The 20th century ways of working included hierarchies, proven methods, and following the rules. Even with the digital revolution in the 2000s, things moved relatively slowly. Companies valued best practices, centralized decision-making, and maintained walls around almost everything. In many cases this is still the case.

The problem is: Best Practices are by definition based on the past. What we need now is Next Practices.

C.K. Prahalad created the Next Practices concept and I strongly believe it is essential to all of us today. https://hbr.org/2010/04/column-best-practices-get-you-only-so-far

“Next practices are all about innovation: imagining what the future will look like; identifying the mega-opportunities that will arise; and building capabilities to capitalize on them.”

They involve feedback loops, test and learn, experiment.

My conversation with Jillian Reilly focuses on these ideas, and her work on The Ten Permissions moves us closer still to Next Practices. Some of her Permissions are already “Next Practices”. The behaviors in my work Gig Mindset Advantage also stretch to radically new ways of working.

What are your thoughts?

Next Practices - article by C.K. Prahalad. “If you look for ways to develop next practices, opportunities abound. In fact, executives are constrained not by resources but by their imagination.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._K._Prahalad

The Ten Permissions, Jillian Reilly

https://imaginize.world/the-ten-permissions-ai-with-jillian-reilly/

The Gig Mindset Advantage, myself, https://netjmc.com/the-gig-mindset-advantage-home/

My book The Gig Mindset Advantage was published in 2021. It was ahead of its time. The subtitle was Why a Bold New Breed of Employee Is Your Organization’s Secret Weapon in Volatile Times.

What follows is an extract from the conclusion “Living the Gig Mindset”. It includes the Gig Mindset Manifesto which is even more meaningful today than back in 2020 when I wrote it.

Extract from the Conclusion, summarized for brevity:

Today work cultures are primarily based on the traditional mindset, with small doses of the gig mindset.

Tomorrow we will see workplaces that primarily reflect the gig-mindset way of working, with doses of the traditional mindset, but only where it brings value.

Organizations that live the gig mindset advantage will be more relevant and resilient.

Uncertainty is the way of life. We will not move back to an age of stability and certainty in our work lives.

The reality is that our organizations have long been unstable; we just did not see it.

Confusion, sometimes chaos, resulted from repeated efforts to restructure the company, re-engineer work practices and implement change programs, most of which did not work.

The stakes are higher now as we are forced to create new working conditions in response to a host of global factors.

This volatility has been hard, but the good side is that it has both forced and stimulated people to discover new ways of working, of which the gig mindset is one.

I predict we are moving from “paradox to wholeness” over the coming years in three areas:

• From the individual vs. the group to a mutually beneficial balance with a new focus on we rather than me.

• From leaders vs. followers to an understanding that leadership is an outcome, not a position. Top-down and bottom-up are phrases we will no longer hear.

• From the inside vs. the outside to a new type of operational structure where inside and outside are no longer important distinctions. People are identified by their skills and expertise rather than by their company affiliation.

When organizations become more gig-mindset oriented in the work culture, they will be more relevant and resilient.

The only way this can happen is through individual people taking the lead.

What do I say when people ask me what to do?

My book offers a 10-point manifesto, to be personalized as appropriate by each person. The 10th point is the most important....

Gig Mindset Manifesto: Trust yourself, believe in your capabilities.

1. Work openly, sharing and seeking feedback.

2. Seek discussion, not consensus.

3. Accept uncertainty, build on it to create greater resilience.

4. Dare to challenge the status quo and to propose alternative approaches.

5. Take initiatives and involve others.

6. Trust and listen to the people on the edges, far from headquarters.

7. Ignore title and positions; focus instead on skills and knowledge.

8. Follow what’s happening in the external world, even in areas that are apparently unrelated to your work today.

9. Make time for learning and for sharing what you learn.

10. Trust yourself, and believe in your capabilities.

Read more: https://netjmc.com/the-gig-mindset-advantage-home/

I still have a few hardback copies of the book and would be happy to send you one. Drop me an email or message with your full name, postal address, and tell me why you would like a copy – I’m interested in knowing what triggered your request.

This is Part 3 and the last in my series Less is More. The Days of Perky Pat by Philip K. Dick, published in 1963.

Part 1 is Earth Abides by George R. Stewart. 1949

Part 2 is Less is More in World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks. 2006

All three are based on works I read several years ago and have never forgotten.

*************

In this story, survivors of a global thermonuclear war live in subterranean isolated enclaves in California, where survival care packages are dropped from Mars.

The adults choose a life of escapism and spend their time playing with Perky Pat dolls and organizing competitions. Their games are based on the past — a way of life that no longer exists.

They discover another group of survivors who also play a game with a doll, Connie Companion, who is more mature. She has grown, is married and has a child.

The care packages dropped from Mars to support the survivors of the war are not used to improve their way of life They are ignored, or integrated into the games. But the children of the survivors are not interested in games. They have begun to live a different life in their new environment.

Roles are reversed between the adults escaping in in games with dolls and young people adapting to a new life.

It makes me think of Earth Abides where the young people adapt much faster to the new “less-is-more” world.

Food for thought:

• What does “survival “mean?

• How do adults and children differ in their sense of reality? Fantasy of the past or acceptance of a new reality?

• Do young people adapt faster than older ones, and blue-collar workers faster than office people?

How can we prepare for change ‑ be ready for new ways of living in our new AI-influenced world?

What are your thoughts?

Links for more discoveries about The Days of Perky Pat and Philip K. Dick himself:

https://philipdick.com/mirror/websites/pkdweb/short_stories/The%20Days%20Of%20Perky%20Pat.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick

This is Part 2 in my series Less is More. Part 1 is Earth Abides by George R. Stewart. Part 3 Days of Perky Pat by Philip K. Dick

All three are based on works I read several years ago, and have never forgotten.

You may think the vision in this article is too dark. It may be. But I strongly believe we need to imagine the worst as part of our mental preparation for influencing the future we want to build.

Along the idea of a simpler world, we have World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks where a zombies plague has affected the world, destroying much of the way people live. The idea of zombies seems far-fetched, but as you get into the book, the obstacles, actions and results of people around the world fighting or protecting themselves from the zombies takes on a present-future time feeling.

Among the strong ideas in the book, we must avoid suicidal ignorance that comes from not knowing the basic survival skills. The section about life in the US after the zombies reverses common ideas about work.

The skills of newly-arrived immigrants were highly valued. In job retraining programs they were the instructors because they knew how to live with very little and improvise with what they had.

This book, which takes us around the world, is a massive accomplishment and deals with fears and uncertainties in realistic ways we can easily imagine living today.

Some extracts to give you a feeling:

“We needed to get a lot of white collars dirty”.

“A great many of our instructors were first-generation immigrants. These were the people who knew how to take care of themselves, how to survive on very little and work with what they had. These were the people who tended small gardens in their backyards, who repaired their own homes, who kept their appliances running for as long as mechanically possible.

It was crucial that these people teach the rest of us to break from our comfortable, disposable consumer lifestyle even though their labor had allowed us to maintain that lifestyle in the first place.”

…

“I met one gentleman on a coastal ferry from Portland to Seattle. He had worked in the licensing department for an advertising agency, specifically in charge of procuring the rights to classic rock songs for television commercials. Now he was a chimney sweep. Given that most homes in Seattle had lost their central heat and the winters were now longer and colder, he was seldom idle. “I help keep my neighbors warm,” he said proudly. I know it sounds a little too Norman Rockwell, but I hear stories like that all the time. “You see those shoes, I made them,” “That sweater, that’s my sheep’s wool,” “Like the corn? My garden.”

…

The Zombie War described by Brooks, forces us to see how our past life of working to move up, make money, free ourselves from manual work led to a whole new world. Think about it. Do you see signs of it today?

I believe we need to think about these fundamental changes as real possibilities in our world today. Look around us at the conflicts - real physical ones - wars some small, some larger. Look at the enormous differences in basic comforts between the global North and the global South. Look at the climate disasters happening more and more often.

What direction do you think things are moving? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Extracts World War Z (p. 138-139).

I singled out the most popular guests on Imaginize.World. Since their ideas had clearly moved their audiences, I looked again at their messages to see what themes stood out across this cohort:

• A global perspective instead of focusing on their own near environment

• Interest in working outside the system: self-organized learning vs. traditional schools, vibe coding vs. traditional software development

• Reversal of widely accepted positive cultures with a somewhat negative impact: productivity, automation

• Warnings about dangers that can happen if we are not careful, expressed in positive and helpful tones

Click on “Person” to see the guest’s page on Imaginize.World with links to videos, podcast, full transcripts, associated information. Click on the title links to go straight to the most popular short videos. If relevant, there is also a link to the Wikipedia page about them.

Here we go!

Marc Alessi is Director and Professor of Information and Robotics at the University of Michigan and a climate science fellow at the Union of Concerned Scientists. To bridge the gap between scientific research and policy-making, Marc emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary partnerships between climate scientists and lawyers to advance climate litigation strategies. Person. Fighting an Anti-Science Administration.

Sugata Mitra is an Indian educational theorist, computer scientist, and innovator renowned for challenging traditional education models. He created the famous “Hole in the Wall” experiment, which showed how students can learn without traditional teachers. His one-million-dollar TED prize in 2013 was given for his bold ideas and a vision for making global change. Person. Sugata Mitra Explains the Hole in the Wall Experiment How Kids Learn on Their Own and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugata_Mitra

Deb Chachra is a Canadian-American professor of engineering at Olin College, working at the intersection of technology and culture. Her 2023 book How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World was recognized by Publishers Weekly as a ‘Best Book of 2023’. She creates student-centered learning experiences with hands-on courses that help young technologists think in new ways about the world. Person The Ozone Hole. We Fixed it and Why It Matters Today and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deb_Chachra

Martynas Kairys , based in Lithuania, is Director of AI Strategy and Development at Shift4, a company redefining commerce by simplifying payments ecosystems across the world. He leads the AI initiatives in strategic planning, team leadership, and hands-on development work. He strongly believes in the importance of critical thinking and adaptability, especially for the younger generation. Person Vibe coding 101: Why it Matters

Mark Gröb applies advanced technologies for UPS—including AI, automation, and immersive platforms—to transform global operations. His initiatives translate emerging technologies into measurable business outcomes across workforce transformation, safety, and operational efficiency for daily operations. Person What They Want You To Believe

Xueting Christine Ni is a writer and curator of contemporary Chinese culture and science fiction, working to bring light to modern China from historical and contemporary angles. Her anthology Sinopticon shows the diversity and depth of the Chinese science fiction tradition, and how science fiction explores social and political issues. Her unique cultural background bridges Eastern and Western perspectives. Person Why Doomism Is the Real Threat to the Future

Wole Talabi is an engineer-writer. On the engineering side, Wole is a senior reservoir engineer with 10 years of experience, from field management to digital oilfield and field development planning. On the writing side, I talked with him when he was based in Nigeria about his science fiction focused on African futurism that blends African culture with convergence challenges Person Why We Need a Ministry of the Internet and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wole_Talabi

Lionel Robert is a professor of information and robotics at the University of Michigan and a director of their autonomous vehicle research collaboration, MAVRIC. He has researched different dimensions of technology and humans. His research includes the emotional relationships between people and robots. Person Robotics: Shaping Inequality in Global Labor

Ai Jiang is a Chinese-Canadian writer, a Nebula Award finalist, and an immigrant from Fujian. She explores themes of societal influence, cultural assimilation, and the intersection of technology and humanity. She deals with the complexities of language, cultural identity, and the impact of historical injustices. Person The Burnout Economy: When Time becomes Cheap and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ai_Jiang

I'd love to know what you think about the messages from the people above. If you've checked out their person pages on Imaginize.World or the short video links, please share your thoughts with us.

Some intriguing works in science fiction take us back to a new past, or should I say “take us into a new future based on our past”.

1. Earth Abides by George R. Stewart, 1949.

2. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks, 2006.

3. Days of Perky Pat by Philip K. Dick, 1963.

In our new future, children and some adults will adapt to this less-is-more world. Can we do it?

In my Imaginize.World podcast conversation with Chris Luebkeman, he asked the question “will future generations live with less?” He continues “I do believe the next generations are going to have to understand how to deal with so much less.” (link below)

In a similar vein, Debbie Urbanski wrote a stunning short story “An Incomplete Timeline of What we Tried” in 2017 where she takes a backwards flow from “human extinction” to today’s world of “turn off the lights when you are no longer in the room.” Much later, in our Imaginize.World conversation in 2023, she projected we have to make choices in our world of diminishing plentifulness and climate change disasters, choices that will save humanity or save our planet. It’s a choice. (link below)

So what does this mean for us today, mid 2026?

I want to share some clues we have in Science Fiction.

Let’s start with Part 1!

1. Earth Abides – why and how

In Earth Abides, written by George R. Stewart in 1949, there is a global-wide fall of civilization from a deadly disease. It eliminated most of humanity. A small group of people attempt to build a new culture and succeed. A new culture develops with simpler tools and where highly skilled specialists will not survive. The novel reverses our thinking about how to survive if civilization is rebooted.

The main character is Isherwood Williams, a survivor of the plague because he was bitten by a rattlesnake in a cave and now had immunity. He returns from the cave and finds everyone dead. Except a few. The children have easily adapted to the new world of simpler tools and survival skills, all of which became a game

The title comes from Ecclesiastes 1.4: “Men go and come, but Earth abides”. To abide means to endure, wait patiently, remain in place. That’s what the earth does with or without us.

The book makes you think about leadership, beliefs, law and order and societal norms when all sense of community is gone. In fact we discover there is nothing but a small tribe of which Isherwood becomes the de facto leader.

Stewart’s work raises 4 fundamental questions:

1 - What is change?

“(Isherwood) had thought of change itself—how sometimes it comes from the inside of a man, reacting outward against the environment, and how sometimes the environment presses in against the man, forcing him to change. Only the unusual man perhaps was strong enough to press outward against the world.”

2 - What is civilization?

The book covers three post-plague generations. Civilization depends on memory, memories of a lot of people. A small number of survivors is not sufficient. Civilization needs to start again.

3 - What is family?

“(Isherwood) thought the family was the toughest of all human institutions. It had preceded civilization, and so it naturally survived afterwards.”

4 - Where does superstition come from?

This is the trickiest one!

Quote from Earth Abides: “Twenty-two years later, the community flourishes, with the younger generation adapting easily to the more traditional world. They come to have a better grasp of the natural world than the adults, and when running water fails, the younger generation comes to the rescue, knowing where flowing streams may be found. Ish turns his attention from ecology to his newly forming society, and he notices that the children are becoming very superstitious. One day Ish asks for his hammer which he habitually carries around, and finds the children are afraid to touch it as it is a symbol to them of the old times; the long-dead “Americans” of the old world are now viewed like gods, including Ish.”

Please read Earth Abides. You won’t forget many scenes, written over 70 years ago, that still reflect our present-day emotions and concerns, even possibly more so than back then.

Stay tuned for Parts 2 and 3

• World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks, 2006.

• Days of Perky Pat by Philip K. Dick, 1963

Links

You might enjoy reading about my personal less-is-more experience, written when I was in a near-evacuation area during major fires in 2025 in the South West of France.

“Fire evacuation prep was mental prep for a new, simpler life for me.” https://netjmc.substack.com/p/fire-evacuation-prep-was-mental-prep

From Imaginize.World and VICE

https://imaginize.world/2040-path-future-luebkeman-simunich/

https://imaginize.world/debbie-urbanski-after-world-portalmania/

https://www.vice.com/en/article/an-incomplete-timeline-of-what-we-tried/

• fewer face-to-face interactions,

• less empathy,

• growing distrust in a world shaped by automated processes and #AI-generated #media.

In this short, he explores whether #automation is quietly eroding #trust, connection, and the ability to communicate across differences.

AI, Profit and the Decline of Trust

https://youtube.com/shorts/fhf3ecPIrGY?feature=share

or

https://youtube.com/shorts/fhf3ecPIrGY?si=rcE8dQpkO4vsL6WU

“No place for you on the stage” translated into “Your message is disturbing. We have to keep you out of sight, out of mind!”

I met face-to-face with the organizer of one of the biggest digital and management conferences in Europe. We had a good discussion.

He was very interested in my book that had come out earlier that year. (2021)

The Gig Mindset Advantage

Why a Bold New Breed of Employee is Your Organization’s Secret Weapon in Volatile Times

He naively asked me to be a speaker in the 2021 conference.

Other speakers and much of the audience are leading thinkers, famous in business and organizational worlds. My message would reach them and the hundreds of people in the audience, who were also high-level people in their organizations. I was delighted.

The organizer asked me for a photo, a bio and a short summary of the book. I got everything ready in advance and sent it off.

THE email!

Then, just 2 days before the publication of the program for that year, I got an email. Short and concise. From the organizer’s assistant. The message:

I thought what a strange way to say you don’t want to include a person in a conference! Was she trying to be polite? Suggesting the program was “full”?

I never found out because I never heard back again from the top guy who had invited me.

The likely truth hit me later

Here’s what I think happened. I noticed many of the speakers are the same several years in a row. Their messages did evolve, somewhat, but all were targeting traditional “leaders”.

The top guy looked at my book, and discovered the strong underlying message: “We are in the era of what I call a Bold New Breed. Gig mindsetters are leading a new game, with new attitudes and new behaviors.”

I think he missed the boat by keeping me off the stage! A year later, the Harvard Business Review published my article in their organizational learning series.

“How Workers with a Gig Mindset Can Help Your Company Thrive”

Their summary:

After publication, so many people told me how much the book meant to them, how it had helped them understand how they worked and why their managers were not always comfortable.

So, if your message is not considered relevant or suitable to top level leaders, that may well be a huge compliment. A sign that it may be more than suitable – in fact truly ESSENTIAL.

What do you think? Does this make sense to you?

References:

https://hbr.org/2022/01/how-workers-with-a-gig-mindset-can-help-your-company-thrive

https://www.figure1publishing.com/book/the-gig-mindset-advantage/

Following trends or abandoning their mission?

Catching up to how people are reading? Or, giving up on deeper thought-and-idea sharing? MIT Sloan Management Review has long been a leader in bridging the gap between academic research and management practices.

Does their upcoming move away from strategic long-form articles and towards short-form videos, podcasts and social-first content mean they are following today’s trends, catching up to the rest of the world? Or are they giving up their original much-appreciated mission of making research-based work available to business practitioners?

I read it often and just learned that they are shutting down their online publication and quarterly news letter.

In past years, they published two of my articles: Neutralize Internal Politics in Digital Initiatives in 2017 and How Digital Leaders Inspire Engagement from 2018. That year they invited me to be a guest on a webinar based on my work on internal politics: Don’t Let Politics Block Your Digital Initiatives. My work, based on my research over years, was a minuscule part of their strategy of bridging research to reach practitioners.

Who will make this bridge now?

Why this change?

MIT SM Dean Richard M. Locke explains in a letter to colleagues: (https://t.e2ma.net/message/u9dmjbb/igz1a3je)

• “In order to ensure greater coordination and consistency of messaging, we are bringing communications and external engagement closer together.”

• “We are at a pivotal moment… one in which what we communicate, and how we communicate, has a direct impact on our visibility, impact, and engagement with the world.”

• “The school will continue to deliver thoughtful, engaging content that draws even more heavily on the important work of our MIT Sloan faculty, showcasing a variety of platforms including digital newsletters, short-form video, social-first content, and podcasts.”

Will my webinar with them from July 2018 now be considered a podcast? Just joking!

When the translation layer between ‘what research knows’ and ‘what practitioners do’ disappears, what next?

Thank you for your message in Thought Sparks asking about the impact of this decision, the risks and what we should do next.

You said

• “The translation layer between “what research knows” and “what practitioners do” has always been thin and underfunded. SMR was one of the few institutions explicitly committed to that translation. Now it’s gone.”

• “Action points coming from short-form outlets without essential context are mostly useless, and conceivably even dangerous.”

• “Sixty-seven years is a long run. MIT Sloan Management Review shaped how generations of managers thought about strategy, innovation, leadership, and change. The right response to its closure isn’t nostalgia. It’s to ask, with some urgency, where the future high-impact management ideas will come from and how they will be disseminated.”

When communication is the new strong (exclusive) strategy, how can we develop and share ideas about business thinking?

And thank you for your clear, hard-hitting comments in Substack about how the goals seemed to be reduced to communication and no longer strategy and thought leadership.

You said

• “A university is different than a company, so “comms” may be broader, but it’s still weird to put the Sloan Management Review in the same general bucket as press releases. Yes, it’s part of how the MIT brand goes out into the world, but isn’t it much more than that? Doesn’t it get to the fundamental purpose of a university: improving our understanding of the world and educating?”

• “MIT SMR put thought leadership into the world …. It helped business leaders build better companies that profit, grow, and serve their employees and the world. That’s a righteous mission—and it did more than improve the MIT brand.”

• “All of us with ideas to share are going to have to think hard about how we actually reach people. I don’t think many under 30 will notice the loss of MIT SMR, but I think it will affect the quality of business thinking more than they realize.”

More info from Kevin Haynes who summarized MITSloan Management’s long history here on INC.

What can we all do to develop and share new ideas?

Work out loud

We can encourage people in our organizations to meet F2F regularly to discuss and share experiences and plans. Encourage them also to make their project spaces open beyond the actual team members. This working out loud is valuable, and not yet common enough.

Create virtual groups

For further geographical reach, we can work in online groups, exchanging ideas and developing new approaches. This takes a dynamic facilitator and maintaining regularity. It’s not easy, but is worth it.

What can you suggest? Based on your experience or ideas from others, what do you recommend trying?

Please share your ideas in the comments.

Leave a comment

What’s missing in our hectic drive to AI success?

We have the technology, but not the people and culture. MIT Technology Review Insights says people need to:

“Feel free to express opinions and take calculated risks without worrying about career repercussions.”

Wharton University, based on 3 years of data, says:

“The human side remains the bottleneck and a key potential accelerant.”

Playing the double-edged sword

Humans are an accelerant because most organizations have at least a few entrepreneurial gig mindsetters. But humans are also a bottleneck because these people are in the shadows, deliberately out of sight of management.

How did this come about? It’s a clash between two mentalities.

The traditional management decades-old ways of working include hierarchies, proven methods, and following the rules. During the digital revolution in the 2000s, things moved relatively slowly. Companies valued best practices, centralized decision-making, and maintained walls around almost everything.

I saw the entrepreneurial or gig mindset emerge slowly in my ten years of research about organizations in the digital age. People were advancing projects with no official approval and taking initiatives that challenged the status quo. I named them “gig mindsetters” and saw in my data that they were badly perceived by many within their companies. They still are in many cases. They make management nervous. Essential yet threatening.

I talked at conferences about my research and a few people saw the future coming:

A manager in a UN agency in Geneva predicted:

“Gig-mindset people are like early adopters. There are not many today, but their numbers will grow gradually.

A manager in a Scandinavian transport company said:

“The gig mindset will be the real competitive advantage during the digital transformation era.”

Today, that competitive edge has come! The entrepreneurial gig mindset is the cornerstone of a successful AI future.

My research brought out seven traits of the new mindset compared to the traditional way of working.

1. Creativity: out-of-the-box thinking and test-and-learn approaches (vs. established procedures)

2. Working with others based on their skills (vs. based on their official roles)

3. Working out loud: looking for ongoing input from others (vs. finish first then share)

4. Proactiveness: initiating a project, assuming responsibility for decisions (vs. hierarchical flows for decision-making)

5. Challenging: Questioning the status quo (vs. maintaining stability and consistency)

6. Networking: High degree of external networking (vs. networking mainly focused on current projects)

7. Self-confidence: responsibility for learning (vs. career path defined with manager and HR)

The new AI era does not have Best Practices. We need to discover “Next Practices”.

MIT Technology reminds us that the new world of AI lacks established best practices. My response is that we are now in the era of C.K. Prahalad’s “next practices”. (Link below)

Three real examples illustrate the gig mindset perspective and next practices.

1. NoHarm, Brazil. From local improvisation to large scale practice

2. Mayo Clinic, Hypothesis-driven AI experiment

3. Colgate-Palmolive, Innovation via Virtual Twin experiments

(See the links at the bottom for details.)

Today it’s a race between mindsets. The advantage will go to those who can challenge, take risks, and improvise.

Four entrepreneurial actions people can take immediately to begin to make a difference.

• Network externally and internally. Be an “insider-outsider”.

• Work out loud. Take feedback as your project advances.

• Share data. Be clear about sources – human or AI-generated.

• Cross boundaries. Change workflows to connect people across the company.

Keep a cool head and think for yourself!

The digital revolution unfolded over two decades. By contrast, the fever of the AI revolution will give you whiplash. Every third Super Bowl ad in 2026 openly touted AI’s job-replacement capacity. But remember: a lot of this is hype. Don’t fall for AI narratives. Predictions on AI range from world-ending Skynet to utopian fantasies. Keep a cool head and think for yourself.

We’re in a race between mindsets

This speed rewards a different kind of worker. This isn’t just a competitive race between companies. AI is a race between mindsets, and the advantage will go to those who can challenge, take risks, and improvise.

The entrepreneurial gig mindsetters need to come out of the shadows and mobilize their management and colleagues to join them.

Please share your thoughts in the comments. Let’s have a conversation about this!

Share Gig Mindsetters – Imaginize a New World

Reference material

Global research: MIT Technology Review Insights and Wharton

https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/16/1125899/creating-psychological-safety-in-the-ai-era/?

https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/special-report/2025-ai-adoption-report/?

Next Practices

https://hbr.org/2010/04/column-best-practices-get-you-only-so-far

AI Examples

https://noharm.ai/

https://imaginize.world/noharm-innovative-ai-with-henrique-dias/

https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/mayo-clinics-healthy-model-for-ai-success/

https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-genai-focus-shifts-to-innovation-at-colgate-palmolive/

My research

https://imaginize.world/research-over-14-years-from-organization-to-individual/

The people I meet on my podcast Imaginize.World inspire me. Some bring tears to my eyes when they describe their work. They are all people I am proud to have talked with and hope my podcast is helping make a difference in how we are collectively shaping the future.

Let me know your thoughts as you go through these short episodes. If you have questions for some of them, I’ll get the answers if I can! Take your time. There’s a lot here.

Lionel Robert is a professor of information and robotics at the University of Michigan. He’s also director of their autonomous vehicle research collaboration, MAVRIC. He has researched different dimensions of technology and humans. In particular, the emotional relationships between humans, robotics and technology. He says:

“People will develop strong relationships with these different types of technology and they will become integrated into society in a way that we probably find very difficult to understand.”

Sohail Inayatullah - First UNESCO Chair in Futures Studies for Sustainability and Humanity, IIUM, Malaysia. Developed futures technique of Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) which examines issues at four levels – data, systems, worldviews, and narratives/metaphors.

“The metaphors I use are invisible hand, which worked for a while, the visible hand, where the state intervenes. Then what we’re moving towards—shared hands, cooperatives, peer-to-peer platforms.”

David Weinberger Author: Everyday Chaos, Too Big to Know, Everything Is Miscellaneous, Small Pieces Loosely Joined, and co-author of pioneering Cluetrain Manifesto (1999). Senior researcher at the Harvard Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. Unanticipation...

“We cannot anticipate what our children will want or what the world will be, so the best thing to do is to open up as many possibilities as we can.”

Sugata Mitra physicist, educational pioneer. Preparing children for their futures, not our pasts. Creator: “Hole in the Wall” experiment leading to School in the Cloud and Self-Organized Learning Environments. Winner of one million dollar TED prize in 2013. Predicts Neuralink: The internet will vanish into our heads.

“The internet will become so integrated into our lives, it will blur the line between knowing and not knowing.”

Deb Chachra, professor of engineering, works at the intersection of technology and society. Infrastructure and our collective future with an emphasis on systems, education, design, and materials. She wrote How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World.

“The next generation: your job is not to fix the problems of the grownups. Your job is to actually build out this new world, and in so doing, you’ll fix the problems of the grownups.”

Sundeep Waslekar Author: A World without War. Peace policy concepts discussed at UN Security Council. Chairman of the Strategic Foresight Group, India-based think tank that has worked on 65 countries since its founding in 2002.

“The 21st century faces 4 problems: nuclear, AI and other emerging technologies, militarization, and lack of a conflict resolution mechanism with mandated authority.”

Nirere Sadrach Founder of “End Plastic Pollution“, youth-led organization in Uganda to end single-use plastic by corporations and Project Kollekt, model for how local communities can deal with people learning about plastic. The science of plastics and what to do for a healthier world.

“This is the time we should be empowering our young people to innovate, solve problems our communities are facing.”

Sachin Joshi Founder of the Espalier Experimental and Heritage Schools that – got the first prize by the Maharashtra government in 2014. Creator of “Education on Wheels” in 2007. It became AI on Wheels (2025). First Indian to speak on “Education and Democracy” at EU Council. Philosophy: Ghandi + Montessori.

“IQ is being replaced by AI. Therefore, let’s focus on developing our children’s SQ, that is social quotient, and EQ, that is emotional quotient.”

Agatha Rachael Akullu Creator “Read us Africa“, literacy program in Africa. Book publisher, copywriter, editor. SDG-4 Global Youth Ambassador with Their World. Global Peace Ambassador. Millennium Fellow 2023. YALI Fellow (Young African Leaders Initiative).

“Good readers really make good leaders. If we want to come up with good leaders, we need to first of all, start with empowering readers.”

Pieter Franken Fintech. Co-founded and led Safecast (Fukushima), most successful citizen science initiative in the world. (The largest open dataset of background radiation measurements ever collected.) Founding Member of ASEAN Innovation Network (AFIN, now Synfindo), a nonprofit founded by MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore).

“How do you build something that sustains itself even though opinions and ideas change?

Henrique Dias Founder and CEO of NoHarm, A nonprofit startup in Brazil that develops AI-based tools to improve patient safety in the public healthcare system. NoHarm has received awards and project grants from the Google Research Awards for Latin America, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and others.

“AI is never able to make the final decision, AI should be a decision support system in the healthcare system.”

Robin Vincent-Smith MSF (Doctors without Borders). Front lines in Africa. Then central Learning Officer: climate and environment. Striving for freedom from a job description is Robin’s motto. MSF works to be where the patients and families are, including on social media.

“Our DisMis project—Disinformation, Misinformation—gives voice to patients and shares scientific research.”

Joyce Kimutae Climate scientist based in Kenya. Focus on Attribution Science: quantifying the role of human influence on the climate . Helping build causation—necessary for climate litigation. Doctor of Philosophy, Researcher at U. of Cape Town, Investigates Extreme Weather and Climate Events.

“The legal system today is not built for dealing with responsibility and liability for climate events impact.”

Bill Fischer MIT Senior Lecturer, IMD Professor Emeritus of Innovation Management. Co-author Reinventing Giants (about Haier), The Idea Hunter and Virtuoso Teams. Former President of the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai. Zero distance with the future.

“We should have people whose role is to be advocates for the future, charged with saying, what about this and what about that, and have we forgotten this? Then, the future will be part of making decisions.”

Wole Talabi Engineer, writer, and editor. Author: Shigidi And The Brass Head Of Obalufon (best books of 2023 by The Washington Post), Incomplete Solutions and Convergence Problems. Storytelling shapes perceptions, politics, traditions & technology for better futures. AI for Consulting Ancestors.

“A consensus negotiated reality based on all our stories we agree on is our reality.”

Mark Gröb Building Next Gen Products for UPS Enterprise. Applications in Training, Real-Time Data Visualization and Emerging Innovation Sectors. XR Subject Matter Expert on SAR Counsel for UPS. Training and developing Federated SMEs in all Global wide Business Groups.

“People with boots on the ground are the most familiar with problems. Involving them in design is key.”

Jillian Reilly Author: The Ten Permissions: Redefining the Rules of Adulting in the 21st Century. Old logic and new logic. Underlying themes: activism, future-oriented thinking.

“You need to design your own portfolio. an approach to your life that is not about a singular role, company, or set of capabilities, but something more strategically diverse.”

From an informal group of my guests all saying, in different words...”The Time is Now”

Technology, science and society have combined to create what seems to be a path to a new world. We must approach it with an open mind, without anticipation, knowing that learning will emerge. Now is a paradigm shifting moment, we are temporarily lost in this transition on our way to a new world based on having less, not more. Will we get through the many disruptions? It’s impossible to predict. It’s unknown.

Singularity: Shifting to a New World of the Unknown - The Time Is Now

My Imaginize World guests see the future in Singularity. They really get strong messages across in just a few words. Here’s the vision of 6 of my guests: Sugata Mitra, Chen Qiufan, Bill Fischer, Chris Luebkeman, David Weinberger and Ross Dawson.

https://youtube.com/shorts/GV0Bh_duwxo

It’s easier to have a single centralized system with people at the top you can always blame for problems. A decentralized system puts the responsibility directly on us. That’s why it’s hard. And that’s why it’s rewarding.

I discovered in my digital environment research that the traditional thinkers preferred centralization because decision-making respected hierarchical flows. They felt that centralization supported stability and consistency across the organization.

The gig mindsetter profiles on the other hand favored decentralization because it enabled working across the organization with people based on skills not roles. They preferred to initiate projects, assume responsibility, and take their own decisions. In addition, they challenged the status quo when necessary.

You can see how the two worlds differ drastically and can create friction inside a single organization. (https://imaginize.world/gig-vs-traditional-mindset-8-behaviors/)

Here I ask three questions based on three of my Imaginize.World guests:

1. Are we at the end of the era of massive, centralized systems?

2. How does decentralization let you build a “Trust Fabric” with data people trust?

3. How can you build an organization based on decentralization and trust?

Three “decentralization pioneers”

Below I talk about three pioneers in energy management, science research and organizational structures. (The links below all go to shorts, so click in, have a listen, then come back for the others!)

1. Are we at the end of the era of massive, centralized systems?

Deb Chachra, professor of engineering, is the author of How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World and she believes decentralized systems for energy management are the way we can be resilient in a world of constant change.

Climate instability is a game changer. Who should control our energy – us or them?

The era of massive, centralized systems is ending. Smaller, networked, community-scale energy systems offer a path to stability — and a chance to rethink what resilience really means. Climate change is destabilizing the systems we once trusted — from power grids to water networks. The 20th century was about scale; the 21st century is about resilience. https://youtube.com/shorts/4VdTL9388-Q

A political revolution is coming with decentralized solar and wind

For over a century, power — both political and electrical — flowed from centralized sources like coal and oil. But solar and wind don’t follow that rule. Deb explains that as energy becomes decentralized, communities can produce their own power — and that changes everything about how societies organize and who holds control. https://youtube.com/shorts/_nUHU6s2bBw

How does decentralization let you build a “Trust Fabric” with data people trust?

Safecast, co-founded by Pieter Franken, global fintech activist and technology innovator, is a successful citizen science project started in 2011 right after Fukushima disaster. It inspired many other projects around the world.

Safecast - citizen science project, global model for reliable data

In 2011, after Fukushima, strangers across Japan picked up devices, walked into the world, and started measuring radiation — freely, independently, without instruction. Pieter Franken reveals how what emerged was a decentralized “trust fabric,” a dataset built not by institutions but by citizens. This is the story of how grassroots environmental measurement became a global model for reliable, transparent data. https://youtube.com/shorts/Go2ngA85tXY

How can you build an organization based on decentralization and trust?

Joachim Stroh, long-term strategist and architect of complex platform technologies and operations, is a specialist in (D)AOs Decentralized Autonomous Organizations and AOs (Adaptable Organizations). Focus: Internal and external knowledge management.

Decentralized decision-making in education

An example: What happens if you do DAOs for schools, if you suddenly open up this participatory space for all of the stakeholders in the school environment? So administrative people, parents, teachers, students all have a voice. “Look, education is changing. Let’s adjust our curriculum, do something about it.” And then you can come into a DAO space to say, “Let’s propose something new. https://youtube.com/shorts/VTNhVGHq3D8

How and where can we decentralize parts of our lives?

The examples above are a selection from my Imaginize.World video podcast series.

Podcast goal: “Help shape the future before it shapes us”

If you have other examples, I’d love to add them. Drop me a note here or in one of these places:

• LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/netjmc/

• BlueSky - https://bsky.app/profile/netjmc.bsky.social

• Substack Gig Mindsetters – Imaginize a New World

Thank you for reading ImaginizeWorld. Subscribe if you’d like to be notified for new articles.

I owe an apology to all my readers. I’ve been negligent about writing for the last few months. I’m back in action now, and will be publishing here more regularly.

Gig Mindsetters – Imaginize a New World

We need to shape the future before it shapes us. I interview visionaries, pioneers, and innovators about the revolutions shaping our futures.Topics: AI, technology, humanity, virtual reality, social and more. Jane McConnell

By Jane McConnell

I have talked with three people over the past year on my Imaginize.World podcast and they concur:

• The past influences how we predict the future.

• Humans are made of stories in a world that sits outside of space and time.

• Historical patterns help us understand the future.

We finish at the end of this article with some responses to the question “After you’ve seen into your rearview mirror, what should you do?”

Quotes lightly edited for clarity, brevity

Chen Qiufan - on a space-time continuum

The past influences how we predict the future. We are a species with pattern recognition.

“People, human, we’re basically a species with pattern recognition. We see patterns in a totally chaotic message data. We try to seek for certain kinds of pattern, and we abstract all these patterns and use them to predict the future. So this is what human do, and machines do the same thing. So without thinking about the past, history, basically you couldn’t do anything about predicting the future.

...And all these things that happened in the past decided how you look into the future. So I think science fiction, speaking of Handmaid’s Tale, 1984, and Brave New World, written decades ago, are talking about history, present, but also the future. It’s like space-time continuum.”

Chen Qiufan is a leading Chinese writer and visionary. Script consultant for “Resurrection,” he called “sci-fi poetry cinema” which won the Special Prize on 25 May 2025 at the 78th Cannes Film Festival. Co-author AI 2041: Ten Visions for our Future.

Wole Talabi - on stories blending past, present and future

Humans are made of stories in a world of no objective reality. We have a consensus negotiated reality.

“The main narrators of Saturday’s Song tell stories of things that have happened, things that will happen, things that are happening. They are characters that sit outside of space and time… This gives me the ability to talk about the past, about the future, about the present, all at the same time, and tell stories from a different, sometimes more interesting way.

...Humans are all made of stories. There’s no objective reality. We have a consensus negotiated reality that sits on the parts of all our stories that we agree on, and that is what becomes our reality.”

Wole Talabi is a Nigerian science fiction author whose work is shaped by his engineering background and the concept of convergence problems. His work explores African futurism and its global significance, blending African culture with futuristic themes.

Sohail Inayatullah on dilemmas and challenges to creating a future for humanity

Looking at key historical patterns helps us understand the future. Futures thinking means other worlds are possible. Here’s what they can look like and here’s how to move towards there.”

“And that’s really the best future studies do. My own work was on macro history with the macro historian Johan Galtung, where we looked at the structure of time and said, ‘What are the key patterns of the past? And in what ways can we use these patterns to understand the future?”

“There’s two dimensions to world shifting. One is aggregation of power in a few corporations. The second is the science and technology revolution, the ability to create protein, large amounts of protein through science and technology. So then there’s the issue is if we have that technology, the ethical part becomes, is it market-based or should be globally free? So if we can produce enough protein very easily for all, then there’s intellectual property dimension.”

Professor Sohail Inayatullah was awarded the first UNESCO Chair in Futures Studies for Sustainability and Humanity, IIUM, Malaysia i 2016. He is the creator of causal layered analysis (CLA), which examines issues at four levels – data, systems, worldviews, and narratives/metaphors. This allows for deeper analysis and the creation of transformative solutions.

--

So now what? After you see in your rearview mirror, what do you do?

I want to go back to an article I wrote In January of this year. I called it Paths to our Futures: Reflections from Pioneers. Link at the bottom.

I’ve listed the overlaying themes here with links to each person’s page with transcript.

Why we need to Imaginize

with Chen Qiufan, Mandar Apte and Wole Talibi

How to embrace the unknown

with David Weinberger, Sugata Mitra, Cortney Harding, Chris Luebkemon and Bill Fischer

Recognize what’s missing today

with Chen Qiufan, Vanessa Nakate and Nirere Sadrach

Recognize the problems we have

with Nicolas Omonuk, Vanessa Nakate; Joyce Kimutai and Pieter Franken

How we can change the future

with Rita McGrath, Alex Prate, Joachim Stroh, Mark Gröb and Cortney Harding

Finally, the toughest one: what are the hard choices we need to make?

with Robin Vincent-Smith and Debbie Urbanski

The original full article is here: Paths to Our Futures

What is your response to my question: “After you see yourself in your rearview mirror, what should you do?”

Written during the high alert period, a couple weeks ago...

I’m in the larger fire area in the south of France. Nothing of danger to me, though the closest so far is 40 minutes away by car. It started a few hours ago but is now contained. The huge fire disaster in the southwest is farther, and not physically threatening to me.

However, over the last month, I did check a fire alert app several times a day, and opened a window when I got up during the night to smell the air outside. Smoke check.

I live minutes away on foot from the garrigue—dry vegetation, trees and lots of grass. We decided to prepare if we needed to evacuate quickly. Meaning in minutes.

What would you really need to start over again?

I learned what I would take with me and now have it all packed in a suitcase on the floor of the bedroom. Along with a backpack leaning against the wall, in case we had to walk.

Of course I packed the basics of food, water, coffee, bathroom articles, medications, clothes and shoes along with insurance info, national healthcare card and passports. It's more than you think at first. ,

So when it comes down to the essential, to starting again, It's surprising how little you need.

Less obvious to prepare are family and life mementos.

It was the first time in my life that I found myself in the "maybe I won't be back" mode, "my house may burn down".

I discovered I had 4 very large boxes where I had been casually putting photos and special letters over the last 50 or more years. It had never crossed my mind that I could lose them. I spent three full days going through them, reducing everything down to 4 photo scrapbooks and discarding the rest.

As I got more into the "evacuation mindset", I realized I might have to carry the most precious items in a backpack if we could not drive out because of road blockages or too many people escaping in panic.

So I made a small photo collector book with my "ultimate photos". It includes one of my mother when she was pregnant with me and next to it one of me pregnant with my son.

I had forgotten those very old photos, and thanks to the pressure of going through everything, rediscovered them along with some other long forgotten treasures.

Today in the digital age, we need to think what we want to protect. And how.

I noted my iCloud password along with my web host password and saved them on a note in my backpack. We purchased some very small high-powered disks where I update my whole computer on one, and just the data on the other. They connect to my iPad, so with just my iPad I have the equivalent of my whole computer system and data. Plus I have a portable power block that can serve for several days if I am without electricity which is common in fire evacuation contexts.

My backpack is prepacked and I only have to add my iPhone, iPad, and hiking shoes and socks which are ready next to the backpack. I can hit the trail and feel "prepared for what comes next."

What I learned

What do I need if I have to start a new life after losing everything I have in a fire?

It surprised me to realize how desperately I would want access to my digital tools after evacuation. I take them for granted today. But if I end up in a shelter for a few days or longer, or even need to find a new home, how could I communicate in the meantime with the world? With my family in particular? With other neighbors to see if they are OK?

Watching news shows and people on YouTube describe their feelings after losing their home and belongings was a wake up call for me. Imagine you have to leave your house NOW because of approaching fire. You can only take a backpack with you, what would you put in it?

Old photo — pre-digital age? Precious, irreplaceable. Digital communication devices? All replaceable but not necessarily quickly. You’d be offline, out of touch with the world. Our of touch with YOUR world. For an undetermined time.

My fire evacuation mindset is leading to a new way of thinking

My life today is full of too many things. Now I want simpler. A stronger focus on what means the most to me. It's different for everyone, but taking the time to think about it is time well spent. Even if the fires never came dangerously close to me, they affected my life.

If you can only take a backpack with you in a fire evacuation, what would you put in it? Share your perspectives in the comments.

Please forgive a second post so soon after the earlier one about NoHarm.

I went into more detail with Henrique Dias about NoHarm and wanted to share it with you.

As a nonprofit AI startup in Brazil it is doing something rare — giving its life-saving system away for free to public hospitals while charging private ones. Powered by purpose, not profit, NoHarm's story is rooted in family, gratitude, and scalable impact.

https://youtube.com/shorts/HivHADyH2sA?feature=shared

Michelle Manafy is the Editorial Director at Digital Content Next, a not-for-profit organization representing over 60 media brands.

This theme-based article is structured around key ideas from my discussion with Michelle Manafy. Each section is followed by comments from other Imaginize.World guests, non-media specialists, in earlier discussions. Quotes have been edited for brevity.

Sections below

Getting the content you need and can trust - Shaping the future, a heavy burden for the young - Are we in a time of crisis or opportunity? - Will unintended consequences of AI be grave? - Media, a pillar of democracy - Differences and curiosity will enlarge our world, bringing us together

Links to More Information: At the end there are people page links to Imaginize.World YouTube videos and shorts, full transcripts, audio podcasts and additional relevant materials.

First, what exactly does trust mean?

Michelle Manafy

When I think about the future of media, or at least the future of media that I would like to see, it’s one in which people are able to get the information they need, the entertainment they enjoy, and be able to trust in its quality, in its veracity, but also in the ethical provision of the content itself. In the sense that if I am getting media from you, we are having an equitable exchange, in that you are not secretly monitoring me or exploiting my data for uses that I did not anticipate.

So for me, the future of media looks like one where people get the information they enjoy, get the information they need, but also can trust it in every sense of the word.

Pieter Franken, co-creator of Safecast, the world's most successful citizen science project says trust is essential to ensure there is no bias.

Robin Vincent-Smith of MSF (Doctors Without Borders) on fighting misinformation on social media: Let the patients speak.

Thomas Vander Wal believes the word “trust” has too many different meanings, and after researching with his clients suggests the term "social comfort".

Shaping the future, a heavy burden for the young

How can they be active participants?

Michelle Manafy

The younger generation right now may be thinking about the future a lot more than we did. And it’s impressive, but I also think it’s a heavy burden for younger people. I think it’s important that they are active participants in shaping the future they want to see, I think we should all be those people. But I do think that it’s a heavy burden on a young person to look around the world at some of the forces right now.

Vanessa Nakate says we need to start climate education at a very early age and that the missing piece is urgency.

Sugata Mitra says we are preparing our children for our past, but our opportunity today is to be preparing them for their future.

David Weinberger says the strategy of strategies is "unanticipation".

Robin Vincent-Smith: It's our responsibility. We made the mess.

Are we in a time of crisis or opportunity?

AI impact on media will transform how we work

Michelle Manafy

I just looked at research (Pew Research) on Friday about the fact that the general public is actually fairly skeptical about AI. They feel a bit negative about the way in which AI will impact journalism, journalists in particular. They’re worried and they’re right to worry because the economics of journalism are so bad, that when we look at the ways in which people are concerned about the use of AI, they wonder will AI replace journalists and journalistic integrity? Will we become ill-informed as a result?

Generative AI specifically is mostly used to create content, to create words, narrative, pictures, video, content, music. And purportedly deliver information in the same way that the media has done traditionally. And I say purportedly and I’m sure anybody watching this is familiar with all the reasons that AI isn’t the most reliable when it comes to the provision of information.

I think the impact of AI on the media will be transformative. I would be naive to say anything less. I think that the uses for the media, for journalists, for any organization is to use AI to help it with a variety of tasks. It’s absolutely terrific.

Stanley Chen Qiufan says “crisis” has two meanings in Chinese: crisis and opportunity. AI as a common enemy may be an opportunity to reunite us as a species.

Jillian Reilly says embedding learning, change, adaptation into how you move forward is absolutely critical. Life does not lead seamlessly one thing to the next.

Will unintended consequences of AI be grave?

We are playing catch-up, not regulating in real time

Michelle Manafy

I’m worried about AI in the same way that I am with many new technologies. Because when I look back at the way that technology shapes culture, law, and the media, what I see is a history of regulatory bodies, constantly playing catch-up with it. And that the unintended consequences are often grave because we are not regulating in real time.

I’m not suggesting we don’t continue to innovate and develop technologies, I’m saying we do need to look at every new technology and think about the potential negative outcomes and be active participants in shaping not only the way it’s used, but the way it’s governed.

When we look at social media, it isn’t regulated. Every single day, social media platforms are used for ill. Everyone loves to tell me about #BookTok. “Ah, gosh, TikTok, you’ve got to look at it for books, Michelle.” And all I can think is what about AnorexiaTok? What about BulimiaTok? What about all the corners that we don’t want to focus on, that we don’t want to shine the lights on that are really causing ill in our society? So when we look at AI, and I can’t help but look at it with grave concern in exactly that we could say, “Oh, a deep fake, it could start a war.” Why yes it could. You know what it’s going to do? It’s going to cause children to harm themselves. We know this. It’s going to be used to cause children to harm themselves. We know this. Will we do anything about it?

Joyce Kimutai says Attribution Science is increasingly important for our survival

Wole Talabi says the system is looking for enragement, not engagement

Belief systems change as society changes - my Future 2043 survey

Media, a pillar of democracy

Supplanted, replaced or imitated by AI?

Michelle Manafy

I have always been a techno-optimist, Jane, I have always been a person who said, the good will outweigh the bad. I’m nervous now.

When we look at the rise of authoritarian regimes worldwide. And we think about the ways in which the media, as the fourth estate, the media as that pillar of democracy that I mentioned and then we think about AI and its ability to supplant the media, replace the media, imitate the media, and then we add to the mix the rise of authoritarian regimes. And Jane, I get a little nervous. I don’t know what else to say. It makes me nervous.

Sundeep Waslekar believes that people are brainwashed by politicians, by the media, by social media these days

Wole Talabi suggests a Ministry of the Internet, a global entity whose job is to maintain the internet as a tool for education and connection, not for profit.

Differences and curiosity will enlarge our world, bringing us together

Historically, media was a window to the world. Today our world is getting smaller. We need to go back to the big window as curious children.

Michelle Manafy

I would like a world in which we just fostered more curiosity, more questions, more open discussion. When we look at the polarization of media, not just in the US, but worldwide, we stopped listening to each other, we stopped being curious about each other.

When I look at the role of the media historically, the media was a window. I think about the magazines I looked at as a child, about watching documentaries on television, about sitting with my grandparents and talking about a movie. It was a window to another world. And unfortunately, despite the fact that we have the World Wide Web and we have social media, I worry that our world isn’t getting bigger.

And I hope when I think about the future, I want to see that promise, that initial promise of bringing us together, of allowing us to hear each other and see each other and really learn, just learn, learn and accept that people are different and people have different ideas. And that differences are what make us interesting and curiosity is how we get there.

Sundeep Waslekar quotes "I am because we are", from the Ubuntu philosophy

Share your thoughts in the comments. There's a lot to say on this topic!

Links to More Information

Explore the people pages for the guests in the Imaginize.World video podcast series. Each page has links to YouTube videos and shorts, transcripts, audio podcasts and additional relevant materials.

People pages

Michelle Manafy - https://imaginize.world/the-future-of-media-with-michelle-manafy/

Thomas Vander Wal - https://imaginize.world/will-future-technology-have-our-back-thomas-vander-wal/

Pieter Franken - https://imaginize.world/pieter-franken-safecast-citizen-science/

David Weinberger - https://imaginize.world/david-weinberger-unanticipation/

Robin Vincent-Smith - https://imaginize.world/robin-vincent-smith-podcast/

Vanessa Nakate - https://imaginize.world/vanessa-nakate-climate-activist/

Wole Talabi - https://imaginize.world/storytelling-shapes-pasts-presents-futures/

Stanley Chen Qiufan - https://imaginize.world/stanley-chan-podcast/

Jillian Reilly - https://imaginize.world/the-ten-permissions-with-jillian-reilly/

Sugata Mitra - https://imaginize.world/sugata-mitra-podcast/

Joyce Kimutai - https://imaginize.world/joyce-kimutai-climate-scientist/

Sundeep Waslekar - https://imaginize.world/a-world-without-war-in-our-global-future-with-sundeep-waslekar

/

Links to podcast and video at the end of the article

Sacrifice to benefit? “I am” because “we are”.

Sundeep Waslekar says “more and more our problems are civilizational, but our responses are national”. He also believes we are brainwashed on our screens. “And because we are all sleeping, the whole world is asleep. And my biggest fear is that we may sleepwalk into a war.”

Sundeep is a leading thinker for the future and author of the much-read book "A World Without War". He is also Chairman of the Strategic Foresight Group, an India-based think tank that has worked with or on 65 countries since its founding in 2002. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflicts in Oxford.

Sundeep says a world without war is not starry-eyed thinking

There have been a number of attempts over past years. (details on podcast). Sundeep says we must now adapt the strategy to the new context of the 21st century.

The four biggest risks we have

• the arms race in the nuclear weapons.

• the integration of nuclear weapons, biological weapons and chemical weapons with artificial intelligence

• the growing militarization, including in conventional weapons.

• the absence of any conflict resolution mechanism where either party could go to and have a mandatory resolution of the conflict

What are scientists doing about this?

“They are only talking with each other because people don’t want to think about the risk. People only want to think about benefits. So we have to develop a framework, a global framework, which balances mitigation of risk with maximization of benefits. And that’s the effort I’m involved in in 2025.”

An actionable framework for a new global contract: maximum benefits and minimum risks

In the month of May, Sundeep and Stefan Löfven, a Swedish former Prime Minister, will meet with the European Parliament.

They will propose an actionable framework based on this

We need to all stay up to date on what comes of session. Will there be new actions?

What are your thoughts?

Check out his podcast and video short on my YouTube channel: New — A Sundeep Waslekar

Follow Sundeep on LinkedIn.

Read more about him on my Imaginize World website: https://imaginize.world/a-world-without-war-in-our-global-future-with-sundeep-waslekar/

Rita McGrath: "Write an article about yourself 10 years from now"

Rita says there's another direction for thinking. A way to start is to ask ourselves "What would I want people to read about me in an article 10 years from now?" and therefore "What can I be doing now to move in that direction while still staying involved in my present?

When I talked with Rita in my podcast, I discovered that thinking of my own future in terms of an article helped me focus. For me, a good article flows to capture and keep my attention. It hits key points and moves to reach its point.

What would I want mine to say? I still have not decided but I'm giving it some serious thought!

1 - Starting with "Who did I influence? My realization was slow!

One thing I'd like to read in the article about me is "In 2021 Jane wrote "The Gig Mindset Advantage Inside Organizations" book and it was a best seller."

The problem is that it was NOT a best seller. This disappointed me for quite a while! I had articles published in top business publications and lots of invitations to speak but no NYT best seller list of the year! :-(

However, I eventually realized the real influence was that it had helped a lot of people see themselves differently. I got several hundred comments in person and by email over the first months along the lines of "Your book made me feel a lot better" ... "Thank you for writing your book, Gig Mindset! It's finally, after many years, given me a voice/identity to how I work within a business!".... "For the first time I can articulate better the role I do within organizations".

So, thinking about that now, I see that I DID influence some people in a very positive way.

So now here's what I'd like to see in the article about me 10 years from now:

"Jane's book helped a lot of people see themselves in a new light and encouraged them to take risks on new paths."

2 - Who influenced me? So many!

This is a hard one to answer because the list is long. But it's easy for the same reason! Here I have limited myself to just a few (chronological order, full titles in the footnote).

Thank you to Albert Bandura, Charles Handy, Gareth Morgan,Jon Husband, David Weinberger, Arie de Geus, Miguel Pina e Cunha and Frank J. Barrett and others.

3 - The choices I made: two fundamental ones

• I decided to stay on the front lines myself and not hire junior consultants to work with me. This limited the size of projects I could undertake but ensured my own growth being firsthand and not administratively engaged on projects.

• I also decided to use creative networking as my mechanism for running workshops and communities of practice. A client once told me "We are working with you because, unlike other consultants, you never tell us what to do."

Rita's Permissionless Magic!

Rita has a similar more developed approach when as she foresees the "permissionless organization". She says this is one where "we provide enough structure and coherence that the organization operates well as a whole, but give people the freedom to really let their humanity flourish and let their ingenuity flourish. Humans are ingenious creatures, and I think that’s the skill that we are facing today. So organizations ... as entities that are capable of responding to changing circumstances, I think that’s the magic."

(Full interview:

If I'd known Rita when I was still consulting, I would have borrowed the term "permissionless magic" and told my clients that was what we were practicing together!

I would like to know if any of you, reading this article, have experiences to share about influencing people, being influenced, and making choices that moved you towards the future you want. Please share here, or drop me a note through LI messages or on ImaginizeWorld.

Footnote

1977. Albert Bandura, “Self-Efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change,”

1989. Charles Handy, The Age of Unreason

1996. Art Kleiner, The Age of Heretics: Heroes, Outlaws, and the Forerunners of Corporate Change

1997. Gareth Morgan, Imaginization: New Mindsets for Seeing, Organizing, and Managing

1999. Jon Husband who defined the term “wirearchy”

1999. Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger, The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual

1997. Arie de Geus, The Living Company: Habits for Survival in a Turbulent Business Environment

2003. “Organizational Improvisation: What, When, How and Why,” an article written by Miguel Pina e Cunha, João Vieira da Cunha, and Ken Kamoche

2012. Yes to the Mess: Surprising Leadership Lessons from Jazz, by Frank J. Barrett