these organizations thinking about the trends that will define and disrupt their future.

Most often, this is related to some initiative that is already being pursued within the company – aligning to a different business model based on IoT (Internet of Things) connectivity, autonomous technology, device connectivity, product line predictive diagnostics or more.

These real world strategies involve some pretty big changes which can impact an organization in an whole number of different ways. And so in many other events – such as this photo from my keynote for the National Safety Council NSC 2019 conference in San Diego – these strategies might have a profound impact on other people who might not realize the scope of the change underway.

In the case of occupational health and workplace safety management, any of these strategies can have a profound impact on the role and responsibilities of safety professionals. Hyperconnected manufacturing processes based on the Industrial Internet of Things can introduce new safety risk, as can an increase in the number of robots and cobots throughout every aspect of the workplace, not just the assembly line area. New logistics and supply chain technology involving automation of packing of e-commerce shipments can also pose a new challenge.

And the thing is – these professionals need to be ‘at the table’ – part of the discussions – to ensure that their role and obligations in mitigating workplace safety are fulfilled.

That’s but one example – as our faster future unfolds – are you a part of the discussion?