EveryIT Governance Committee

April 16, 2009

Meeting Tomorrow’s Challenges

thinking

thing

Change

Careers Century

For the 21st

What are some career titles we may see in local government in the future?

Change

AgileAdaptable

Efficient

Short term vs long term

Ownership vs OptionsLocation vs Options

• Weak signals are seeds of change that exist today and they can tell about big trends in the future.

• Weak signals are something odd or strange today.

signal

s

What are some weak signals that we are currently seeing related to government?

Weak

signal

s

But Even More is Required……….

• Government must understand that a constantly changing future requires collaboration with public, private and non-profit organizations to create a culture that supports continuous innovation.

• With this is mind, government needs to combine building capacities for new ways of thinking as well as act as a facilitator of creating networks of individuals and groups capable of adapting to an increasingly complex economy and society.

OpennessCollaborationCommunityTrust

5000 Days1/8 Second Away More DependentViral DistributionPages/Ideas/Data

BUTwhat are we doing?

Reaction• What are examples of changes to which we

are responding?

• What about our culture or organization encourages change (what should we keep doing)?

• What barriers get in the way of quickly respond to change?

• Which barriers could/should we remove?

to Change

EventsCause us to

9/11

Job Losses 15.7%

recessio

nOil

IRAQ Chin

a technolog

ygreed

??

How we understand the world

As difficult as it is, we need to question and challenge time-honored principles, concepts and

methods to include how we do economic development, how we educate, how we

govern, how we lead, even how we think.

??

How we relate to each other

Radical individualism, seeking power over others, and winning at all costs is counterproductive

in an interconnected world where building deeper collaboration will determine how we succeed as we

move from a relative simple world of one-best answers only to a more complex world where there are many effective ways of meeting interconnected

challenges such as climate changes, peak production of oil, and increased population. We will

need to find ways to help each other succeed.

??

How we think

• The Industrial Age created the need for linear thinkers who understood cause and effect in a reality already defined.

• The Connected Age requires non-linear thinkers able to see connections among diverse factors and ideas for innovation as well as to support the ability to adapt to emerging issues never before experienced.

??

How we educate and learn

• In a world requiring constant innovation, all ages will need to learn as much as possible, as deeply as possible, in as many areas of society as possible.

• Specialists and specialized generalists will need to work in collaboration.

• Content of knowledge will be as important as ever. • However with the explosion of knowledge, knowing where

to find information, how to ask an appropriate question and how to connect disparate ideas will be the three foundational principles of the way we learn.

• Technology will help us imagine the impact of that which is a weak signal for the future and those just emerging.

??

How we lead

• There will be a need for two types of leadership:

1. traditional leaders able to set goals and objectives and deal with known resources, both for projects as well as in crisis situation…

2. transformational leaders (master capacity builders) able to help seed new ways of thinking in others as well as build capacities for transformation in organizations and communities.

• The skills of a TL are totally different from those of a traditional leader.

??

How we govern

• As we move deeper into the twenty-first century, we will recognize that – the structure of our democracy is too constricted to

adapt quickly to changing conditions, and – the knowledge of an entire community will need to be

accessed and utilized. – The weak signal of mobile communications provides

the basis for a new platform to work with the public. – Elected officials and staff will become facilitators of

building networks of interested citizens around emerging issues as well as making immediate decisions as has been traditionally necessary.

??

How we find deeper meaning and purpose

• Our values are already shifting from identify and meaning based on material goods, power and achievement to the creative solutions of complex issues that require deeper relationships, creativity, and collaboration.

• This is evidenced in the values of the Millennials (under 30) who see no color, are concerned about the environment, and don’t buy into the 24/7 lifestyle of their baby boomer parents.

How we promote and maintain health

We will slowly move from intervention to prevention because of shifting emphasis to DNA analysis, building data bases, nutrition, and building community networks.

23&meTIME Magazine’s 2008 Invention of the Year………..

Get the latest on your DNA with $399 and a tube of saliva

??

How we relate to the planet and to Nature

The costs and capacities (or increasingly the lack of them) of the natural economy that is connected to the Industrial and Knowledge

Economy will be included as the way to understand how our overall economy needs to

be evaluated.

??

How we understand and work within a global economy

• Everything is connected in a global economy. Not just the past trend and emerging blowback of outsourcing, but the emergence of global innovation networks and new ideas initiated and developed by diverse people and organizations from different parts of the globe. The new focus on “instant manufacturing” is one example of this.

• With this in mind, Americans need to learn that their truths are just opinions, and need to become more adept at being open to new ideas and new principles that are part of other cultures.

??

The Language of Community Transformation

• Emphasize that there can not be true transformation if existing language is used. The language of today’s businesses were non-existent twenty years ago: outsourcing, the web, global innovation networks, nanotechnology, etc.

• Actually, instead of someone saying “using language that I can understand, they should be asking, “what new words, phrases and ideas do I need to learn so I can be competitive and viable in the next 5-10 years.”

from here?

do we

ShareContent -> Tools -> Dialogue -> Control

People Add Value

Adaptive Planning

Strategic Planning Vs

ReformTransformation

Vs

Think about a Future’s Institute

A Future’s Institute” would focus on thinking about the future to help 1. prepare a workforce that is more entrepreneurial and

innovative,

2. learning how to identify emerging trends, weak signals and new ideas that will impact how communities and business adapt to constant change,

3. developing a new kind of leadership comfortable with the uncertainty and ambiguity of a society that is rethinking how to grow, educate, govern and learn by utilizing technologies never before available or seen.

Develop Capacity Builders

Six most important skills: 1. the ability to think systemically, 2. the ability to see connections among diverse

factors and ideas, 3. the ability to spot trends and weak signals, 4. the ability to ask appropriate questions, 5. the ability to understand and utilize a diversity

of parallel processes, and 6. the ability to build capacities for transformation

in organizations and communities.

Created with information from:

• Catawba County Chamber of Commerce, Future Economy Council March 3, 2009.

• Rick Smyre’s Communities of the Future• http://communitiesofthefuture.org• Did You Know?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o9nmUB2qls

• 23 and me https://www.23andme.com/• Dewey Harris’ Department Head

presentation, April 6, 2009.

EveryIT Governance Committee

April 16, 2009

Meeting Tomorrow’s Challenges

thinking

thing