Yes, we’re “Hurtling to a scary future”
That is the headline of a January 3, 2010 article in the UK-based Sunday Times on the work of the Institute for the Future.
For me this headline perfectly captures the feeling many of us have about the future – that we’re on a high-speed, out of control race towards something that is bad and scary. And there is lots of evidence to support that there is indeed trouble ahead.
We’re heavily invested in the future
While there are a lot of doom and gloom sayers who want us to believe that all is lost, there is also an enormous collective energy and commitment dedicated to efforts to ensure that we’re shaping a future with possibilities.
Like most people I have both a personal and professional interest in the future. Life expectancy tables suggest that I still have a significant slice of future to experience personally. I am a parent of young adults and a grandparent of a little girl, for whom I wish a good and fulfilling future. Professionally I coach and develop several young leaders and young people who are on track to be significant players and shapers of the future in 5-15 years. And I care for humanity. Despite all our dumb choices and senseless self-destructive acts, I still believe that we can get it together to realize more of the potential wrapped in us.
If you care, become an intentional futurist
Sitting in the undeniable tension between the rising angst over the scary future we seems to be hurtling towards and the desire to take care of my big investment in the future I decided to do what I do best: Connect people and ideas in ways that will hopefully create new learning and hence new possibilities for actions.
So I started to read more widely and think more deeply about how we can best prepare ourselves to shape the future. This, after all, is what I’m doing every day – I just wanted to become more intentional and smarter about it, so that I can be a valuable resources to those I connect with.
As I as was reviewing professional futurist writings, I came across a quote that offered me a stimulating and powerful frame around what I was doing. Here’s how Richard Neville defines the role of a futurist:
“The role of a futurist (and anyone can be one) – is to honour the past, inhabit the present (notice what’s going on now) and engage the future – to be involved in a process of stimulating our friends and our loved ones and even strangers to getting to grips with the fact that the future itself is a race between self-discovery and self-destruction…”
Three ideas stimulated by this quote
Being a futurist is about paying attention to all the three time segments we’re all connected to: past, present and future. In this sense, we already ARE all “accidental” futurists. The question is: What is the quality of the attention we are paying to the past, present and future? And: What is our intention in doing so?
Being a futurist is about being in conversation with ourselves, our world, and with others. It is about conversations that influence what we do today that will help shape the nature of the future – not about predicting the future and waiting for it to unfold.
Being a futurist is about learning about ourselves, and not just about the “world out there”. Self-discovery and self-development in the context of engaging the future is futurist work that everyone who cares about the future need to take on as part of their responsibility.
Invitation
Recognize that you already are an accidental futurist, and consider becoming more intentional about your futurist role.
