“The courage to be vulnerable is not about winning or losing, it’s about the courage to show up when you can’t predict or control the outcome.”

- Dr. Brené Brown

The word trust gets a lot of airtime. All it takes is a quick flip through your favorite news source or social media feed for a hefty dose of reasons why we question our trust in the media, each other, our government, and business. In its recent report Trust and Distrust in America, the Pew Research Center confirms we’re experiencing a crisis in facts and truth. It’s a highly detailed study but makes a central point that this sad state of affairs is tied to the distrust we have in our institutions.

Anticipatory Democracy: The public’s active, conscious engagement in collectively shaping the future of their community, state or nation.^[1] 

In May, Toffler Associates hosted an event called Pinot and Ponder, which brought together 75 people to imagine what professional life and the nature of the workforce will be in 2040. The broad consensus was that by that point, machines will have taken over a significant number of the tasks currently performed by humans because. Last week, a colleague and I had the distinct pleasure of presenting the results of this discussion before the joint meeting of the Federal Foresight Community of Interest, the Public Sector Foresight Network, and the Association for Professional Futurists. The theme of this session centered on the disparate rates of progress between human and machine learning, and how education and government can most effectively create parity over the coming decades.

Nobody knows the future with certainty. We can, however, identify ongoing patterns of change.

- Alvin Toffler

“One thing, however, is certain: the world needs your leadership. As divisions continue to deepen, companies must demonstrate their commitment to the countries, regions, and communities where they operate, particularly on issues central to the world’s future prosperity.”

– Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock

If you haven’t been paying attention, you may have missed the important shift happening across the global investment community. The drumbeat for corporate executives to actively engage environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues has gotten louder and no longer can be ignored. Socially conscious investors are raising the volume on their call to action for companies to integrate robust ESG strategies with existing company operations. The expectation is that it is possible for corporations to increase financial value while being accountable for helping to solve issues facing humanity.

Future Shock is the individual’s and organization’s struggle to adapt to and manage the massive and rapid pace of change impacting every society and sector. When they coined the term, the Tofflers described it as a phenomenon and “dizzying disorientation brought on by the premature arrival of the future.”^[1] With the constant shifts in everything from technology innovation to politics to heuristics and faith systems, we experience a sense of being untethered from a reliable source of truth. In large measure, this disconcerting feeling of eroding trust has happened because of the constant free flow of information on our connected platforms. It’s ironic that we have confidence in the knowledge that we can’t have confidence in much of what we hear, see, and read.

Last summer, social media channels brought us stunning firsthand views of the violence, destruction, and extraordinary beauty of Hawaii’s erupting Kilauea volcano. Fast moving lava flowed from the summit crater through many underground tunnels and eruption vents. From May until August, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) provided daily updates of the amount of lava that was spreading across the island. By the time the eruption ended in August 2018, more than a mile of coastline was added along the big island’s southeast coast.

Earlier this week, an article from Packaging Digest came across my news feed and immediately caught my attention. The report, Nestlé Clarifies its Sustainable Packaging Vision, highlights the company's ambitious vision to make 100% of its product packaging to be reusable or recyclable by 2025.[1] While this public goal is exciting on its own, what is really compelling is the increasing number of such announcements and articles. We're seeing more and more reporting on actions taken, progress made, and ambitions pursued and achieved to address climate change and global sustainability.

In this conversation Deb Westphal, Chairman of the Board for Toffler Associates, talks with author and former GE Vice Chair Beth Comstock about the organizational transformation she led at GE through the rediscovery of the company culture and reigniting the passions that the company was founded on.

“The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.”

– Ronald Reagan, former U.S. President

The early hours of February 13th marked an important personal milestone. I had made it to the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro.