From the Stage: Take Risks
On stage, I took on the excuse I hear in almost every organization: it's too risky. "We have to take risks in order to get ahead." My challenge to the room was a simple…
Consumer & Food · Innovation
Keynote Case Study: MAPP — Manufacturing Learns to Work with the Machines
At the Manufacturers Association for Plastic Processors conference in Indianapolis, Jim Carroll placed AI inside the broader industrial transformation involving…
Case Studies · Manufacturing & Industrial
Keynote Case Study: Great Lakes Construction Associations — Separating AI Hype from Real Construction Impact
For the Great Lakes Construction Associations, Jim Carroll focused on what is real — and what is not yet real — in construction AI. The session was designed to help…
Case Studies · Construction & Infrastructure
The 26 Principles, Revisited — #22: Boundary Divergence — What I Said, and What’s Actually Happening
Part of my “26 Principles, Revisited” series — checking my own math, nine months into the year I predicted. Don't stay in your lane. The future is happening in the blur…
2026 Principles
How Innovation Happens — Lesson #15: Hire People You Don't Like
I've been covering the link between future trends and innovation strategies for 30+ years. I went back through my blog posts, stretching to 2002, to dig out the nuggets…
How Innovation Happens · Innovation
From the Stage: Change Your Future Before It Changes You
It's the line I've used more than any other, and here it is in its shortest form. After describing a world where companies that don't yet exist will build products not…
Leadership · Media & Technology
Keynote Case Study: National Association of Landscape Professionals — An Era of Fast Ideas
Jim spoke at the NALP Leaders Forum in Costa Rica to several hundred landscape industry leaders about the accelerating pace of change in design, technology, science…
Agriculture & Food · Case Studies
Article in Flame Magazine: "Dancing in the Rain: Why 2026 Demands Bold Franchise Leadership"
I just finished writing my fourth article this year for Flame, the magazine of the National Franchisee Association. This one is about why 2026 demands bold franchise…
Consumer & Food · Growth Strategy
Keynote Case Study: DCA: Construction Was Entering An Era Of Acceleration.
Jim Carroll's keynote closed the Distribution Contractors Association event in Hawaii with a look at how AI, virtual reality, 3D printing, drones and other technologies…
Case Studies · Construction & Infrastructure
Richard Feynman Broke Spaghetti and Found a Mindset
Feynman once spent an evening snapping dry spaghetti, obsessed with why it never breaks clean in two. That is what a curious mind looks like when nobody is watching…
Being Unique
The 26 Principles, Revisited — #21: Signal Intelligence — What I Said, and What’s Actually Happening
Part of my “26 Principles, Revisited” series — checking my own math, nine months into the year I predicted. Your new challenge isn't finding the insight – it's filtering…
2026 Principles
How Innovation Happens — Lesson #14: Ask the Big What-Ifs
I've been covering the link between future trends and innovation strategies for 30+ years. I went back through my blog posts, stretching to 2002, to dig out the nuggets…
How Innovation Happens · Innovation