When everyone agrees on where the future is headed – especially when that destination is so far from our current reality – that’s not a sign of inevitability; it’s a sign that people have stopped thinking. A good time, perhaps, to hike out to some awkward, sideways headland where we can look things over from […]
Douglas Adams, that doyen of so much wisdom, once said I’ve come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies: 1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. 2. Anything that’s invented between […]
(Image source Flikr) Fortune favours the prepared mind. (Louis Pasteur) They say it also favours the brave. I have never been what I consider a risk-taker, nor considered myself particularly brave. But I do know that when my spider-sense tells me something I should listen. This is what has guided me in all that […]
Last week in an article in the Financial Review renown businessman David Gonski talked about the commoditisation of the professions. Let’s be professional and fight artificial intelligence. (David Gonski) Gonski is right on a number of fronts, but very wrong on others. He is totally right in that the humans in the workplace need […]
Last week I attended Philanthropy Australia’s 2016 National Conference in Sydney and CEO Sarah Davies opened the conversation with this quote from Victor Frankl. It resonated for me immediately because it highlighted two important elements of philanthropy. Firstly, the potential that lies in the interstice (the space between), where things are ill-defined, and Secondly, the […]
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to participate in the 2016 Sydney Link Festival as part of a panel facilitated by Narelle Clarke, and with Jamie Engel and Angie Abdilla. The topic we focused on was “Our Digital Futures”, as in the future of humanity – nothing like a small challenge to cover […]
(Image source Pintrest) I found this cartoon a while ago and it perfectly resonated with some of the conversations I’ve had with people about how they are, or aren’t!, coping with life in the digital world. The plain fact is that “digital” is here to stay, it is all around us and it is how […]
“There is no point trying to resist technological change … or … trying to delay the process. On the contrary, given the coming technological changes, how can we best prepare?” (Kristina Persson, Sweden’s Minister for the Future) In the 17th Century Blaise Pascal came up with his famous “wager” about the existence of God. After […]
Next week I will facilitate the first of our UK Digital Director workshops which will support the work being done as a part of NPC’s Digital Transformation programme. Over the past few months I have facilitated a number of pilot workshops for senior managers and directors of public sector organisations in Australia, and 2016 sees […]
Douglas Adams gave this wise counsel to Hitchhikers as they travelled around the Galaxy, and I would give the same advice to all those who are waking up to the need for “digital skills” in the modern economy and wondering what to do about it. Over the last few weeks I have attended a number […]
