Futurist, Trends & Innovation Expert Speaker Jim Carroll

Futurist. Trends & Innovation Expert

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Daily inspiration: “Insurmountable opportunities…..can be beat!”

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“Those ‘insurmountable opportunities’ that block your way can always be beat!”

My youngest son turns 24 today. How did this happen?

Both my sons are remarkable young men, and both have made their way into my stories on stage over a 25 year speaking career – because they have been so inspirational! And so this quote comes from Thomas and the ‘hockey blocker,’ a story I first began telling on stage in 2003 as part of my ‘What I Learned from Frogs in Texas’ business parable.

The quote comes from Walt Kelly and was used in a well known Pogo strip – ‘We are faced with insurmountable opportunities.’ A massive admission of helpless defeat – but the embedded contradiction in the phrase is meant to get you thinking.

Which brings me to the hockey blocker – as seen in this photo.

For many years, I told the story on stage of Tom and his hockey blocker. You see, when he was 3, he wanted one (a goalie blocker glove). We explained to him that we wouldn’t just go and buy one at the spur of a moment…

So he made his own. Out of a cereal box. While he was at his sitters for the day. Because we told him he couldn’t have one, he made his own.

What an inspiration! He kept it and used it for two years, until it was absolutely falling apart.

Around that time, I often used Tom and the story of his hockey blocker as part of my “What I Learned from Frogs in Texas” story — which eventually became a book of the same title. His part in the story was the power of initiative, determination and action. It remains for me a powerful lesson.

Happy birthday Tom! Always make sure that you construct the hockey blockers in your life – and always take the initiative!

No block is too significant to get in the way of success! Around that time, I often used Tom and the story of his hockey blocker as part of my “What I Learned from Frogs in Texas” story — which eventually became a book of the same title. Read more about that remarkable story – and in essence, how the hockey blocker story became a part of a 3 minute stage performance that changed my life.

Happy birthday Tom! Always make sure that you construct the hockey blockers in your life – and always take the initiative!

Daily Inspiration: “Leap into the unknown…..”

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“Leap into the unknown. Ccourage will cushion your landing!”

It’s always most difficult to take that first step: but after that, you’ve got momentum on your side!

Big, bold decisions take guts, but inevitably, things will come to the point that it is clearly time to get moving. Action becomes inevitable. Initiative becomes oxygen. Decision-making is hyper-fuel.

Once you recognize that and get going, align to the momentum and prepare yourself for the ride!

What have I observed with over 25 years of experience in watching people and organization fail to align to fast trends? To miss opportunities for innovation and slide into inevitable sclerosis and failure?

Often, it’s this: an inability to take on the big decisions. Fear, uncertainty, worry, indecision. Organizational sclerosis clogs up their ability to move forward. They die.

There’s a reason the first part of my mantra involves the world “BIG” : Think big, start small, scale fast!

Thinking BIG will fill your tank with courage, because it will give you hope, a sense of opportunity, excitement for the future, even though there might be some trepidation with the unknown.

But that can be a better space than being stuck in the inevitable rut.

Courage is everything!

Daily Inspiration: “Failure? It’s often a self-fulfilling prophecy!”

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“Failure? It’s often a self-fulfilling prophecy!”

If you are on the tee box, looking at river, pond or hazard to cross, and you think about the trouble you are in, guess what. You’ll go in!

My son would watch me at #11 on my home course, Credit Valley, where we cross a river. My entire swing pattern would change; I would tense up, wind up, try to kill the ball. I’d slice left, and donate another ball to the river-god.

I’d even start to worry about the river long before I got to the river.

And after I went in a 2nd time, I’d have to go sit on the “Bench of Shame” on #12. Kudos to @bonesstabone for naming the bench.

It took a few years, but I like to think I’ve learned to approach the hole in a very different way. Our season doesn’t start for a few more weeks yet so I’ll discover that soon.

But today, I’m playing at Doral, which is full of water. It’s mindset over H2O today.

The same type of thinking can you hold back in business and in your personal life. If you set out with the idea of failure in mind, it’s pretty likely that you’ll fail.

And yet, failure is not necessarily a bad thing, if you view it as an opportunity for learning. I’ve studied what I call ‘world class innovators’, and here are some traits that they share:

  • world class innovators fail fast
  • world class innovators who fail fast learn faster as a result
  • world class innovators who learn faster from faster failure master faster markets!
  • lesson? World class innovators master faster markets because they master fast failure!

So there are really two types of failure that you might encounter in your life: predictive obsessive failure, and experiential failure.

My golf shot over water? Predictive obsessive failure!

The hours I will invest in my short game to master bunker shots and chip shots? Experiential failure!

Daily Inspiration: Are You Fred, or George?

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“Are you Fred or George? Wilma or Jane?” – #Futurist Jim Carroll


Your answer probably matters. Are you stuck in the past when the future is hurtling at us with staggering speed?

If you follow me, you’ll know I often tell the story of the time that the Jetsons met the Flintstones. That cartoon scene defines much of the world today. On stage, its’ a significant challenge!

Today I’m speaking at a dealer meeting for a comply in the transportation space. I know I’ve got a lot of folks in the room who won’t like the inevitable trends I will talk about – #selfdrivingcars, #autonomousvehicles, #electricvehicles and more.

They won’t like it because the future represents a threat to what they sell; it involves change; it takes them out of their comfort zone. That’s a natural human reaction to change.

Some of the folks in the room will have an open mind, and will be of a mindset that they need to start aligning themselves to future opportunities.

Yet others won’t – they’ll view my message with hostility, anger, negativity. The interesting thing is that the future is going to happen to them, regardless.

I spoke about this challenge when interviewed by the Las Vegas Business Press after speaking at an economic development conference:

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“We’re going to get to the 22nd century,” Carroll said. “We’re not going back to the 1950s. There are those who say, let’s focus on coal and wave a magic wand and bring back these manufacturing jobs, which are dead gone and not going to happen. If we look at the world of manufacturing, it’s all about robotics and 3-D printing. It’s all about mass customization and about the ability to design products faster and get them to market faster and highly intelligent connected products.”

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What is your choice?

Will you hang out with Fred Flintstone while he toils away in a future based upon coal, or are you George Jetson, firmly aligned to a future that involves wind, solar, renewables, microgrid, electric vehicles?

Your answer matters!

Why Innovation Thrives in the Building of Sandcastles!

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I’ll be busy studying some key innovation issues for the next week. I have assembled a crack project team with detailed skills to assist me with my research!

Way back in 2006, inspired by similar times, I wrote about how innovation thrives in the building of sandcastles!

It was a great post — and it made it into BusinessWeek. I thought it a fitting post to leave here while I’m busy immersed in my studies. With that, here’s my list of “10 Reasons Why Innovation Thrives in the Building of Sandcastles: and What We Can Learn From Such Creativity.”

  • Hierarchy has disappeared: In most cases, there isn’t a boss, a reporting structure, or anything else that can cause organizational sclerosis. People just pitch in and do what needs to be done. The lack of a hierarchy is implicit to most successful teams.
  • Creativity is implicit: Anyone can build a sandcastle. There are no rules or preconceived notions, other than some sand and water. The same thinking should drive corporate innovation efforts. Make do with what you’ve got and what you can find, and use creativity as your main asset.
  • If it doesn’t work the first time, do it again: It’s inevitable that a rogue wave will destroy your work. This only encourages you to fix the design, or rebuild it altogether. Setbacks are meaningless, and indeed, are part of the plan.
  • Experience doesn’t cloud insight: Parents listen to kids, kids get bored and move on to another rampart and do something awesome. The key to sandcastle building is the combined insight of several different generations: likely one of the most important foundations for success in corporate innovation today. (See my 10 Ideas post for more on this theme.)
  • Everyone picks up on the passion: People just join in and help to build. Eventually beach-neighbors join in, and the growing castle becomes a big collaborative effort. Organizations that can build similar levels of interest in the concept of innovation don’t simply succeed: they exceed!
  • Feedback is instant: You know right away how well your design works, particularly if it is at the waters edge, since everyone will make a comment on it as they walk by. That parallels’ the instantaneity of today’s markets: things are changing so fast, that you must have a constant ear tuned in to understand what your customers are telling you.
  • Competition is easily scoped: Need new ideas? Want to learn from the competition? Spend a few minutes walking up and down the beach and check out the other sandcastles. Study their design, their assumptions, and see how you can improve upon them. Do the same in the corporate world: develop a finely tuned radar that signals to you how and where your world is changing.
  • No idea is too dumb: There’s not a lot of criticism and bias in the building of sandcastles. Any idea is welcomed. People can contribute the skills they have. Everyone is a designer, a builder and an owner. Somehow the combination just works.
  • The reward is clear: At the end of the day, a great sandcastle provides a sense of accomplishment. Photos are taken, and the team talks about the experience. That’s why every innovation effort needs to be celebrated, highlighted, and championed into the corporate record.
  • It’s fun: Enough said. If an organization approaches a problem the same way, innovation and creativity can thrive.

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THE FUTURE BELONGS TO THOSE WHO ARE FAST features the best of the insight from Jim Carroll’s blog, in which he
covers issues related to creativity, innovation and future trends.

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