The Traits We Need For The Future We’re Entering

Over the last ten posts, we have been building a clearer picture of what it means to live in a world approaching a systemic turning point. We began by examining why today feels unusually active and uneven, then traced the deeper pattern behind major shifts in history. We explored how change accumulates, compresses, destabilizes, and eventually reorganizes life around new assumptions. We introduced the seven domains that shape every transition and showed why no single force ever moves a civilization forward on its own. We examined the three drivers that push societies across thresholds and built gauges that make systemic pressure legible. Using those gauges, we read four major transitions in the long arc of history: from hunter-gatherer life to agriculture, from agriculture to the Axial reorientation of ideas, from the Axial age to the Renaissance, and from the Renaissance into the Industrial world. We then applied the same lens to the present, showing why the 2020s feel dense, fast, and tightly connected. Most recently, we explored the possibility of another transition forming and the kind of governance required when intelligence itself becomes a shared utility. Together, these posts formed a simple arc: understand the moment, understand the mechanics, understand what may be forming next.

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Rehearsing The Future: Navigating Complexity With Mimi Brooks

In an age of accelerating change and complexity, leadership requires more than traditional planning – it demands a mindset of rehearsal. This principle framed my recent conversation with Mimi Brooks, CEO of Logical Design Solutions, on her Bold Agendas podcast. Our discussion spanned the evolving role of ecosystems, the dual edges of innovation, and the critical importance of adaptability and resilience. Together, we unpacked strategies for thriving in an unpredictable world and explored the transformational shifts leaders must embrace to navigate 2025 and beyond.

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Rehearsing For 2025: A Year-End Reflection

As another year draws to a close, I find myself drawn to a practice that transcends simple predictions. Rather than attempting to forecast the future, I focus on rehearsing it – imagining possible scenarios that help us prepare for whatever may unfold. Predictions often fail to capture the complexity, volatility, and cultural nuances of our interconnected world. Rehearsal, by contrast, is an active and flexible exercise: it invites us to consider “what if” and then equip ourselves with the tools, mindsets, and strategies to adapt.

As we look toward 2025, I invite you to consider a set of interrelated themes. These are not forecasts, but lenses through which we can examine global currents. By exploring these possibilities, we do not claim certainty. Instead, we gain the agility and resilience necessary to respond thoughtfully, no matter how events evolve.

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