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We all think about the future. But futurists do it in a more structured way. In this conversation with Dr. Wendy Slusser of UCLA’s Livewell podcast, we explored questions of what it’s like to be a futurist. The podcast is available on the Livewell website, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
It is awesome to see the growing interest in the future and futurists. It is happening. If you are interested, welcome, and come on in.
Let me note, however, a bit of a challenge to professional futurists. A byproduct of this growing interest is people are are eager to identify as futurists. There is nothing to stop anyone from declaring themself a futurist, and some do it after reading a few books, watching videos, or taking a short course. Or an expert in a field decides to talk about its future and proclaims themselves a futurist. Irritating, you can probably understand, to those who have slogged their way through a degree, apprenticeship, and perhaps years of practice to earn their place. True, but….
… my position is “what a great ‘problem’ to have!” We have more interest than we can absorb. Yippee! The old-timers will remember “stealth futures” in which we hid our identity as futurists because we were thought of as weirdo fortune tellers. Now, everyone wants to be a futurist. Terrific, wonderful, and fabulous. Bring it on! Our task is to “bring ’em in” to the fold. Educate ’em, train ’em up. Use that enthusiasm to build more support for the work we do.
This episode with Wendy goes over some of the basics: How do people get involved in futures? What’s it like being an organizational futurist? How do we apply it? I believe these are very useful questions to put out there and discuss. They help to de-mystify our work and encourage more people to join us. My thanks to Wendy and her team for giving us this opportunity to spread the word! — Andy Hines
yes, all humans are futurists, and also innovators.
when it comes to futures, the average non-professional futurist is superior to the average professional futurist.
how? like this.
a professional futurist becomes aware of an eventual change. they research it and find other converging forces. they conclude that the change is imminent – next 10 years. they begin talking about it, writing about – and if they are a corporate futurist they begin injecting the idea into discussions as something that needs attention.
the non-professional futurists get tire of hearing about the change, as they are not caught up in the the details, and tell the professional to shut up. after enough backlash, the professional futurist stops talking about it and as time goes on they realize their timing was wrong – typically very wrong. or, they realize the way the change manifested was not really that close to what they imagined…
then, when the change is at the curve of the knee, at the neck if the hockey stick, the professional futurist, having been pummeled years ago, ignores the coming change like everybody else. then it happens…
thus the non-professional futurists were wrong ONCE, the professional futurist was wrong TWICE…