Join Watermark for the first episode in our Masterclass Series, where we turn our highly regarded interim webinars into podcast episodes.
This episode features futurist and author, Diana Wu David, and she unveils the exciting landscape of tomorrow. Diana guides us through envisioning what lies ahead and offers insights on how these changes will impact each of us as individuals and as leaders within our organisations. With captivating real-world examples, she sheds light on the personal and professional applications.
An opportunity to expand your horizons and rethink your approach to the future.
Listen to gain insights and advice for current and future leaders.
You can also find the podcast on several different apps, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Breaker, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, and RadioPublic. Click here to listen & subscribe on your favourite app or read the transcript below.
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Foresight Meets Strategy: Empowering Individuals and Executives for the Future
Agile Leadership Lessons, Masterclass Series - Episode 8, transcript:
Caroline McAuliffe, Senior Partner at Watermark Search International:
Welcome to the Masterclass Series of the Watermark Search podcast. Hi. I'm Caroline McAuliffe, Senior Partner at Watermark Search, and here at Watermark, we're dedicated to bringing you the best of the best in thought leadership, and now we're thrilled to bring you our very best insights in a whole new way. In our Masterclass Series, we're transforming our highly regarded webinars into podcast episodes, making it easier than ever for you to access invaluable knowledge and expertise on the go. So whether you're commuting, exercising or just taking a break, you can now stay informed and inspired with the latest trends, strategies and success stories from the world of interim, executive search and leadership. So please sit back, relax, and let's dive into today's episode of the Watermark Search Masterclass Series.
Today, we have a special guest who brings a wealth of experience and insight into the future of work and strategic leadership. Our guest is Diana Wu David, a former Financial Times executive with 30 years of experience in corporate, multilingual and venture backed startups. She's now a strategic advisor, executive coach and board director dedicated to empowering professionals, companies and boards to thrive in an ever-changing landscape. She's also the author of the bestselling book, Future Proof: Reinventing Work in an Age of Acceleration, and she runs a future proof community for senior executives transitioning from success to significance. Today, we will be delving into a fascinating session that was titled, Foresight Meets Strategy: Empowering Individuals and Executives for the Future. This episode begins with a compelling narrative painting a vivid picture of what life might look like for a child born in 2032 based on today's technological advancements and emerging trends. She then swiftly brings the discussion back to the present, emphasising the importance for both individuals and companies to prepare for the rapid pace of change ahead.
Jacinta Whelan, Lead Partner - Melbourne at Watermark Search International:
Good morning everyone. My name is Jacinta Whelan, and I'm a Partner with Watermark Executive Search in Melbourne. My specialty area is the future of work in the interim market so today's topic is really close to my heart. Together with the Interim Partners; Donna in Melbourne, Caroline, Alex and Pip in Sydney, and the broader Watermark business, I really welcome you today. I'd like to do the Welcome to Country before we start, and then I'll talk about the agenda. I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the many lands on which we're gathered. I pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging, and to any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Island people listening today. We host these webinar series as a way to educate and inform, and this is our first webinar for 2024 so we thought we'd start with a really big topic, the future of work. It's big. It's very topical. It's not even the future of work anymore. It's the now of work. But today we move from the now to actually jump right forward into the future, which will be a bit of fun. And the theme is really central to the whole business here at Watermark. We work with organisations and individuals to look at their talent management and their careers, and how we prepare ourselves for the future is really relevant to today. So really important theme for us. Today's session, the heading is, Foresight Meets Strategy, and Diana is going to share with us how both individuals, you and I, who are on the call, can think about this for ourselves, and then how organisations can prepare better for the future of work. None of us can do it alone. So if the organisation's prepared, but the individuals aren't, that doesn't serve us well, and if us as individuals aren’t requesting and demanding of organisations that they accept the future of work and how we wish to engage with that, then they won't be informed how to get the best talent. So, Diana is going to start by taking us on a journey into the future and build out one person's life and what that might look like. The thing that I find fascinating is she's going to do that based on all current day technology. So while some of it might sound far-fetched, we have a lot of technology at our hands, so we're going to sort of go from that basis and look forward.
We've had a big registration to today. So that suggests that this topic is really important for each of us. I'm going to read you Diana's bio. I'm going to read this because it's very impressive. It'll take me a bit but I can't remember it. Diana Wu David is a former Financial Times executive. Diana is a futurist and a top 50 global influencer for future of work. She's a bestselling author of Future Proof, you can see over her shoulder there, which is about reinventing work in the age of acceleration. Her company, Future Proof Lab, helps people and organisations understand the future to find their place in it with a focus on preparing the highest echelons of organisations to meet accelerating change and to drive breakthrough results. She began her career in leadership education as an assistant to Dr Henry Kissinger, nonetheless, and has been a corporate innovator, entrepreneur and strategist for 30 years, across continents, across multinationals, across startups and across the multiverse. She lectures at Hong Kong University and at Columbia Business School. She's a FORWARD Fellow at RMIT, here in Australia, and she's the Head of the Faculty for the Financial Times board director programs. And she's a graduate of the Institute for the Future, which is out of Silicon Valley. Diana is a contributor to the Harvard Business Review, she's a popular speaker on the future of work and human potential in AI powered world. She's got a TEDx talk that you might enjoy, which has been called a clarion for people to get off the treadmill of unfulfilling work and learn to run free. She's a friend of Watermark and we're absolutely delighted that she can find some time to share with our network her insights. We've got a bit of a straw poll. We thought we'd just gage from the audience how prepared you feel. So one question, and then we'll hand over to Diana.
Diana Wu David, Futurist, Author, Keynote and TEDx Speaker:
I'm just super excited to see the answers. It should be interesting.
Jacinta Whelan, Lead Partner - Melbourne at Watermark Search International:
So we have 30% of people say, yes I do this often. 60% of people say, I do it but I need to do it more. And 12% of people say, no I haven't done this. So over to you Diana, we're going to start with this story, and then we'll get on to a bit more about corporates and individuals.
Diana Wu David, Futurist, Author, Keynote and TEDx Speaker:
Wonderful. So my theory about this poll is that, often times I do work in the US, and I always tell them I'm calling from the future, but you guys, maybe you're calling even more from the future. So let's start with the story. Shall we? I'm going to tell you a little bit about this story, and then we'll go on to talk about how it sort of manifests in the real life. Wu Wen Shu was born in Wuhan China in 2032 and she has a unique upbringing shaped by advancements in technology and personal DNA analysis. Instead of the traditional 100 Day celebrations of putting a child in front of an abacus, a calligraphy brush, a book or a cake. Her parents opted for the big DNA reveal party. They discovered that Wen Shu possessed strong mathematical abilities, so based on her genetic blueprint, her parents enroll her in an online Math Academy at the age of two. Her DNA analysis also recommends a diet and fitness regime that includes playing tennis to balance out the intense screen time. As Wen Shu grows older, it's time to choose a vocation. She has access to fully funded education credits that can be utilised through her entire life. She faces a decision between spending them all on the college degree or a structured apprentice program to enhance portable credentials. She chooses to apprentice herself to a company that's building corporate digital twins, just to see what'll happen. You never know with that first job. Fast forward to her 20s, Wen Shu who's now known as Wanda, in the virtual world, has become deeply involved in the metaverse. These immersive worlds have become popular for exercise, entertainment and business and artists, fashionistas and celebrities all want to play an urn in the metaverse. So Wanda's multiple decades now of Applied Math have been in hot demand, in a way that not even the algorithms predicted. She joins Metamorph, a guild dedicated to building new worlds where top talents collaborate and companies outsource most of their activities. Unlike previous generations, Wanda didn't have a traditional job. Instead, she works with Metamorph which provides a platform for talent and facilitated payments, health benefits and skill development. The guild invests in research labs to ensure members stay up to date with their knowledge and skills. And she receives a payment through a special wallet, and her health credits are based on her DNA and predicted health. She enjoys the perks of her current project working in a resort like environment with access to creative enhancements and leisure activities to make sure she's working at her top. Wanda's project team in Bodrum consists of a diverse group of individuals from all over the world, including Q, who's a visual designer, Pine Cone Princess, who's a storyboard artist, and Audrey, the team captain. Automation and AI manage all the grunt work, while quality assurance tasks are crowdsourced. Weekly counseling sessions with Audrey ensure productivity and mental wellbeing. Their current project involves building a Metaverse for a popular boy band from Wuhan. The band initially gained success on Tiktok with AI avatars, and then the talent scouts found real boys to stand in for the AI avatars and expand to live concerts. Now it's been so successful, it's come full circle back to digital. Wanda's working with Thunder, the band lead, to recreate a digital world where fans can meet them, blurring the lines between avatars and reality. Meanwhile, Wanda and Thunder fall in love.
That's the end of my little snippet of a longer story. And although it may seem fantastical, it is grounded in current trends and technologies. So DNA analysis for personality traits and sports affinity already exists. It is 23andMe in the US, it’s Prenetics here. In fact, in China, there is a huge log of DNA repositories. So that is something that people are looking at in terms of, how will that effect national competitiveness? Of course, the use of blockchain for credentials is already being used, work is evolving with the rise of platforms and ecosystems that aggregate talent for various projects. Healthcare credits aligned with work are allocated based on individual needs already and address the challenges faced by gig workers and fractional workers. So as digital life becomes more prevalent, the flip side is there's a growing desire for authenticity and connection to the real world, which is why I ended with Wanda and Thunder falling in love. Wanda’s journey from the DNA reveal party to a prominent role in Metaverse creation just showcases the potential future of personalised education, virtual worlds, talent platforms, and really the power of foresight to help us imagine new possibilities. So Jacinta, that's my story, and let's bring it home to reality.
Jacinta Whelan, Lead Partner - Melbourne at Watermark Search International:
I'm invested. I want to know how wonder and Thunder end up. We do need to bring this back to reality. Because, you know, we started by saying, this is a fabulous story and how do you even imagine what the future might be? And I think you do have to have a sort of a narrative around it, or it is too much. We get lots and lots of information. So we really wanted to sort of then pull that back to companies, and what are they doing, and what are they sort of seeing and asking? And then as individuals what can we be doing, in your experience, with all the coaching you do? So can we maybe start with the company side?
Diana Wu David, Futurist, Author, Keynote and TEDx Speaker:
Yeah, absolutely. Many of the companies that I work with are in a position where they, for whatever reason, have plateaued so they have a certain sense of urgency about the future or some reason to change. And the most forward-thinking ones are already thinking, okay, we can see what's going to happen. You know, nothing lasts forever in terms of growth. And they're going up that curve and already looking for the next one. So those are the situations that often people find themselves in. And on a more practical level, I can tell you, I worked with the National Basketball Association in Asia, and they were just coming out of the pandemic. So they have had this couple of years where most of their business is based on giant sports arenas and getting a whole bunch of people into these potential super spreader events. And in addition to that, like all of their junior programs, are about getting kids onto the court. So they faced massive disruption, and they were really thinking about, okay where do we go from here? We really have just been in okay let's just plug the holes in the dike, you know? And what we've realised is there's a whole new world if we really think about what's possible and align our company to that, then we could expand way beyond the arena. So what they did, is they spent some time on something like this reimagining process. They said, okay what would it look like in 10 years or 20 years? And you know, what would the headlines be in terms of what's possible and what our company even looks like? They looked at some of the trends, like Web3 in particular, and the CEO was really keen. He was like, I see this gaming aspect, we're already a bit into it, but we could do so much more. So things like Axie Infinity in the Philippines, and people earning money from some of their playing. So what we did is we did that reimagining process, and it was about, rather than that kind of, here we're going up and to the right. It was like, what if we took the elevator up and said, what's possible? Let's reimagine, and then backward engineer what is it that would have to change within our company, within the processes? Starting with the champions of this kind of new possibility, and then thinking about a strategy cascade, where you have this great story, but how about, what actually has to happen to make those realities? What has to happen in finance, for instance, and operations to make some of those a reality. So that's the sort of big trajectory. One of the things that you guys can do, just to bring it home. Rrather than a big project, is one, I think the reimagining thing is amazing, and I work with clients to get them in and do these exercises and the headlines exercises. Tt's a foresight tradition, I guess, to really think about, okay what would it be in, you know, the news about your company? Or if it's something that's customer facing, getting really specific, like it's 10 years, 20 years down the road. What does our customer look like now? What do they eat for breakfast? What are they reading? Where do they go to work? You know, how do we fit into their lives? From an other sort of quick hit perspective, that's not a grand strategy. The thing that the NBA was looking at, and that a lot of my other clients have looked at, is developing signals groups within the company. And so what this is, this story is based on signals. The big drivers are, aging workforce is a big driver and demographics, but the signals are these small, news stories or startup or things that are happening that are signals of potential futures. So futurists don't predict the future. They have many plausible futures, and then they spend a lot of time and a signals group inside a company can spend time going, okay let me search around and see what's interesting for my company. So if we're talking about Watermark, and we're saying, okay we need to know all about the virtual platforms. Once a month people from different parts of the company could come together and say here's what I found. And there is a process in terms of, what does it mean? What effect is it having? There's the sort of classic strategy, steeple categories that you can apply it to. What does it mean for our company? And then when you get together once a month, you can say, and what's next? Like if we had to prioritise, what kind of experiments we might want to make, or assumptions that we want to test. What would we do? And so, for instance, for the NBA, it could be, we think that we could do a lot in gaming. We think that we could start with our junior program and let's think about like the smallest experiment we can do in Web3 that is maybe even under the radar, that can test the idea that young people will want to be part of the NBA, even if they're not on the court. And then the next month, you can review your other signals and talk about what the experiment was, or the assumptions you test. And this is also sometimes called ‘discovery driven planning’ in strategy circles. So that is an example of how people are using foresight and strategy in combination to transform what's possible and also, it's not just about the, let's imagine the big story. It's really a discipline and a process of bringing people together around possible futures for the company or for your team or for your department.
Jacinta Whelan, Lead Partner - Melbourne at Watermark Search International:
There's 1000s of questions I've got, but what I heard is that there's a driver and those signals of what's potential. And it feels like this has to be done, the only way to do this is to bite size chunk it a bit. Break it down a bit, because there's so much data coming at us all. And so as a futurist, can I ask, how do we begin to assimilate and synthesise all that there is about the future? Same process maybe?
Diana Wu David, Futurist, Author, Keynote and TEDx Speaker:
Well, the signals gathering is part of that process. Because what I like about it is you have a lot of different people within the organisation that are looking out at what they think is interesting. And so to me, snow melts at the edges right. There was a time when I started work where the strategy people would sit on the 50th floor and next to the CEO's office, and we would just think great thoughts. And when I was in consulting, we had access to all of our high-cost databases and that still exists. But the fact that, for instance, in a company so many of my clients, as new technology comes through, and you see this with generative AI are saying, oh my God, how am I going to hire the expertise? I'm like, you have the expertise. You just don't know where it is in your organisation. And for Web3, certainly that happened. If you put out a call to say, hey we're going to do the signals group, you end up with this cross functional, multi-generational group of people that are doing this because they're passionate about it. And some of them, yes, are in the innovation function or a CDO or whatever, but a lot of them are people who are maybe a year into your organisation, and they have a side hustle or whatever. You know, I did a whole thing on portfolio careers for 20 year olds last year.
Jacinta Whelan, Lead Partner - Melbourne at Watermark Search International:
That sounds like another conversation we can have, Diana.
Diana Wu David, Futurist, Author, Keynote and TEDx Speaker:
I know. So I think that in terms of filtering, for me, the signals group, is a way to do that. I understand the idea of there's so much information, and I just wrote an article about this, and it has been, how do you have processes within your organisation? And this is the company level. We can talk about the individual level, but at the company level, how do you decide how to scan and what information sources you'll use? How do you decide what you're going to then act on? Because I come from the innovation side, I tend to be a little more scrappy and entrepreneurial. And then when it gets to the scale portion of it, we've done an experiment, we've decided this is something we want to double down in, then of course, it requires much more of the process, and from guardrails to actual rules and integration with other parts of the company. But I increasingly think that you cannot be a company that just says we're just going to read Gartner or we're just going to have one source, because you're not using your people in the way that can have all those left field interesting sources of information. Before we got on, we were talking about how we love different newsletters. So you'll have people, the newsletters or the videos my kids watch are going to be different than the ones that I watch, etc. So there is a certain amount of serendipity that you can harness in order to think about the future and having a specific process in that we interviewed so many global companies, having some kind of process allows you to take the information and have a mechanism to either feed it back to senior management or decide also what you can learn and then share with the rest of the organisation.
Jacinta Whelan, Lead Partner - Melbourne at Watermark Search International:
It feels like we almost need to get our brave on for this and maybe the way to change this through companies is if we change individuals, and they've got some tools and some guardrails and some ways to accept this. A personal self-interest drives everyone, right? So if we think about the future as individuals, maybe we feel a little braver. Someone's just written in the chat, fearless. About taking that back to the company. So maybe it has to build up, rather than always expecting it to build down. Maybe it could. Could we move to maybe that individual lens and maybe start looking at that? What do we all do?
Diana Wu David, Futurist, Author, Keynote and TEDx Speaker:
Yeah, absolutely. So I'm looking in the chat, and Arby said, “What does my work look like in 20 years?” Get specific on what your employer looks like, etc. There's a lot of interesting chat. We do that in terms of individuals and after I wrote my book I had a lot which ended up being for individuals. It is fundamentally for people who are trying to figure out their own future of work. And I had all these senior execs who were like, look I can figure out how this works for my company, like I'm Chief Marketing Officer or CFO, whatever it is, but I just have no idea about myself. I'm living longer, and I want to contribute and work for longer so how am I going to deal with the future of work? So that started the Future Proof course. We have a community of senior execs that are building their next chapters and really thinking about it, in particular about work. What life do I want to live and how do I want to contribute? And one of the exercises we do on a personal basis is really forecasting out 20 years. So if you have no idea what you want to do, then it's sort of like, what are the headlines in your industry? And what is it that you see if you go out maybe 10 years, what is it going to be like? What do you think the headlines are going to be like, and what are the skills that are going to be required for success in the company in that headline, or in the movement in that headline, and which of them sort of spark a lot of interest for you, and then your reverse engineering for yourself. So in fact, when you talk, I work a lot with people, and I get a lot of questions about filtering information, and one of the ways that I do it is, I go, okay this year my learning focus is going to be, you know, one year it was the metaverse, and the way that I learned about it was I took on a couple of startup clients. And I didn't take on startup clients, and other fringy aspects of technology. Or I actually, maybe even 10 years ago, I sat on a board for a robotics education company, and that was, you know, something where I was paid in equity. But the real reason I did it is I wanted to have one part of my portfolio, or a project I worked on at work that was going to allow me to learn, and I wanted to narrow the focus to what I thought would be either as hot or was interesting or is going to create value later. And it doesn't take that much time. I mean, sitting on a board might, but to say, okay I'm going to take a class on ESG, for instance, or I'm going to read a book. Those things don't take as much time. And then at the end of the year, you're like, okay, you know, I dipped my toe or up to maybe the knee, and hopefully not up above the head. And so that kind of filtering of information, doing the same strategy for yourself that you might do for a company. What is it that's going to happen in 10 years that I would like to prepare for and reverse engineering to say, okay, what are the assumptions I have? I assume that the metaverse is going to be big, or I'm going to assume that I'm going to love it, and I want to make my whole, no, 50% of my portfolio. So what are the small things that I can do to test that assumption for my career? And then after a while, how can I decide what I'm going to double down on?
Jacinta Whelan, Lead Partner - Melbourne at Watermark Search International:
Mmmm. Diana and I have had some really fun conversations about where the work we do intersects in that the people on this call are probably ahead of the curve, to be honest. You're thinking differently about work. You're known to us because of our interim network and together, we're all sort of co-creating what the future of work could look like. And it's growing, and all that sort of stuff, which is fabulous. But I've learned a lot from Diana, from her work and and that scenario planning of which interim is one part, but it's this lifelong learners, these drivers that you're talking about Diana. You can't have this conversation without all the social imputs of aging, of longevity, of the future of AI and and so today really was about, and is about, trying to sort of pull all that together, and step far enough away from it just to look at it and start to see where's the work we're all doing now that's important we all need to do to earn money. And then how do we keep staying ahead of the curve for into the future? Because it'll be this group and the people who are brave and who are fearless and who are working a bit differently, who will be the leaders. So that was really one of the reasons I really wanted Diana to talk to you. Have you got one more story of a company? You know, a lot of people will work with more corporate type entities. How do we as leaders in organisations, or maybe as interims coming in? But how can we challenge and ask the right questions as we go into more corporate land?
Diana Wu David, Futurist, Author, Keynote and TEDx Speaker:
Yeah, I'm happy to tell you a story, and then I also want to... I've been sort of reading through the chat, and there's a lot of questions, short term, long term, and how do I manage some of that? For sure, I think that there are aspects. One of the reasons that I work with companies where, for instance, growth is flatlining, is that by that time, if you're at 1% growth, you're basically moving backwards. You need the new future in order to start growing. And you need, frankly, energetically, like you know, you need to organise your people around this new future, because everybody knows that things are plateauing or drifting. So that kind of quarterly reporting versus longer term is something that has always been, frankly, a tension, right? And I think that it really depends on the company. I can say from a very corporate perspective of managing digital transformation at Financial Times, right? I went into a job that I'd never done in circulation, which was all about newsprint and like logistics and getting physical product to people at seven o'clock in the morning. And for me, it was like, okay, what do we do to stabilise this, right? It was a classic strategy. Here's all of our money coming from print advertising and print circulation. How do we make sure that we stabilise that and ensure that it has the cash cow profitability aspect, and not just be like oh it's the future over here. That's the fun stuff. And figure out what portfolio of potential options there are and how we're going to make that transition. So that's pretty classic digital transformation, or transformation of any kind. Be it via M&A or a pivot, or whatever. And so I think that the reimagining aspect is really, it is about connecting some of that. It is about what are those potential stars in your portfolio, what are the possibilities to bet on, and how do they connect to some of the quarterly machine that you need to optimise? And this right now is so important because it's going to accelerate with generative AI and different automation that's coming through. While people are saying, oh it's peak generative AI, you know, it's going to fade away, we don't need to know about it. I disagree. I think that this is another, almost like a spurt in a trend that we need to be brave for and I think if you're not brave for change, then you better start preparing to be brave for obsolescence. And I think change is going to be more fun. So, the Financial Times was definitely like that, where they are perpetually thinking. They were one of the first to say, we're going to put a data scientist on the board, and that was like 10 years ago. And so slowly but surely, really optimising the investment in that cash driver, and over time pulling things in a cycle up towards more digital revenue. And at this point even more possibilities on the data side for journalism as well as for new opportunities. So I launched the board director program there, and that was one of our bets. It was like, hey, somebody will pay $10 for a newspaper that basically has the same information as an equity analyst report. What are the highest, best offers that we might sell to people that could really transform the possibilities of the value we deliver for customers.
Jacinta Whelan, Lead Partner - Melbourne at Watermark Search International:
There's going to be so many questions, so we are going to jump, because I want to make sure that we engage the audience. Maybe that medium term, short term? There was a piece in there that resonated for me.
Diana Wu David, Futurist, Author, Keynote and TEDx Speaker:
Yeah, absolutely. So there's a lot in the chat about that time frames can't be too long as the rate of change is so high. Thank you for that Catherine.
Jacinta Whelan, Lead Partner - Melbourne at Watermark Search International:
Static versus dynamic thinking. I think not everything has to be nailed to the floor, says Lisa.
Diana Wu David, Futurist, Author, Keynote and TEDx Speaker:
Yeah, yeah. And I think that what we're talking about here for individuals as well as for companies, but let's talk about the companies. It doesn't have to be nailed to the floor, right? What I think is so interesting, and what I've spent really my career thinking about is, how is it that we can put mindset, structures, process, behaviors in play to ensure that we can be working on the future while we are also doing business as usual? So there's some great research on ambidextrous leadership, and I always love that metaphor, so it is really how you're going to still be thinking about the future. And that's why a signal group meets monthly. You don't do this once, plan your 20 years and go back. That's the sort of amazing thing about strategy is a) it's much more short term, as you guys are talking about in the chat, and also it is something that you have to continually refresh. But like the story, the reason we start with the story, is being able to talk about the couple of strategic ambitions for the next few years that are rooted in this longer term mission and vision. You know that doesn't necessarily change. You know you have the cone of strategy is sort of like, why are we doing this in the first place? That big why? And then there's backing into what are the big strategic ambitions we have for the next three to five years that are in service of that mission? And then in the sort of the narrowest part of the cone, it's really like, what are the things that we can continue to be thinking about and experimenting with, that we can ultimately double down, that will be in service of those strategic ambitions? Let me get really clear on some of the processes. Some of it is stuff you've heard about before, like 20% time at Google, right? That's something that they've decided to put into their company so that people can experiment around the edges, and they have process to elevate that when it's interesting to people. Other people have Venture Labs, and they actually have a piece of their company that's really dedicated to that, and some sort of separate people. There are banks that have Chief Innovation Officers that run projects, and last night, I was in with a company in Germany, and they have four projects, and they're all right on the frontier of what's possible. And these emerging leaders are working on those projects, and they'll pick one to take forward. And in the meantime, they've had their L&D, and they've networked within the company to form good relationships to operate at the speed of light in later years. So, hackathons is another one. So some of them have been around for a while, different sprints. It just depends on the organisation and aligning what you're going to do with the larger mission and strategic, really shorter term strategic ambitions. That's the point of doing the imagining, is to say, okay, what are the three things that we're going to all run for the fences on that are going to create revenue, but be focused in the right direction, not just be sort of interesting things that everybody running off in a different direction. And when we say, how do you filter information? These processes accommodate that collective information.
Jacinta Whelan, Lead Partner - Melbourne at Watermark Search International:
And then let me ask. Who gets this? Does the Chair bring you in? Does the CEO bring you in? You started by saying, there's often some sort of catalyst that is needed. The company's flatlining, or profits, or it's hard to get growth year on year. Does the CEO call, quite literally, help! What words do people feel comfortable saying? We're trying to address the future? Because you're a futurist, you assimilate all the information out there so that someone else doesn't have to. Basically, that's what they pick up the phone to call you for. So if we're looking for those little beacons of light, what does that look like?
Diana Wu David, Futurist, Author, Keynote and TEDx Speaker:
It's interesting that you say that. One of my friends at a big bank was like, well, it's all easy for you to say that you can filter your information, because you've basically designed a job for yourself where you do that. And there is an aspect to that. People hire me because I am perpetually scanning the horizon across new technology and new trends, and I bring that into my facilitation, and also into my keynotes, or whatever else that I'm doing for them. But usually it is either, we really need a refresh. Oftentimes right now, after covid, there's this sense that people are drifting. So a CEO might say it's as simple as wanting to reengage their team, because people they don't want to come in, they're not particularly motivated about the company, and so sometimes that's a problem to solve. That might be, what can you do? What can we do to reenergise our people around either a new strategy, because they've just acquired a company, or they're trying to get more clarity and hone the message on the strategy for the people around. So that can be an issue. The other thing is new heads of departments or team leaders or Csuite who say, I'm just in this position. They come in going, I got a bold vision, I really want to run for the fences, but I know I need to have somebody to help me do that. And sometimes that can even be the executive coach who is sort of there on a weekly basis, or every other week, to say, okay, so how are we going to plan for this meeting? How are you going to energise people? And then I facilitate sessions as well. So those are not, help I'm dying type things, but they are like, you know what, we need to pivot, or we're excited about the future, but we need some help getting there. I think that it needs to be something that is owned by and it can be suggested by the board, and I've been brought in in that way. But it needs to have some management sponsor. Otherwise it is the board saying, we think you should focus on this and that's not good board governance. The board stuff that I do is board coaching and I come in and it's about the future. It's about being a future-fit board. But a lot of it is really board effectiveness. That's my super geeky governance. Is your process aligned? Are you focused on the same strategic ambitions? And so for boards, it's a little bit different. It's about aligning around the future as a team. And I find that, frankly, boards often just aren't doing that, and it is about effectiveness and clarity around role and understanding how best to govern and nose in fingers out.
Jacinta Whelan, Lead Partner - Melbourne at Watermark Search International:
I've got two more questions. One being, what's the most common questions you're asked about the future of work? And then the second one, and then they all tie in, but what's the key takeaway? We've got a fabulous audience here that are loving it, the chats flying. We're all wondering what's happening to Wanda and Thunder. But what's the key takeaway? So, two questions, what's the most common questions you get asked, and what is the takeaway?
Diana Wu David, Futurist, Author, Keynote and TEDx Speaker:
So, the most common question that I get asked is really one that you already asked. One is, how do I take in all the information and change, and how do I make sense of it for me? I would say, I work with a lot of companies, but actually they're like, what do I do? I did the same thing. I was kind of really wondering, and I interviewed all these people for my book, and I did all this research, because I was like, how does that happen? And I interviewed people who had done it well, and developed a process where people could calibrate and future proof themselves so that they could think about their careers. And I think that examples are great. So, it is like, what is the smallest option that you can do if you think you want to do teaching, and you're not going to retire and rock up to the business school and say, I'm ready to be a teacher now. No. The smallest, best thing you can do is go and lecture in a classroom. And so that brings it home to a very concrete opportunity that you can do, and string together these opportunities to try and get feedback and can go on. And then by the time that you want to do different things, a career pivot is, you have all kinds of adjacencies and all kinds of information and data for yourself that can allow you to make the best possible decisions.
Jacinta Whelan, Lead Partner - Melbourne at Watermark Search International:
It ties up with a lot of the longevity piece. Where you've got to do a bit of an audit on yourself, your purpose, your passion, your alignment. Because, offline we spoke about an example of someone who was an executive who did this wanting to be a teacher. They came out of a corporate career and then, to your point, just let me go and do a couple of lectures at the University for a few years and see if I even like it. Because it sounds great in theory, but if I don't like it and test it, how on earth, probably I'm never going to change my whole life for something I'm not sure of. So I love that. Small steps, bite sized chunks, is sort of another way to think about it. And then, what's the takeaway? The takeaway is to do small steps, maybe.
Diana Wu David, Futurist, Author, Keynote and TEDx Speaker:
I think the takeaway is to be brave about the future and approach it with some curiosity. And really, the takeaway is to imagine your future and take those small bets that will allow you to experiment, and you can do that in your company, but you absolutely can do it in your life, in your career. I feel like that's something you can do to your die with your boots on, and it makes life really interesting.
Jacinta Whelan, Lead Partner - Melbourne at Watermark Search International:
Fabulous. There's so many questions here, but I want us to make sure that we wrap it up. And thank you Diana. She's one of the thought leaders on this in the world. Thank you all for . These sessions really are to try and keep you informed, share with you our network back out and some of the thinking that we put into the work that we do. This one, there has been a couple of takeaways for me. There's lots, but get brave for change or get brave for obsolescence, I took away. Diana and I will follow up a bit more on that portfolio, a whole program of work around that, because that's essentially what we do as well. And in that piece, we ask people to know their superpowers, and you'll know that word from us. And a lot of that does require that self thinking, that coaching, as a separate piece of work, so that then when you come to us, the best thing we could do for any of you is to grow this marketplace and to grow the interim space. And we're busy doing that, and some of this coaching work will just help us all. So we thought this was a fabulous chance for you to hear from Diana. We'll follow up and thank you Diana, can't thank you enough for your time.
Diana Wu David, Futurist, Author, Keynote and TEDx Speaker:
Thank you. I've had a really fun time, and I've loved hearing from everybody who has contributed.
Caroline McAuliffe, Senior Partner at Watermark Search International:
That wraps up today's episode of the Watermark Search Podcast - Masterclass Series. We hope you found the insights both inspiring and practical. If you're enjoying the show and want to hear more, we'd love to hear from you. Please subscribe, rate and leave a review on your favourite podcast platform. Your feedback helps us to improve and bring you the content you want. Please don't forget to follow us on LinkedIn for updates on upcoming episodes and more great content from Watermark Search. If you have any questions or topics you'd like us to cover in future episodes, please feel free to reach out. Thank you for joining us, and we look forward to bringing you more masterclasses in future episodes. Until then, stay inspired.