So, I went into my broadcast studio this morning, and filmed a thing.
We need to innovate fast, and challenge ourselves in terms of knowledge delivery – because we all know we are in a new and different world!
Virtual Keynote Topic: “Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity: Leadership Strategies and Insight for the Post Pandemic World”
History has taught us that only 10% of organizations become breakthrough performers during a period of economic challenge. Through several economic downturns, I’ve carefully studied the strategies they pursue, the concepts that drive them, and the actions they take to become a success in this complex new world.
I summarized this insight in a clip filmed in my home broadcast studio – and this is the type of insight I can deliver to your team in a virtual setting.
This is timely and critical insight! Recovery oriented CEO’s and senior executives understand that in addition to managing existing challenges, right now is the time to focus on strategies that align to our complex new reality in order to achieve growth and pursue opportunity. They know that they need to act quickly to establish an innovative mindset with their team in oder to get there quickly.
In an interactive online virtual keynote, I provide my unique insight on staying ahead in volatile times. A culture that has everyone thinking about what can be done going forward rather than looking back. A solutions oriented mindset in which people are thinking less about the problems that have occurred, and more about the innovative strategies that could be pursued. A leadership style and mindset that takes on volatility as a form of innovation oxygen, complexity as a foundation for action, uncertainty as the platform for disruption and ambiguity as the clarity for stifling aggressive indecision.
Ready to align to your next future? Read more about this virtual keynote here:
Daily Inspiration: “Let your passion drive your actions – then let your action drive your motivation!”
“Let your passion drive your actions – then let your action drive your motivation!” – Futurist Jim Carroll
You can learn a lot when you are out for a round of golf to motivate you through your day – whether it’s dealing with a particularly bad round or figuring out what to do when your business model has been trampled.
I was out for a round on the weekend with my good buddy, Ian Bates. He’s a grade 5 teacher, and has currently found himself, like most teachers, locked into the suddenness of distance education. In a previous life, I visited his classroom twice to work on cool projects with the kids – and later this week, will finish off another project where I’m working with them on a virtual project related to the future. Here’s a clip as to what it’s about.
Every time I get involved in real education, I get inspired from what I learn.
And here’s what I learned from Ian over the weekend – your actions drive your motivation. When things are not quite where you want them to be, keep putting in the effort, since that action itself will give you the motivation to keep on going despite the state of demotivation that can come from the current state of reality!
Let me explain.
Since’s Ian is but a youngster, he’s certainly had no challenges in adopting to the technology or the format of online education – I dare say that if I was a grade 5 student, I’d find him a pretty decent teacher. From a “virtual classroom clip” he has just sent me, it’s pretty clear that the kids would relate to him. (Don’t tell him that – I could never let him know I’m praising him!)
The problem is, there’s not a lot of kids showing up, whether due to complex family circumstances, the lack of appropriate technology, or other substantive issues. Right now, he’s only getting about half of his grade 5 kids into his classroom for his virtual lessons.
But here’s the thing – he keeps putting in the effort. He’s been working hard to put together relevant lesson plans, delivering it online with his trademark delivery (an online teacher review site had two kids reporting that his jokes were ‘corny’ ; I’d agree!), following up on assignments, pursuing innovative ideas to keep them engaged and their knowledge moving forward.
In other words, he gives a shit. He keeps on working away, despite the lack of the steady state of progress that he would have seen with ‘his kids’ in the real world.
I found myself learning from his thinking. In the last three months, my business has essentially collapsed. There’s not a lot of companies booking insight on the future, trends, innovation and disruptive thinking.
Yet I keep putting in the effort; I keep showing up for work; I keep on filming and writing and thinking and developing. Why?
What drives me? Why don’t I just pack it in, retire, or move on to something new?
One simple reason: because I have a huge passion for helping people to understand what comes next and what they should do about it. I find this current global economic challenge a massive new complexity to think through – and KNOW that while the global leaders who have previously been part of my client base aren’t yet ready for my message, I’ll be ready when they are.
My passion drives my actions. And my actions drive my motivation. It’s a wonderful structure to focus on to approach each and every day with a sense of excitement, not one of dread.
And so my simple reality is the same as Ian’s – while the corporate world might not yet be ready for the insight I can provide them, they will be.
Just as Ian’s classroom kids will be.
Thanks Ian! See you on the links!
Video: “Revisiting Our Future: How the Global Pandemic Has Accelerated, Twisted, Disrupted and Forever Changed Our Understanding of What Comes Next!”
I filmed in the home broadcast studio yesterday. It’s a clip that outlines ten trends that are evolving now, in real time, as a result of the global pandemic. It’s 8 minutes long, and crystallizes some of my thinking as to how Covid-19 and the global pandemic has reshaped our future, particularly in light of the trends which were previously defining our future.
Overall, it’s based on a key theme I have adopted in my current talks and discussions, and which was the subject of my daily quote today: “The global pandemic has created a war between fast moving events and previously slow-moving organizations!”
Daily Inspiration: “The global pandemic has created a war between fast moving events and previously slow-moving organizations!”
“The global pandemic has created a war between fast moving events and previously slow-moving organizations!”– Futurist Jim Carroll
There’s a lot to unpack in this picture. As my mom would have said when I came down in the morning as an 8 year old with plaid pants, a checked shirt and striped socks, “It’s busy busy.” I’ll run with it.
For years, my go-to phrase on stage was the quote “The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow.” I took out the attribution – you can look it up if you like. Basically, a guy who is helping to destroy the world as we know it.
The image itself is from a talk a few years ago in London, England for a global food company – their theme was the need to align to faster innovation, disruption and industry transformation. They found me, listened to my message, and had me open the event.
The third and final observation is the quote – and that is something I’ve been using for a time – and which became a part of a future oriented video I filmed in the home broadcast studio yesterday. It’s 8 minutes long, and crystallizes some of my thinking as to how Covid-19 and the global pandemic has reshaped our future, particularly in light of the trends which were previously defining our future.
Think about the context of the phrase : “The global pandemic has created a war between fast moving events and previously slow-moving organizations!”
Now observe the reality of what has occurred:
- Health care organizations and the medical community talked incessantly about the opportunity of telemedicine, but never really got around to it in a substantive way. Boom!
- Retailers talked about the need for a better e-commerce strategy to deal with the reality of Amazon, but many never really became too serious about it. Boom!
- Manufacturing organizations knew that there was potential with 3D printing, the Industrial Internet of Things and Cobots, but never went much being the world of perpetual pilots. Boom!
- Companies talked about the need to explore the idea of a virtual workforce, but many never fully committed to it. Boom!
All of these trends accelerated because organizations were forced into the future, whether they liked it or not.
It’s funny what happens when your survival depends upon it!
Daily Inspiration: “Well, I did observe (checks notes…) ‘The greatest risks you face are found with the undefined…’”
“Well, I did observe (checks notes…) ‘The greatest risks you face are found with the undefined – with the trends that have not yet occurred…’” – Futurist Jim Carroll
No, I certainly did not predict the pandemic.
I couldn’t help but be aware of the commentary of Bill Gates and others who were alerting the world to the greatest of risks, but it was not something that I ever presumed or imagined could actually happen.
But today, I look back at my talk to the National Safety Council last September – a room full of 3,000 workplace occupational health and safety professionals – and wonder now about the unique, complex and bizarre circumstances they now find themselves coping with as they try to manage the safety of a workplace in these crazy times.
Before I went on stage last fall, my daily quote that morning alluded to a future of unknown risks and issues as perhaps the biggest safety risk of all – and I then end up using that observation in the form of my quote while on stage. (This is an easy throwaway prediction for a futurist – predict something unknown, and it’s bound to happen!)
Daily Inspiration: “The greatest risks you face are found with the undefined…..”
Here’s the clip:
And so, here we are in 2020, with dramatic, challenging and deadly new workplace issues that occupational health and safety professionals must manage that they probably never imagined they would face! And you! You might be faced with a demand to return to work with a leader who has no empathy, no concern in their soul for your worry, and no action that comforts you as to the safety of your surroundings.
Welcome to your future.
Think of the complexity of the issues as companies try to return to normal, people go back to work, and a silent, deadly killer lurks about in that very same workspace. Since it seems only a few people are fans of facts and reality these days, let’s consider those facts. (If you think Covid-19 came from 5G, well, maybe go climb a cell tower somewhere and bellow at the moon. Or something.)
First and foremost, Covid-19 and the workplace risk it presents are not going away any time soon. Already, there are signs that an early return in the US and elsewhere is causing a ‘second wave.’ Early, unneccessary workplace returns will only increase that challenge.
Second is the timing of the science. Even with all the hand washing and surface disinfecting and social distancing – Covid-19 lurks about and it will live with us until such time as there is a vaccine. And despite the media reports, that won’t happen crazy fast.
Third, many organizations and people seem to be actively pursuing a path of accepting accelerated risk simply out of some odd and ill informed desire to ‘get things back to normal.’ We seem to be caught in a world in which many just wish this thing would go away : you hear them around you; “I’ve had enough,” “I’m done with it,” “It’s time to move on.” That’s a nice sentiment, but the science of a virus has no respect for your desires.
Fourth is the behaviour of many of these people as they choose to live a ‘Covid-promiscuous‘ life, with behaviours that will put your very health — and life — at risk. Your new normal is that you must now return to a workplace risk in which you will have to work in close proximity to those people, who because of this ill-fated desire, basically don’t give a damn about you. They go out in the world without practicing social distancing, don’t sanitize or practice good disinfecting hygiene, or immerse themselves in crowds because ‘they are sick of it.’
Fifth is the legal situation. Companies are seeking a sort of blanket immunity legislation that will guard them against future lawsuits related to the return to work and Covid-19. What will this lead to? A weakening of safety protocols – in the absence of standards and defined expectations, companies can literally get away with murder.
So your future? You are now at risk because of the behaviour of others around you – and quite frankly, many of them simply don’t give a shit about you.
Welcome to 2020.
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