Hitting the Snooze Button on the future’s “Biggest Wake Up Call”

I was very pleased to review my futurist friend and colleague Richard Slaughter’s latest work “The Biggest Wake Up call in History” for the journal foresight. Richard has a track record of pushing the envelope in futures studies/foresight in terms of employing new perspectives, tool, and ideas. He does just that in this new book, in which he applies Integral Futures thinking to the challenge of what he terms the impending civilizational challenge. Thus the need for a wake up call. He provides a solidly supported argument for how present trends continued point toward potential disaster, in particular the over-use of resources and other environmental issues portend the spoiling of the planet’s ecosystem. Put simply, we’re fouling our nest, and not aware of how serious the issue is. If you haven’t been paying attention, this will make you! If you have, you’ll appreciate the elegant construction of the case. The book is not quite out yet, but I recommend you keep your eyes open. Andy Hines

About Andy Hines

Dr. Andy Hines is Program Coordinator at the University of Houston’s Graduate Program in Foresight, bringing together the experience he earned as an organizational, consulting, and academic futurist. He is also speaking, workshopping, and consulting through his firm Hinesight.

Before that, he was Managing Director of Social Technologies/Innovaro, and served as an Adjunct Professor with the university since 2004. Hines enjoyed earlier careers as a consulting and organizational futurist. He was a partner with Coates & Jarratt, Inc., a think tank and consulting firm that specialized in the study of the future. He was also Futurist & Senior Ideation Leader at Dow Chemical with a mission of using futures tools and knowledge to turn ideas into new business opportunities. Before that, Hines established and ran the Global Trends Program for the Kellogg Company.

Hines is motivated by a professional hunger to make foresight practical and useful, and he believes that foresight can help deliver the insight that is so needed in today’s organizations and the world. His goal, he says, is to infect as many change agents as possible with this message. Thus, he has honed a skill set designed to make foresight more actionable in organizations.

In this pursuit, he has authored five books: Teaching about the Future: The Basics of Foresight Education (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012); ConsumerShift: How Changing Values Are Reshaping the Consumer Landscape (No Limits Publishing, 2011); Thinking About the Future: Guidelines for Strategic Foresight (Social Technologies, 2007); 2025: Science and Technology Reshapes US and Global Society (Oak Hill, 1997); and Managing Your Future as an Association (ASAE, 1994) and has another in the hands of publishers: Teaching about the Future: The Basics of Foresight Education. He has also authored dozens of articles, speeches, and workshops, including the 2003 Emerald Literati Awards’ Outstanding Paper accolade for best article published in Foresight for “An Audit for Organizational Futurists” and the 2008 award for “Scenarios: The State of the Art.” He has appeared on several radio and television programs, PBS Houston, KRIV-26 News, and the CBS “Early Show.” He also co-founded and is former Chair of the Association of Professional Futurists.

Comments

Richard Slaughter says

December 16, 2010 at 8:28 pm

Hey Andy,

thanks for this. The book was launched in Sydney this week just as our new website came on line. So the book can be ordered through the latter in hard copy and PDF forms. An eBook version will follow shortly.

All the best, Richard.

Reply

Trackbacks

Are postmodern values enough? | Hinesight says:

September 1, 2012 at 9:02 am

[…] reviewed an excellent account of the situation from fellow futurist Richard, which he terms “The Biggest Wakeup Call in History.” If you’re a reader of ConsumerShift, or perhaps Spiral Dynamics or an Integral fan […]

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Houston Foresight Answers a Wake Up Call for On the Horizon – Preparing Professional Futurists... says:

September 23, 2013 at 4:14 pm

[…] a special issue “Overshoot and Collapse: a wake up call” in response to Richard Slaughter’s “Biggest Wakeup Call in History, for the most recent “On the Horizon.” In addition to serving as guest editor, Dennis […]

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Musings on links between Theory U and CLA | Hinesight....for Foresight says:

July 28, 2014 at 9:33 am

[…] individual. It’s a notion that we’ve heard from Richard Slaughter in his recent “Biggest Wake Up Call,” that is, starting with individual mindsets, and working from there. When we get to the top, […]

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Does Development Inevitably Lead to Disaster? | Hinesight....for Foresight says:

January 22, 2015 at 8:11 am

[…] ecosphere of planets? Hmmm. So, humanity is now wrestling with potential limits to growth; some say a global emergency; the article calls it a “sustainability crisis,” in that we may overshoot our carrying […]

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Will values shift “in time?” | Hinesight....for Foresight says:

August 2, 2016 at 2:29 pm

[…] the significant global issues ahead aka global emergency – as laid out in Richard Slaughter’s “Biggest Wakeup Call in History, and explored in a special issue of “On the […]

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