Consensus can become a mechanism for defending the status quo when every difficult decision is softened into inaction.
It’s a funny job, being a futurist. Essentially, your job is to take people out of their comfort zone, by removing them from today, and taking them into tomorrow. Tomorrow, of course, involves challenge and change; opportunity and threat; hope and fear. Some people are ready for it; many others are not. With 25 years and more of helping people comprehend change and what comes next, I’ve come to learn a few things, best captured by an observation I often make on stage: “some people see a trend and see a threat. Innovators see the same trend, and see an opportunity!” Think about that phrase, and then think about three situations that just unfolded in the last several days: a large global financial services organization had been looking at me to come in and focus on what they needed to do to align themselves to faster consumer, technology, business model and other disruptive change — all the things I do. I had great interactions with one of the organizers who wanted to bring me in…