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What We Provide
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| Client Success Stories | |||||
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| Who we are |
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Art + Business Connection |
Art of the
Future believes
that art and design already have
a potent impact on organizational
performance and that impact will grow exponentially in the years ahead
as rapid
commoditization of products and global competition for talent places a
premium
on the unique value that this approach adds.  Creativity,
innovation,
art
and
design
have a positive impact on business
performance in every aspect of business life: things
that
include...
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| Appreciative Inquiry |
Appreciative
Inquiry
is
a
process
based on the theory that deliberately making
positive
assumptions about people, organizations and relationships transforms
all
three. It celebrates the best in
individuals and groups. The
following
is
paraphrased
from
A
Positive
Revolution
in
Change:
Appreciative Inquiry
by David L. Cooperrider, the creator of the concept, and his colleague,
Diana Whitney,
at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve
University... Appreciative
Inquiry
is
about
the
search
for the best in people, their organizations, and the
relevant
world around them. It involves systematic discovery of what gives
“life” to a
living system when it is most alive, most effective, and most capable
of
achievement in economic, ecological, and human terms. AI involves the
art and
practice of asking questions that strengthen a system’s capacity to
apprehend,
anticipate, and heighten positive potential AI draws on the speed of
imagination and innovation; instead of negation, criticism, and
spiraling
diagnosis, there is discovery, dream, and design. AI seeks builds on constructive
insights
into
past
and
present
capacities: achievements, assets, unexplored potentials, innovations,
strengths, elevated thoughts, opportunities, benchmarks, high point
moments,
lived values, traditions, strategic competencies, stories, expressions
of
wisdom, insights into the deeper corporate spirit or soul-- and visions
of
valued and possible futures. Taking all of these together as a gestalt,
AI
deliberately, in everything it does, seeks to work from accounts of
this “positive
change core”—and it assumes that every living system has many untapped
and rich
and inspiring accounts of the positive. Link the energy of this core
directly
to any change agenda and changes never thought possible are suddenly
and
democratically mobilized.
Learn more about our Appreciative Inquiry Workshop. |
| Convening the Conversation |
The conversation
between organizational decision-makers and opinion leaders
builds upon
initial actions. No matter how good an
initial set of ideas might be, conditions are constantly changing. An
organization's strategic conversation must stay current by
monitoring,
revisiting, and revising approaches in light of inevitable dynamic
evolution. New technologies, for example,
will affect
the status quo and sometimes make it obsolete.
Competitor actions and reactions will create the
need for
continuous
assessment. Once the dialog has been
convened, it will establish a forum and a process to anticipate change,
prepare
appropriate responses, and to be able to implement effective solutions
in a
timely, effective manner. In the normal course of
daily business, the importance of functions being and staying aligned
is often neglected. We will keep the focus on establishing and
maintaining this critical dialog. |
|
Cultural Dynamics |
The composition of the emerging workforce is morphing at hyperspeed. Every day new research and reports demonstrate that the workplace encompasses people from more and more different on the basis of:
And this is just the beginning list! Every organizational culture has its own distinctive perspective on matters such as:
Organizational
expectations
on these topics frequently don’t match up with those held by the
individuals
and groups who make up the workforce. Art of the
Futures Cultural
Dynamic services make it easier for Anticipatory Leaders to understand
cultural
dynamics and integrate them into action plans that enjoy wide support. |
| Executive Coaching | Executive
coaching develops leaders capacity
to achieve
successful implemention of the organization's strategic agenda. Strategic planning frequently
call
upon
organizational
leaders
to
change the way things have been done in a dramatic way.
Gaining greater insight into the future may
demand significant changes, both personally and organizationally. The
executive who receives Art of the Future’s coaching has a "teammate" to
help him
or her to address difficult or unfamiliar situations created with
greater
confidence, effectiveness, and mastery. Executive coaching creates an
intimate
connection that provides the person being coached with special
strength,
insight and wisdom. An effective executive coaching relationship
is a
collaborative learning experience that involves openness and reflection
on the
part of both the client and the coach. Art
of
the
Future’s
coaching
is
not psychotherapy. It
is
not an analysis of present-day issues through the lens of a person's
early
developmental experiences or through the evolution of an individual's
unconscious. Our coaching focuses on a client's current reality and on
organizational goals. It helps people map the social system that they
are part of.
That analytical/reflective process allows one to understand how one
affects a
system and how one is, in turn, affected by it. Perhaps most
importantly,
executive coaching encourages clients to look into what they are doing
that
might be contributing to any problems they are facing and what they
could be
doing to approach systemic conditions more effectively. Executive
coaching
helps them to develop the courage to make stretches outside the
"comfort
zone." |
| Facilitation |
The need for true learning conversations is present across all range of endeavors. Anticipatory Leaders have to attract the best and most forthright thinking across a range of perspectives. Community builders need participation from many stakeholder groups. Workplace strategy requires frank and open discussion across functional lines to integrate the best ideas. Toward this end, Art of the Future offers both direct facilitation of important conversations and facilitation training. |
|
Family Business Dynamics |
Over 90% of all American enterprises are family controlled, including something like 40% of the Fortune 1000 corporations. The percentage is even higher in other societies. Family businesses have given many Anticipatory Leaders a platform for greatness. Family businesses have frequently been the birthing grounds for noble experimentation in workplace strategy, great innovative thinking and support for community development. Family controlled firms are less susceptible to the short term thinking that can plague public firms having to show speculative investors improved profitability every quarter. On the other hand, family businesses are often havens for cronyism and unprofessional behavior. Successful family enterprises must weave together a delicate knitting of diverse interests. Those who own the business may not have the same economic objectives as those who manage it; and those who manage it may not be aligned with the emotional needs and the traditions of the families affected by the fortunes of the firm. These matters become especially acute when power is shifting from one generation to the next. Art of the Future has extensive experience in helping progressive family controlled firms analyze and choose between future options. |
| Anticipatory Leadership Development |
Creating a sense of confidence
and hope when facing a risky future is one of the key ingredients of
Anticipatory Leadership. The thrust
of Structural Dynamics is to
develop the competency of individuals, teams and organizations to
understand the driving forces shaping the future. This way of
thinking expands the leadership capabilities of anyone or any
organization that uses it. Art of the Future’s executive coaching services make a practical contribution to those who want to become skillful Anticipatory Leaders. This form of coaching from a systems perspective draws on a range of leadership ideas and practices, such as Lee Bolman and Terry Deal’s “four frames:”
Our approach is tailored to the leader’s and the organization's unique challenges, experience, and aspirations. |
| Mental Models | Mental
models
are
deeply
ingrained
assumptions
that shape our understanding of the world and influence our
actions and decisions. A
great
deal of highly relevant information lies within the organization at all
levels. We can maximize the
full advantage of this knowledge and also identify where assumptions
about the future may be limiting full consideration of a wide range of
possibilities. Common wisdom coined the phrase, "What you see is what you get," and it turns out that science is in hearty agreement with this perception. Research validates that we all pay selective attention to the whirling buzzing hum of daily life. And, the more complex and complicated our lives are, the more it is natural to yearn for mental and emotional structures and attitudes that simplify our situation and make it easier to choose between options for action. Mental models, according to Peter Senge, are our habitual ways of making sense out of the world, i.e., for coding and classifying the data of experience. It is as though we all have internal theories about the world and how we should operate within it. Usually, these mental models function outside of conscious awareness and consist of a bundle of assumptions, recollections and meaning making activities we don't think about. Frequently, our mental models are highly functional, and there is no reason to inspect them. For example, when we're approaching a red light, we don't have to give much thought to the assumption that the people who have the green light have the right of way and that we should come to a stop. However, there are plenty of times when our mental models and our mindsets (i.e., consistent points of view that we have about the world and people in it) are either out of date, incomplete or inaccurate in some way. Furthermore, the more ambiguous and complicated reality truly is, the more likely it is that one's mental models will be imperfect or incomplete in a way that obstructs thoughtful and creative problem solving. So, as Marcel Proust said, we often see things not as they are but as we are. We have learned to see situations and people in a particular kind of way that is limited and limiting. Not paying attention to our own thought processes or having an uncritical point of view about our mental models invites trouble, especially in organizational and social life where it is almost certain that we'll be dealing with people who don't share our own point of view. |
| Organizational Development | The Structural Dynamics process
is an organization
development framework. Organizations will want to face the
future
with the strong grounding in facts and analysis that this learning
process provides. However, it can be very challenging to change
existing behaviors, ways of thinking and value systems especially when
they have led to positive results. Organization Development is a
capacity building process by which organizations become better able to
act on the robust strategies that are discovered in a Structural
Dynamics initiative. Art of the Future’s organization development services include: The
Organization Workshop
The Merging Cultures Workshop The Idea Factory Facilitation Skills Training Convening the Conversation Meeting Facilitation The System Time Out Process Collaboration Skills Training The Shared Vision Process Executive Coaching |
| Power Dynamics |
Organizations of all types must be persistently resilient, creative and innovative as they face pitiless turbulence and rapidly accelerating change in their environments. However, the power dynamics of organizational life frequently thwart their ability to act and react with sufficient agility. Every organization and every social system has a power structure. Some individuals and teams are more influential than others. Some use their power in ways that make them more rigid, and others use it in ways that make their organizations more nimble. Some organizations incline toward a command and control power structure while others foster distributed leadership. Too much hierarchy and power politics can result in organizational paralysis. By using power to build partnership and organizational learning, the prospect of success in today’s hyper-complex environment is vastly increased. Art of the Future’s workshops and consulting services that focus on power dynamics help Anticipatory Leaders, Community Builders and Workplace Strategists mobilize energies toward the positive power that brings about needed growth rather than preventing it. |
| Rapid Ethnography | A
targeted approach to ethnograhy that accrues much of the
benefit within limited time constraints. This approach to
ethnography was used to conduct a comprehensive study on the impact of
technology, particularly the Internet, on work and the work
environment. For a description of
this application of rapid ethnography to work and workplace research,
see: Ethnographic
Study: Impact of Technology on Work and the Work Environment
CHI Research Poster on Rapic Ethnography |
| Scanning | The process of reviewing a wide
range of data sources and talking with visionary thinkers to identify early warning signs Objectives of Scanning:
Emergence of an Issue:  |
|
Scenario Analysis |
One thing is known about the
future: It will be very different from what we expect! This is an
era of change and discontinuity in every aspect of life. Fifteen
years ago, virtually no one could have predicted the impact of the
Internet on so many aspects of our daily life. So today there are
nascent forces at work that will dramatically shape life in the near
future that few can discern. Those individuals, teams and organizations
that anticipate possible futures and prepare for them have a clear
advantage over those who simply react to tomorrow after it's already
here. Scenario
Analysis
takes a structured approach to testing
strategic actions we may take in the present against possible future
developments and assessing the outcomes. It is a creative and
engrossing way to turn raw information into stories that contain
knowledge and demonstrate foresight. Scenario Analysis would help any
organization facing:
Art of the Future's unique approach to Scenario Analysis is Structural Dynamics. |
|
Strategic Planning |
Strategic Planning is a
catchall term for describing a range of methods used to discover and
execute steps that guide the totality of an organization’s behavior. Art of the Future
concentrates on the imaginative front end of the strategic planning
process while providing clients with the insight and information they
need to start implementing the action steps that come out of a useful
creative process. Drawing on the design
sensibilities of artistic thinking, Art of the Future’s strategic
planning workshops and consultation provide Anticipatory Leaders with a
distinctive advantage over others who don’t know how to look as deeply
at the forces shaping a competitive environment.
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|
Structural Dynamics |
Structural
Dynamics is a
step-by-step process for integrating creativity and analysis to
understand the underlying structure driving change in any strategic
arena. The structure of a situation is permanent. Even with
highly complex systems, understanding the structure underlying the
focus of an analysis highlights leverage points for make effective
interventions. The Structural Dynamics process ignites the
imagination and results in the discovery of well-articulated, robust
and compelling strategies. The graphic below captures the flow of this signature offering from Art of the Future. It also shows the eight sessions that comprise the Structural Dynamics process.  |
|
Systems Thinking |
Complexity and dynamism can best
be understood in the context of a “system.” A characteristic of
any system is that the behavior of each element has an effect on the
behavior of the system as a whole. For example, the actions of an
individual doctor can affect many elements in the work system within a
hospital. The actions of an individual manager can affect many of the
sub-units within the operational system of a corporation. The actions
of customers can affect many of the other elements in the system that
constitutes an “industry”: suppliers of raw materials and components,
various manufacturers or solution providers, distribution channels,
retailers, the industry association, lobbying groups, and legislative
bodies, among others. In short, any system is more than the sum of its
parts.  |
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Union- Management Relations |
The interests of labor and those of capital are frequently at odds. Both workers and those who they perform services have legitimate interests, but they are not the same. Workers are often affected by the decisions of managers and owners whose thinking they exert little control over. On the other hand, managers and owners want to be able to move quickly to take advantage of opportunities and defend against threats shaping up in organizational environments without being slowed down by working through the interests and concerns of the workforce. Workers want to know how they will get health care and managers don’t want to be saddled with labor costs competitors don’t pay. Both camps wield power and both need each other. Art of the Future has experience in helping Anticipatory Leaders in both management and labor understand the forces driving their differences. New insights will support a search for pathways toward collaboration and partnership that don’t violate their basic values or ask them to give up their primary objectives. |
| Workplace Strategy | 
Technology, globalization, and lifestyle are impacting how, when and where we work. People, place, process, and policies must be aligned to optimize performance and to attract and keep key talent. Beyond the objective of producing desired results, a workplace strategy that results in a life sustaining, rather than a life draining, environment is a worthy end in and of itself. Increasingly, empowered people are demanding an engaging working environment, and they deserve it. This trend is ever more pronounced with educated young workers used to very high levels of self-regulation. Art of the Future can help you determine the right balance for your organization between...
We can work with you to tailor the work environment to....
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Workshop Design |
There are many occasions where organizations want to hold an event that will anticipate the future and mobilize positive energy. The assumption of organizational leadership by someone with a new vision, addressing some pressing problem such as the need to rebuild an organization after downsizing, or initiating an important conversation about a controversial new strategic direction are all examples of occasions where custom designed conference might make sense. Frequently, there is no pre-existing design for such a meeting, and a powerful experience has to be designed from scratch or put together using existing modules in a new way. While many of Art of the Future’s existing workshop offering address the needs of Anticipatory Leaders, Community Builders and Workplace Strategists, we can design programs to meet your specifications both drawing upon existing proven design ingredients and inventing new components based on the distinctive needs of the situation. |