By Jesus Eduardo Gomez Navarro
Today is the best time to think about the future, and to travel there figuratively. The hope is that in doing so we lose ourselves, and then find ourselves. If we encourage others to do the same, we can become more resilient and “antifragile” for the challenges that lie ahead.
Bob Johansen, distinguished member of the Institute for the Future, says that the current environment is filled with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. The acronym VUCA, encompasses these variables. The concept has been used by the military, as well as in the business world, and these are the characteristics of the current environment. It is important to know how to deal with each of these components.
Claudia Quirós, certified futures strategist, says that the new normal is the “never normal.” She warns that we need to direct our culture to other dimensions, and radically change our attitude. «What we do and decide to do in the present influences the future.» Today, we begin to accept the new normality and we do not realize that we return to habits that do not favor us, and keep us exposed. Quirós describes this very well: “Through our windows we see trains pass, and overtake us on both sides. This generates the impression that we are also moving. But the reality is that we have not left the station.” Prevention and anticipation is what will give us resilience.
Nassim Taleb considers himself a skeptical empiricist. He used the concept of Antifragile, which is the property of becoming stronger in the face of stressors. Nature is a good example of antifragility. It is changeable and adaptive, it seeks long-term survival, it is filled with sacrifice and chaos, and as a whole it becomes stronger. Based on Taleb’s ideas, antifragility is the antidote to VUCA environments, and can be achieved by a practical and fallible attitudes. These will allow us to understand what happens in all random and disruptive dimensions. Accepting the role of rugged environments as necessary for history, knowledge, and technology.
Sociologist Zygmunt Bauman developed the concept of liquid modernity, whose base is flexibility, movement, flow, and the search for new experiences. This is in opposition to a solid that seeks to take root, stability, and control. Barry Schwartz tells us about the human tendency to be less satisfied with our decisions when we have more alternatives to choose from. The liquid creates anxiety as it requires reinventing itself all the time.
Neus Portas, founder of Learnability Hub, is the creator of the «Lean Learning» method. This gives us the opportunity to use tools, such as the learning canvas that promotes minimal viable learning, and an interesting resource for current and future survival, and development. Raquel Roca, a consultant on digital skills and the future of work, invites us to adopt a Knowmad mentality (or knowledge nomad), a term coined by John Moravec, highlighting what will give us the ability to adapt.
Rebeca Solnit encourages us in times where everything seems chaotic and we cannot see the end. In her book “Wanderlust, a history of walking” she describes the act of getting lost. It allows the development of independence, survival instinct, sense of orientation and potential for imagination. “We do not find ourselves until we are lost,” wrote H. D. Thoreau whom Solnit admires. “Never losing yourself is never living,” she affirms.
To start a trip to the future, you need to carry tools in your backpack to guide the thinkers of the future. The cone of the future, reminds us that there is not just one, but several futures, and that the view is 15-20 years away. The wheel of futures, allows us to discover in a practical and visual way, unlimited future consequences of a fact, decision or event. Let’s also carry our Knowmad-skills passport that Raquel Roca describes, and let’s take those trains that Quirós says will generate movement, resilience and anti-fragility, as well as creativity and innovation for our projects. That is the great idea of undertaking a trip to the future today.
*Published with permission from Mexico Industry, follow the link to continue reading:
https://mexicoindustry.com/invitado-editorial/por-que-emprender-hoy-un-viaje-al-futuro
