Reports from the Knowledge Labs about our recent findings, research topics, and interviews with lifestyle leaders who are creating their own futures.
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How to stimulate your own powers of foresight. Consider the following thought provokers. Ask yourself, in these categories what are the brand new trends and forces? Which are the ones growing in importance? Which current forces are loosing their steam? Which have peaked or are reversing themselves? Which are the "wildcards" about to disrupt us in the future? POLITICAL AND TECHNICAL thought for food: Electronics, Materials, Energy, Fossil, Nuclear, Alternative, Other, Manufacturing (techniques), Agriculture, Machinery and Equipment, Distribution, Transportation (Urban, Mass, Personal, Surface, Sea, Subsurface, Space), Communication (Printed, Spoken, Interactive, Media), Computers (Information, Knowledge, Storage & Retrieval, Design, Network Resources), Post-Cold War, Third World, Conflict (Local, Regional, Global), Arms Limitation, Undeclared Wars, Terrorism, Nuclear Proliferation, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Governments (More/Less Power and Larger or Smaller Scale), Taxes, Isms: Nationalism, Regionalism, Protectionism, Populism, Cartels, Multinational Corporations, Balance of Trade, Third Party Payments, Regulations (OSHA, etc.) Environmental Impact, U.S. Prestige Abroad. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC Food for thought:
Labor Movements, Unemployment / Employment Cycles, Recession, Employment Patterns, Work Hours / Schedules, Fringe Benefits, Management Approaches, Accounting Policies, Productivity, Energy Costs, Balance of Payments, Inflation, Taxes, Rates of Real Growth, Distribution of Wealth, Capital Availability and Costs, Reliability of Forecasts, Raw Materials, Availability and Costs, Global versus National Economy, Market versus Planned Economies, Generations: Y, X, Boomers, Elderly, Urban vs. Rural Lifestyles, Affluent vs. Poor, Neighborhoods and Communities, Planned or Organic Growth.
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The Journal of 2020 Foresight
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Friday, December 09, 2005
Migration Road Trips: 40,000 Year Old Footprints in Mexican Volcano Ash
Chapter Four: The Tribal Territories
By Steve Howard, CKO
The Knowledge Labs
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Basecamp
Chapter Two: The Ridge
Chapter Three: The Outpost
Chapter Four: The Tribal Territories
“Falling From Above. I’m doing some new songs that I wrote a while ago and this is chapter one. Just didn’t want to confuse you right out of the gate. Gonna see how far I can take you here with this new material, just see what happens. I still remember my old songs…. These songs are about a family that lives in a place called the Double E Rancho, outside of Greendale, just a few miles down a little road up in the hills.“
Neil Young & Crazy Horse “Greendale”
DOUBLE NICKEL RANCH. A few months post- rendezvous. Kicking around mortality, meaning, perspective and road trips. Or, more to the point, reflecting on paths taken or not.
Journal of 2020 Foresight: So, the “double nickel-ers” remembered road trips they had taken when they were just pups – “quarter-ers,” as it were.
Pathfinder: Sure. During one “cross-generation” conversation, the “Jimi Hendrix Experience, Are You Experienced?” popped into my head. The “quarter-ers” (25 year-olds) want to become experienced in their own way, the “double nickel-ers” (55 year olds) have been there and done that – but now it’s time for something else. You’ve even talked about it when you described some of the conversations you’ve had recently with the executives you coach.
J2020F: Now, that would be a concert – Jimi Hendrix and Mick Jagger?
Pathfinder: Some things are better left undone. Still if Hendix had survived his youthful excesses you can’t help but wonder what he’d be like in concert today?
J2020F: But, he didn’t. And, we’re back to our mortality – what almost every “double nickel-er” has experienced all too often – parents, spouses, brothers, or sisters – what baby boomer hasn’t lost someone recently?
Pathfinder: The trick, I suppose is to keep that certainty – that we will, in fact all die – in the forefront of our minds as a source of vitality and passion, instead of as a depressing long slide into oblivion.
J2020F: Most of “my execs” find themselves in midlife transition – but with a long severance package. They can take the time to find meaning in their lives, unlike other victims of downsizing, mergers and acquisitions or outsourcing.
Pathfinder: I believe life stories, the ones our members continue to share -- stories of transition and transformation – have always been with us – at least since the time we homo sapiens realized we all had lit fuses leading to the end of our lives.
J2020F: Speaking of which, I heard a newscast that reported a scientific controversy – 40,000 year old footprints were discovered in Mexico. Or not.
Pathfinder: Or not?
J2020F: They may have been 1 million years older – that’s the controversy.
Pathfinder: Just think, though. If they are indeed footprints and they can be verified to be 40,000 years old, that’s almost 28,000 years earlier than the accepted time frame for when humans crossed the northern land bridge from Asia.
J2020F: And that’s what I find fascinating – the core ancestors from which all of our ancestral tribes descended and migrated out of Africa can now be verified by DNA studies. We’re all one big happy family!
Pathfinder: Talk about road trips – our ancestors made their way through the harshest of conditions across continents -- which were much closer together than they are today, and geographical sub-regions as if they were navigating major migration rivers.
J2020F: On the map you can see how they branched out into their own tribal territories.
Pathfinder: And eventually, they slogged their way here, into the North American Continent as we know it today.
Pathfinder: Hardly anyone lived long enough to experience a midlife crisis. And, yet today a death or another significant disruption in our life bursts our status quo bubble. A significant emotional event opens us up to some very fundamental questions about our life – and for many -- rekindles a fascination with everything that has happened before.
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Copyright ©2002 - 2006 Aarnaes Howard Associates. All rights reserved worldwide.
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