The concept
The ability to align decision and execution speed with the pace of the environment.
Why Daily Inspiration matters to the lineage
A named concept rarely arrives fully formed. Daily Inspiration gives us dated evidence of the language, examples and applications surrounding the idea as it developed.
The entries below are not presented as proof that every use is identical. They are a concept genealogy: places where the underlying thought appears, is tested, is applied to a different context, or becomes more explicit.
Evolution through the series
2005-12-23 — 10 Great Words for 2006
Five years ago, I didn’t know how to ski. Well, I had skiied a bit as a kid, but never really picked it up. Then my wife and I decided after 9/11 that skiing would be a wonderful way to deal with all the new uncertainty in the world.
2016-08-26 — Relentless Innovation! Three Simple Words For Success…
What are the big issues that organizations need to be focused on? Think about three simple words: transformation, acceleration, and collaboration. That’s been the focus of a number of CEO-level keynotes I’ve done.
2016-11-28 — Daily Inspiration: “Expect velocity. Plan for acceleration. Structure for intensity. Execute relentlessly”
“Expect velocity. Plan for acceleration. Structure for intensity.
2016-12-28 — Daily Inspiration: “Think fast. Act faster!”
“Think fast. Act faster!” - Futurist Jim Carroll
2023-01-11 — Daily Inspiration: “It’s time to move from triage to tomorrow!”
“It’s time to move from triage to tomorrow!” - Futurist Jim Carroll Next month will mark 3 years since individuals and organizations began to go through the largest disruption they will ever know. With lockdowns, a staggering loss of human life, work-from-home, and the rapid emergence of a digital lifestyle and e-commerce infrastructure - we all had to learn to adapt quickly. As I close out this series of 23 Trends for 2023, I’ve been thinking long and hard as to what the final, all-encompassing trend should be; to be honest, I’ve had several.
2023-06-06 — Daily Inspiration: “You’ll never get to the future if you never attempt the future!”
“You’ll never get to the future if you never attempt the future! ”- Futurist Jim Carroll If you are into that type of thing you might have tuned into Apple’s WWDC event yesterday to get a first look at their new VR/AR headset - or, what they are calling their new spatial computing device. And if you are like me, you would have been pretty shocked by the price at $3,499 (or about $5,000 Canadian, my home country.) You would have been really disappointed in the tether wire necessary for longer-lasting battery power.
2024-01-15 — Daily Inspiration: Healthcare and the Future - “You can always look forward by looking back!”
“You can always look forward by looking back!” - Futurist Jim Carroll “16 years ago, Futurist Jim Carroll spoke in Washington DC on the future of healthcare. He challenged the audience to think about what the world of healthcare would look like one day in the future - picking an arbitrary, random date of January 15, 2020. Now, 16 years later, take a look at how he did with his predictions!
2025-01-03 — Daily Inspiration: (Grading My 2014 Predictions About 2025) - “Sometimes you need not be right you just need to be bold!”
“Sometimes you need not be right you just need to be bold!” - Futurist Jim Carroll Welcome to 2025! Back in 2014, I wrote a series of predictions about 2025 - in a document titled, of all things, ‘25 Trends for 2025’. (Intuitive!) At the time I wrote it, most of the news media were busy, as they are every year, contacting futurists, trend forecasters, and guys like me to bang together their year-end articles about “what comes next?
2025-05-23 — Decoding Tomorrow: Your Daily Future Inspiration – “You can escape the mediocrity you once embraced, but will you ever fully eradicate it?”
“You can escape the mediocrity you once embraced, but will you ever fully eradicate it?” - Futurist Jim Carroll It’s been a wild voyage bringing these two books to print in just a few months, and I’m loving the feedback and comments from those who have picked up copies. (Are you in? You can grab copies at the Mediocrity website !) But while working on them, I’m always thinking.
2025-05-29 — Decoding Tomorrow: Your Daily Future Inspiration – “There is no shortage of big opportunities.. There is a shortage of bold leadership!”
“There is no shortage of big opportunities.. There is a shortage of bold leadership!” = Futurist Jim Carroll One of my fellow futurists recently included this line in a post I read - “We should be pulling more photons from the sun.” He wrote it as an observation when he was flying into an American city, and saw an absolute dearth of solar panels on the roofs of homes and buildings. Solar energy - the infrastructure at least - has become desperately cheap and tremendously productive, and we are missing such a big opportunity.
2025-09-24 — Decoding Tomorrow: The Way Forward: #2 Agriculture- The farmer of the future is part biologist, part data scientist, and part roboticist—but is still 100% an optimist who plants a seed and believes in tomorrow.”
“The farmer of the future is part biologist, part data scientist, and part roboticist—but is still 100% an optimist who plants a seed and believes in tomorrow.” - Futurist Jim Carroll In 2025, the headwinds are severe, and the path forward seems shrouded in fog. We’re living through one of the most volatile and unpredictable periods in recent memory. With that being the case, I am writing this new series, The Way Forward: A Trends and Transformation Series, taking a look at the trends redefining industries, and actionable strategies organizations must pursue to align to these realities.
2025-11-11 — Daily Inspiration: ““At an age when most boys sought adventure, he sought duty.”
“At an age when most boys sought adventure, he sought duty, trading the Corporal’s badge for the hidden path of a scout—becoming the eyes and ears of a fighting division.” - Futurist Jim Carroll My dad joined the Canadian Army at the age of 16, one day after Poland was invaded. Not only that, he downgraded his rank voluntarily while in Italy so that he could be a motorcycle patrol scout on the front lines. Today, as we mark November 11 - known as Remembrance Day in Canada - I’ll share the details I learned about my dad’s service in World War 2 after finally obtaining his war records.
2025-12-02 — Decoding Tomorrow: Mastering 2026 – #9: “Know this: if your goals feel ‘realistic,’ you are thinking too small.”
“Know this: if your goals feel ‘realistic,’ you are thinking too small.” - Futurist Jim Carroll We are on Day 9. You’ve committed to the pivot (Day 7), and you are increasing your execution velocity (Day 8). You are moving faster.
2025-12-10 — Decoding Tomorrow: Mastering 2026 – #15 Escape Velocity “Scale immediately or fail slowly. There is no middle ground.”
“Scale immediately or fail slowly. There is no middle ground.”- Futurist Jim Carroll We are on Day 15! You’ve listened to the edge (Day 13) and filtered out the hype to find a real structural signal (Day 14).
2026-06-05 — Daily Inspiration: “Challenge your assumptions. Do the actual work. Never stop looking forward.”
“Challenge your assumptions. Do the actual work. Never stop looking forward.” - Futurist Jim Carroll My 3 rules for navigating a volatile world?
2026-06-08 — Daily Inspiration: “If the future belongs to those who are fast, know that excuses are slow. Solutions are speed.”
“If the future belongs to those who are fast, know that excuses are slow. Solutions are speed.” - Futurist Jim Carroll Here’s what I’m thinking about this Monday morning: the reality check on human nature in the corporate world. Over the years, hundreds of my keynotes have focused on concepts related to innovation: how to understand it, how to embed it within a team, how to achieve it.
2026-06-19 — The Future, Mapped: 30 Years of Thinking About What Comes Next
I’ve been a futurist for more than 30 years. In that time I’ve written close to 5,000 posts, delivered over 2,000 keynotes, and tracked the trends that quietly reshape industries long before they make the headlines. Recently I did something I’d put off for years: I stepped back and organized all of it.
2026-07-15 — Daily Inspiration: “Make it make sense? Nope. Not right now.”
“Make it make sense? Nope. Not right now.” - Futurist Jim Carroll We live in a time when countless numbers of otherwise rational, intelligent people are making decisions that are anything but intelligent or rational.
What the lineage shows
Across these dated receipts, agility speed belongs to a recurring way of thinking about adaptation: notice change early, challenge inherited assumptions, learn through action and build the capacity to move before circumstances remove the choice.
Strategic question
Where does this concept show up in our own operating model, and what evidence would tell us it is becoming more important?