Inside the Next Transition

The Catalysts that Drive Human Action

Written by

Frank Diana

in

,

The conversation regarding catalysts that drive human action has been fascinating. This poll initially launched back in February has had a great response – with some great insight. Please take the poll if you have not already.

One of our Lessons from History was the presence of catalysts that drove actions that ultimately shaped our future. The major catalysts of the second revolution were astounding levels of innovation,

Catalysts
Click to open in a new window

World War One, The Great Depression, World War Two, and the eventual democratization of innovation. What catalysts force stakeholder actions that ultimately shape our emerging future? Please help me build on this list and identify the most significant catalysts. Choose all catalysts that you feel will contribute – or add anything that I am missing. For a deeper description of catalysts, please see the lessons from history post.

Discover more from Inside the Next Transition

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Comments

16 responses to “The Catalysts that Drive Human Action”

  1. Vatsalya Avatar
    Vatsalya

    While there are a lot of catalysts which are forcing the future as we foresee today , I feel innovation is the most relevant of these catalysts. It is at the heart of every change happening around us.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  2. Harold Avatar
    Harold

    In no particular order:

    The Internet
    Remote Work
    Task-based Work (Gig Economy)
    Populism
    Climate Change & Refugees
    Digital Propaganda
    Surveillance Capitalism
    Biosphere Degradation
    Bio-tech
    Nano-tech

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. Rosie England Avatar
      Rosie England

      Hi Frank, it’s Rosie England (Anthony’s mom). I stumbled upon your post and participated in your survey. I added Political Intolerance to the list. I posted an essay on the topic a few months back, and got a lot of positive responses. Futurism is entirely new to me, but I have a great interest in Social Science, which is why it caught my eye, however, I pretty sure I’m out of my league here…

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  3. Alex Avatar
    Alex

    Surely pace of innovation is an outcome, while the catalysts are Demand and Necessity (‘…mother of all invention’)? Paranoia and fear unfortunately still affects decision makers all too often, and unrest etc are symptomatic of frustration with abusive, corrupt administration. Given that we are still looking to the future, I would hope the following will once again drive stakeholder actions:

    – Exploration and Compulsion to Evolve (scientific endeavour)
    – Problem solving (hunger, education, health, environment)
    – Need for Economic and Technical efficiency (to counter waste, impact, loss etc)
    – Opportunities to improve current state of human condition (elevate thinking, improve progress etc)
    – Preservation of Freedom and need for Transparency and Accountability (reduce political inefficiencies, corruption, bureaucracy etc)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  4. Catalyst Poll Results | Reimagining the Future

    […] explore these themes, I launched a Poll focused on catalysts. A look at history is very instructive, as several dynamics from that period […]

    Like

    Reply
  5. David Kish Avatar
    David Kish

    It’s interesting that items 2-4 (climate change, geopolitical instability and societal unrest), which represent about half the votes, seem highly correlated.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  6. Food Abundance and Unintended Consequences | Reimagining the Future

    […] but steering us towards the possibilities requires human action. Historically, we’ve required Catalysts to drive human action – human nature being what it is, we are likely to once again need […]

    Like

    Reply
  7. Looking Back to See Ahead | Reimagining the Future

    […] science, technology, political, societal and economic domains. The red boxes represent the Catalysts that drove this […]

    Like

    Reply
  8. The Future is Asian | Reimagining the Future

    […] earlier this year, geopolitical instability was on the list of responses I received. Going into the poll I launched (please consider taking the short poll if you have not already) I had geopolitical instability at […]

    Like

    Reply
  9. The Corona Virus Serves As A Catalyst For Change | Reimagining the Future

    […] of events is hard. I’ve asked the question about the catalysts of our future in a recent Poll – please participate and add your […]

    Like

    Reply
  10. Reflect, Reimagine, and Reset | Reimagining the Future

    […] The greatest human progress was built on the back of catalysts. I explored the role of catalysts in This Post that looked at historical catalysts and the catalysts on the horizon. The poll in the post was […]

    Like

    Reply
  11. Considering The lessons Of History | Reimagining the Future

    […] of this, as years’ worth of innovation were accomplished in months. History tells us that Catalysts are required To drive human action – the pandemic serves as such a […]

    Like

    Reply
  12. Revisiting The Catalysts Of Change | Reimagining the Future

    […] like an eternity has past since I first launched this Poll on the catalysts that drive human action. As I mentioned back then, one of our Lessons from […]

    Like

    Reply
  13. Current Poll Results: Catalysts of Change | Reimagining the Future

    […] explore these themes, I launched a Poll focused on catalysts. A look at history is very instructive, as several dynamics […]

    Like

    Reply
  14. Guarding Against Future Crises In Business | Reimagining the Future

    […] need for large-scale change to structures in a Post from 2013. This type of change requires Catalysts, and the pandemic is serving as just that. That large-scale change is a macro-level view. A more […]

    Like

    Reply
  15. The Journey: Dual Paths Of Innovation | Reimagining the Future

    […] human action. As described in a previous post on catalysts, historically, we’ve required catalysts to drive human action. Human nature being what it is, we are likely to need catalysts again […]

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment

More posts

Discover more from Inside the Next Transition

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading