Tomorrow
is in design today. Individuals, organizations and
communities who clearly recognize the forces of change that surround
them can focus their actions to shape their best possible future.
Acting with intention and foresight allows us to create the future we
want. Art of the Future works with clients to identify these forces of
change, to determine key leverage points and to develop strategies to
get them where they want to go.
| On to
Toronto and the World Future Society |
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Dynamic
Scenarios will be a hot topic
at the World Future Society's General Assembly to be held in Toronto in
July. Art of the Future is delivering a pre-conference workshop that
will introduce a group of strategic leaders to the Dynamic Scenario
Learning Process. And, in a plenary session as part of the Society's
three day program, Art of the Future will provide an overview of the
power of using Dynamic Scenarios. We're very proud of having been
selected for these roles by an organization that showcases the world's
most influential thought leaders in all areas of future thinking and
attracts strategic thinkers from around the globe to this annual event.
The World Future Society is a non-profit, non-partisan, international
organization with over 25,000 members. For more information on WFS and
the upcoming conference, go to www.wfs.org.
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| The Power
of Dynamic Scenarios |
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 Anika Savage first published the
Dynamic Scenarios approach in a chapter she co-authored in the book Learning
from the Future (under the name Audrey Schriefer) edited by
Randall & Fahey, published by Wiley
& Sons in 1998. She and Michael Sales have refined this powerful
approach that clients use to map a comprehensive landscape of the
future. Dynamic Scenarios combine the creativity and imagination of
scenario planning with the rigor of systems thinking developed by Peter
Senge in The Fifth Discipline. Art of the Future's unique
Dynamic Scenario Learning Process utilizes a Dynamic Scenario Generator
(DSG) that links key factors together in cause and effect
relationships. The DSG is sort of like a cuisinart of the future: plug
different values into the DSG's variables, and you can get a nearly
infinite number of futures. Once a set of distinct scenarios covering a
wide range of plausible futures have been identified, clients can move
into the future with a much higher level of preparedness and foresight.
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| Life
Sustaining Work |
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Art of the Future is committed to supporting a workplace where all
employees get positive energy from their work rather than having it
drained from them. Work should sustain people; it should fulfill their
hopes and their best aspirations for themselves rather than use them up
and spit them out. This graphic, published in Anika Schriefer's recent
article in the Journal of Corporate Real Estate shows what happens when
the workplace is seen as a whole system where positive forces reinforce
one another. It does not necessarily take dramatic change to create a
more life sustaining workplace. The leadership team of a client system
Michael is currently working with is making fairly subtle changes in
attitude and behavior, but the results are rippling through the whole
organization as everyone is invigorated with a new sense of purpose and
directness. They aren't just punching the clock; they are showing up
and are much more engaged. Broader horizons of change and possiblity
are opened up when workplace design is woven into the commitment to
Life Sustaining Work....
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Profiling
Michael Sales
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Michael is a believer in positive
energy and good strategy. He believes that when a team really gets
behind an organizational or a social strategy, remarkable
accomplishments can happen fast. Michael has a remarkable educational
background with degrees from Wharton and Harvard. But, he learned his
most profound lessons from three generations of entrepreneurs and
strategists on both sides of his family tree. He is instinctively
entrepreneurial, and he can turn any idea into a value proposition with
a strategy for action. His background and business acumen incline him
toward a broad range of interests.
In the early 70s, Michael was a producer of granola and other natural
foods. He was in at the ground floor of what has become a huge industry
with leaders like Whole Foods. Rather than making millions in the food
business, his sense of purpose led him to become fascinated by the
workings of complex systems.
Michael sold Ma Grets Granola and undertook an analysis of the
difficulties organizations experience in adopting new technologies. His
insights into the political context of technology decision-making won
him distinction as a researcher and led to his acceptance at the
Harvard School of Education program in Organizational Studies led by
Chris Argyris, Lee Bolman and Terry Deal. He emerged with a Doctorate
in Education (Ed.D.).
Upon graduation from Harvard, Michael became a leadership consultant.
His engagements have spanned a broad range of economic sectors. In the
last seven years, he has increasingly honed in on futurism as the key
question confronting leaders. In this era that stresses short term
thinking, it is the remarkable leader who chooses to focus on the
future in a disciplined yet creative way. It is exactly these visionary
leaders, wherever they might exist in the organizational or social
hierarchy, that can profit most by working with Michael.
Toward that end, Michael co-founded Art of the Future with a
co-visionary, Anika Schriefer. Together, they focus their energies on
making a difference in the future of work and the work environment,
helping to make the work experience more life sustaining than life
draining for client organizations and enhance client's business
performance in the process.
Find out more.... |
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