🎧 Listen to the audio (20 mins) I really wish I had answered the last question I was asked in 2022 (in front of hundreds of senior tech executives) differently. The Chief Human Resources Officer and host of this event asked me something that was especially important to this audience…

Showcasing and amplifying the thinking and work of this thoughtful collection of Female Futurists. — My colleague Emma and I could not be more excited to introduce you to the Femme Futurists Society. Allow me to start with a futurist mom story… Several years ago our uniquely well-resourced public school district made a commitment to better prepare our kids for the future by creating a…

As we contemplate the innovations in city living ahead, most considerations tend to take two very different paths… — Let your imagination fly as you realize that what a city looks and feels like in the future, can and will be completely re-conceived and reshaped. As we contemplate the innovations in city living ahead, most considerations tend to take two very different paths: On one hand, we are beginning…

“a collection of capacities that improve our ability to make more confident decisions in circumstances that are less static and reliable” — Amin Toufani — I still love tangible, hold-in-your-hand books. And while I miss the serendipity of walking through a huge bookstore — championing each author for working so hard to get their ideas out into the world — it’s hard not to appreciate the joy of having a new title or two (or…

What often keeps us on the sidelines is an inability to make sense of it all. — When you talk with the technologists, designers and entrepreneurs actively building the future and ask how far along we are, you almost always hear we’re only one (maybe two) percent in. As mind-blowing as that feels if we’re only a percent or two in, it is clear we will be…

“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” — Amelia Earhart, American Aviation Pioneer and Author — Despite only having locations in Texas and Mexico, H-E-B is one of the most beloved grocery chains in the U.S., beating out giants like Costco and Amazon. And because I live in Austin, I am lucky enough to be a customer. Founded in 1905, H-E-B is still privately held and…

There are huge breakdowns we are being called to address and equally huge opportunities to restructure everything. — Years before Apple launched the first iPhone, Nokia showed a prototype phone with a color touch screen and the ability to play games and shop online. But they were unable to actually bring it to market, spending long months “strategizing” and mired in internal politics, leading to a billion-dollar loss…

Conventional leadership principles were not designed for the demands of digital transformation. Interestingly, we don’t need to change what we think as much as how we think. — Recently a key retail executive forecast that their industry will change more in the next five years than it has in the past fifty. Another executive believes society will change more in the next fifty years than it has in the last three hundred. A recent headline declared that, “We…

What I Did, Heard, Experienced + Missed (and what I learned from each) — Many years ago, a small team of client and agency innovators asked me to introduce them to the people and the ideas that were forming the future. Dubbed “The Wonder Project”, I enthusiastically suggested we kick it off by all meeting in Austin for SXSW! But instead of support for…