Ikigai is having a moment (again. I first read about it in 2018 when I read Héctor García and Francesc Miralles’ book). Ikigai is often presented as something to be found: a neatly defined purpose that sits at the intersection of what you love, what you’re good at,...
One of the most hopeful things neuroscience tells us is that we are natural explorers. Curiosity isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s how learning happens. Molecular biologist John Medina points out that, in learning environments, attention drops sharply after about ten...
I’ve been thinking about how I am often involved in creating multi-sensory, place-based futures with groups, and I’m reminded again of Miti Desai’s essay about her experience with the gurukul system of training. There is one moment from her writing that has stayed...
There is often a moment in the futures sessions that I facilitate when people stop asking, “Is this the right future?” and start asking, “What future are we willing to create together?” That’s the moment futures work starts to have impact. When we treat people and...
One of the most useful ideas I keep returning to is Adam Grant’s from his book Think Again: in a fast-changing world, the real advantage isn’t being right. It’s being able to think again. Futures processes are basically structured rethinking. We surface assumptions,...
I revisited Kristi Nelson’s reflections on deepening our comfort with uncertainty recently, and it got me thinking again about how, in futures and foresight work, uncertainty is often treated as a problem to solve. We scan for signals, build scenarios, model...
