Notebook
This is a curated space where I gather reflections, articles, event reports, provocations, and fragments from across my work. Expect me to dip into futures, storytelling, sustainability, experiential formats and more.
ChatMD?
Earlier this year, Futurism reported that OpenAI has launched a health-focused version of ChatGPT that can ingest ...
Facilitating futures, not just presenting them
As a futures facilitator, my attention is often less on the artefact or the method (the scenario, the trend map, ...
Collapse narratives in futures work
In times of geopolitical instability, rapid technological change, and overlapping crises, it’s increasingly hard ...
Whose futures get heard?
Every futures process answers a hidden question before anyone speaks: Who is this space (or workshop or ...
Facilitation as the hidden engine of futures work
Although I know nothing about basketball, I’ve been thinking about something often called the “Chris Paul effect” ...
Why futures without psychological safety (and/or bravery) default to the status quo
Often, a carefully designed futures sessions, packed with sound methods and provocative prompts, yields futures ...
State change, on foot: thinking about walkshops and urban futures
In walkshops, “state change” isn’t something you design on top of the session. It’s already happening, all the time.
Participation is a futures capability, not a personality trait
In futures workshops, silence is often misread as disengagement. More often, it’s uncertainty doing what ...
When people are asked to help build futures they didn’t choose
I recently heard a story about writer whose role had shifted. They were no longer expected to write, but to help ...
Silence is data, not failure
That awkward pause after a futures question? It’s not a problem to be fixed. It’s information.
Purpose is not a destination
Ikigai is often presented as something to be found: a neatly defined purpose that sits at the intersection of what ...
Theatre and arts-based approaches as a way to make climate action joyful
When falling down the internet "rabbit hole" recently, I came across a play that's currently showing in New York. ...
What can zooplankton teach us about climate action?
Zooplankton, tiny animals, are responsible for locking away as much planet-warming carbon as the annual emissions ...
In the face of AI and chatbots, what skills do we need to stay human?
Long story short: mathematics, language and futures literacy. But why?
“Butt” what if? A provocation for the tobacco industry (and smokers)
Cigarette butts are a problem for individuals, the environment, and society. So could a deposit system be a ...
Why curiosity beats certainty in futures work
One of the most hopeful things neuroscience tells us is that we are natural explorers. Curiosity isn’t a ...
Affordable homes: a thing of the past?
Amber Howard’s talking about affordable homes in Amsterdam. Innsbruck, where I live, is (apparently) now Austria’s ...
Why embodiment matters in futures work
I’ve been thinking about how I am often involved in creating multi-sensory, place-based futures with groups, and ...
From audience to author
There is often a moment in the futures sessions that I facilitate when people stop asking, “Is this the right ...
Rethinking is a futures skill (and facilitation is how groups learn it)
One of the most useful ideas I keep returning to is Adam Grant’s from his book Think Again: in a fast-changing ...
Comfort with uncertainty is a skill
I revisited Kristi Nelson's reflections on deepening our comfort with uncertainty recently, and it got me thinking ...
Uncertainty is not a weakness. It’s the ultimate superpower.
I watched quantum physicist Shohini Ghose explain something that futures practitioners often feel in their bones: ...
The Great Switch: Finding Non-US Alternatives to Online Password Managers like LastPass (European and Non-US Alternatives)
The Great Switch: Finding Non-US Alternatives to Online Password Managers like LastPass (European and Non-US VOIP ...
Why the first 20 minutes matter in facilitating futures
When I am facilitating futures, the first 20 minutes of a session tells me how the session might go without ...
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