Future Intelligent Leadership Podcast: Exploring Foresight and Leadership for an AI-Augmented World - Episode 6: Shared Visions of The Future, Small Steps Equal Big Impact, Hope, Creating Futures of Flourishing

Episode 6: Shared Visions of The Future, Small Steps Equal Big Impact, Hope, Creating Futures of Flourishing

01/20/20 • 42 min

Future Intelligent Leadership Podcast: Exploring Foresight and Leadership for an AI-Augmented World

In this episode I am joined by Sonja Rasula in California and Dr. Claire Nelson in Jamaica.

Sonja is the founder of Unique Markets; an innovative, modern pop-up marketplaces for small business owners. It has taken place around the United States: Los Angeles, San Francisco, NYC, and Austin for example. Fashion mogul Eileen Fisher named Sonja '1 of 30 Women Entrepreneurs Changing the World', and Los Angeles Magazine awarded her 1 of 10 of LA's Most Inspiring Women. I First met Sonja while presenting my work at her event the Unique Camp. During Camp, small business owners spend 4 days in a digital free environment, while exploring their creativity, business, and human-to-human connection.
Claire is the the Chief Ideation Leader at the Futures Forum; a strategic foresight and sustainability engineering consultancy. She is also the founder and president of institute of Caribbean studies. She is a Key note speaker, presenting on the future in general and specifically on human rights and human flourishing. I met Claire while presenting at the World Futures Society Federation Conference in Mexico.

Today’s episode highlights the importance of individuals taking small steps towards a shared vision of the future. But also reveals the challenges of connection and confidence that individuals experience while taking actions. Leaders can be an example for others and inspire others to see how their individual action is significant, locally and globally.

I am reminded of my time working with the non-profit Kanu Hawaii. The mission of Kanu Hawaii is to empower people to build more environmentally sustainable, compassionate, and resilient communities rooted in personal commitments to change.
What this looks like in practice is people make small commitments formulated into “I WILL” statements. For example, “I will eating more locally grown food”, “I will connect my neighbors”, “I will ride my bike to work”, or “I will bring my own bag to the market.” Kanu Hawaii would track these small commitments to change, calculate their individual impact over time and then calculate the larger impact when thousands of people took the same action together.

Kanu Hawaii and this dialogue is a simple reminder that futures build inertia and moment through small decisions and daily human actions....When individuals take collective action towards a transparent shared vision, the desired future is more likely to emerge.

find out more: www.haku.global

In this episode I am joined by Sonja Rasula in California and Dr. Claire Nelson in Jamaica.

find out more: www.haku.global

Previous Episode

Episode 5: How Self-Awareness & Inner Dialogue shape the future, Safe Space for Play & Creativity, Foresight as a Company Hygiene

In todays episode of the Futures Intelligent Leadership Flowcast I am joined by John Sweeney in Kazazstan and Philippe Guichard in Australia.

John is an assistant professor of futures and foresight at Narxoz University in Almaty Kazakstan and Director at the Qazaq Research Institute for Futures Studies and a Foresight advisor for Interpol. John has organized, managed, and facilitated workshops and seminars, multi-stakeholder projects, and foresight gaming systems in both the public and private sector in over 45 countries in around the world.

Philippe Guichard is the founder and creative director at D2 Design and Development. He is an Award-winning international industrial designer with over 20 years of industrial and product design experience. He is also a TED x speaker and presented on the topic “Re-designing our world. Small Changes = Big impact.”

Todays dialogue seemed to focus in on the importance of the inner narrative and how that shapes lens and values through which leaders see the future. One point that John makes was in reference to a study that demonstrated how the narrative and metaphor frames choices and future possibilities.

In the study titled "Metaphors We Think With: The Role of Metaphor in Reasoning" (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0016782), for half of the participants, crime was metaphorically described as a beast preying on the city, and for the other half as a virus infecting the city. The results revealed that metaphors systematically influenced how people proposed solving a cities crime problem. When crime was framed metaphorically as a virus, participants proposed investigating the root causes and treating the problem by enacting social reform to inoculate the community, with emphasis on eradicating poverty and improving education. When crime was framed metaphorically as a beast, participants proposed catching and jailing criminals and enacting harsher enforcement laws.

In the dialogue John and Philippe also discussed the importance of self awareness for foresight, creating safe spaces to experiment through play and creativity, why command and control no longer works, the importance of collaboration for future leaders, and why foresight needs to be part of a companies hygiene.

Listen and Enjoy.
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Next Episode

Episode 7: Momentum in Uncertainty, Passing the Mic of Leadership, Living Your Values, Re-examining the Role of Leadership

Episode 7 of the Futures Intelligent Leadership Flowcast
In this episode I am joined by Flynn Coleman in New York and Drew Dudely in Canada. Interestingly they are both recent authors and their book topics are fresh on their minds.

About Flynn Coleman (flynncoleman.community)
Flynn is an international lawyer, professor and the Author of “A Human Algorithm: how artificial intelligence is redefining who we are. It is a groundbreaking narrative on the urgency of ethically designed AI and a guidebook to reimagining life in the era of intelligent technology.
Flynn has written extensively on issues of global citizenship, the future of work and purpose, emerging technologies, political reconciliation, war crimes, genocide, human and civil rights, humanitarian issues, innovation and design for social impact, and improving access to justice and education.

About Drew Dudley (https://www.drewdudley.com/)
Drew is the Author of “This is Day One: a practical guide to leadership that matters.” He is the Founder and Chief Catalyst of Day One Leadership an organization that helps individuals and organizations create cultures of leadership through the identification and operationalization of key leadership values.

Drew’s work, as you will learn in the episode, is focused on helping people identify and adopt a personal leadership philosophy rooted in value-driven decision making. Individuals who are seen as having a personal leadership philosophy are rated as 110% more effective as leaders, and are 130% more likely to be trusted.

The Dialogue
In the dialogue it is evident that both Flynn and Drew are well spoken and really understand the nature and importance of their work. We discuss how to build momentum towards the future within a context of uncertainty and complexity, by taking one day at a time. How to build values into the story of the future. Why we should re-examine the identity of leadership outside the constraints of influence and power. Why current leaders might need to give up their seat, or pass the mic to those who have not had a place or a voice in the future. And also the challenges of having the courage to give up your seat. The difference between equity and equality. Why leaders are not the center of the equation...
Let’s listen
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Find out more at www.haku.global