Author: Frank Diana

Catalyst Poll Results

Frank Diana The Future of Humanity , , , , , , ,

Updated results: April 9th, 2019. The response has been great, but I’d like to capture more voices. Please consider taking this very short Poll.

In a recent post on What to Expect in 2019, I launched three focus areas for the coming year. This focus attempts to identify the key drivers of change and the outcomes they enable. The three areas are:

  1. Convergence is one of the key dynamics I expect/hope to see more of this year. A century ago, convergence across multiple domains ushered in unprecedented advancements in human development. Multiple forces will drive a similar level of convergence in the coming decade.
  2. The pace of innovation and change is often cited as a key difference between the next revolution and prior ones. This is one of the key catalysts driving change, and I expect it to Accelerate.
  3. I believe the world will experience a burst of Possibilities enabled by these forces of convergence and acceleration

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Future of AI with Amy Webb

Frank Diana Artificial Intelligence , , , , ,

Amy Webb is a Quantified Futurist. She is a Professor, Strategic Foresight at NYU, and the Founder and CEO of The Future Today Institute. In March of this Year, Amy published a book titled The Big Nine. 

Here is a description of the book via Amazon:

In this book, Amy Webb reveals the pervasive, invisible ways in which the foundations of AI–the people working on the system, their motivations, the technology itself–is broken. Within our lifetimes, AI will, by design, begin to behave unpredictably, thinking and acting in ways which defy human logic. The big nine corporations may be inadvertently building and enabling vast arrays of intelligent systems that don’t share our motivations, desires, or hopes for the future of humanity.

Much more than a passionate, human-centered call-to-arms, this book delivers a strategy for changing course, and provides a path for liberating us from algorithmic decision-makers and powerful corporations.

On April 5th, Amy was a guest on CXOTalk. CXOTalk presents video interviews with business, technology, and healthcare leaders on transformation and the impact of digital. Topics include AI, data science, digital transformation, and evolving business models. Both the book and this fascinating interview are a must see. The importance of dialog, education, and future focus cannot be overstated. Ms. Webb gives us the benefit of her broad and deep experience as she looks at how we got here, and where we might go. The potential paths are varied (some good and some bad). I explore those paths in this recent post on Mapping the Path of Innovation.

I encourage everyone to view the forty-five minute video. The book is in my Book Library  – it should be part of yours.

Mapping the Path of Innovation

Frank Diana The Future of Humanity , , , , , , , , ,

In a recent post, I asked my readers to help me identify those catalysts that force the actions required to steer our future towards advancing our human development. Feel free to respond to the Poll. The number one response was the rapid pace of innovation. That response supports my own opinion that the pace will ultimately force stakeholders across multiple domains to take action. Much like the Domain Convergence that occurred during our most Transformative Period in History, convergence is required if we are to take the correct path towards human flourishing.

Balancing the Opposing Forces of Innovation is critical to enhancing our future. This subway diagram focuses on two paths: one that enhances human development (green), and one that diminishes it (red). The station stops are the major innovations likely to have the biggest impact in either direction – but we could add several other stations based on the number of Building Blocks available to society. Click on the visual to expand it.

Addressing the Rapid Pace of Innovation

In a recent book titled The Big Nine, author Amy Webb describes three future scenarios for artificial intelligence: optimistic, pragmatic, and catastrophic. This type of exercise is instructive, as it paints a picture of the potential paths for one of our station stops – and that’s just one stop along the way. What happens when the various stops spawn new stops? What happens as they converge and amplify impact? In the aforementioned book, our author describes the prescriptive steps to be taken to ensure a path towards human flourishing. We’d be wise to heed her advice.

Three Trillion Reasons

Frank Diana The Future of Humanity , , , , , ,

SAP Ariba Live

I had the pleasure of delivering a dinner keynote at this weeks SAP Ariba Live event. I was very impressed with the event theme: 3 Trillion Reasons. That theme is a play on the nearly $3 trillion in commerce flowing through SAP Ariba annually. Although that number speaks to commerce, the theme spoke to purpose. As positioned on this Blog frequently, I expect a continued Shift to Purpose and Well-Being.

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Systems Thinking: The Key to Thriving in a Complex Future

Frank Diana The Future of Humanity , , ,

Our future is very complex. The sheer number of building blocks complicates not just our ability to see the future, but any chance we have to navigate it. As these building blocks combine in ever increasing ways, the challenges multiply. Leaders of tomorrow will move towards systemic leadership, having an ability to connect dots. Innovation will move from a myopic view of offerings to systems innovation.

To accomplish this, systems thinking must be embraced by leaders. Systems thinking is a holistic approach to analysis that focuses on the way that a system’s constituent parts interrelate and how systems work over time and within the context of larger systems. As leaders, we struggle with this holistic approach, choosing instead to focus on short term versus long term, and delivering immediate results versus positioning for the future. This focus is in direct conflict with where our complex future is taking us.

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Self Driving Delivery

Frank Diana Automation , , , ,

The hype around autonomous technology continues. The focus, investment and rapid advancement in this space has changed the way leaders Think about the Future. The science-fiction feel of a future-focused discussion has disappeared – replaced by the reality that the future is appearing faster than we think. Look no further than self-driving delivery.

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Ecosystem Readiness

Frank Diana Ecosystems , , , , , , ,

As the world continues its march towards platform-supported ecosystems, organizational readiness becomes a critical area of focus. Four facets of an organization contribute or detract from success in an ecosystem world:

  1. The mental models that drive an organization
  2. The lens in which an organization views value creation and capture
  3. The orientation of an organization – which in most cases is shareholder value
  4. The organization’s culture

The growth engine that ecosystems represent will serve as a forcing function, pushing Organizations to Mature across these key facets. For example, I firmly believe that over time, a transition occurs from shareholder value to stakeholder value. This transition places purpose at the center, with shared value at its core (Click on the Visual to expand).

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