· 6 min read
Welcome 2025!
Having made it through what we expected to be a bumpy and uncertain year, things feel more clear this New Year’s Day… in ways that feel both daunting and more hopeful.
Essays
Nancy’s longer thinking on leadering, the future of work, exponential technologies and the choices in front of us.
23 of 23 shown
· 16 min read
The Youthquake Is Rumbling.
While we are all becoming well versed in the forces shaping our future: digital and economic transformation, sustainability and regenerative (vs extractive) practices, systemic equity, access and justice, and tending to our overall wellbeing… I have not met a single business leader who is paying attention to the one that will also radically impact our lives in the years ahead: the emerging Youthquake.
· 17 min read
Beyond The Industrial Era. What Comes Next?
Throughout our industrialized past there have been several big shifts in the way we have leveraged resources and organized societies. As we find ourselves here, on the cusp of another, it's important to acknowledge that we are not simply heading into a "Fourth Industrial Revolution". We're rapidly advancing into an entirely new age: the "Exponential Productivity Transformation" (XPT).
· 7 min read
What I Did, Heard, Experienced And Missed At SXSW 2022.
With hundreds (and hundreds) of panels, keynotes, films, live performances, installations, and parties to choose from over 10ish days, it is literally impossible to catch it all. Designed to be a self-guided playground of learning, discovery and connection means that each of the 200,000(ish) attendees has a unique constellation of experiences. Here is mine.
· 5 min read
The Force Of Nature
Led by an eco-entrepreneur/documentarian and accompanied by two well-known filmmakers and a prominent urban architect focused on regenerative systems, I spent a full week exploring, learning and witnessing the extraordinary resilience of nature and a population committed to protecting it.
· 3 min read
The Year Of Big Choices. What Future Do You Want?
It has been a tough couple of years… and the burnout we’re feeling is real. As we are all seeking inspiration, calm and connectivity, it is helpful to remember that the volatility and uncertainty we’re experiencing provides an extraordinary moment of inflection where we get to align our actions and values, and decide what future we want to live in.
· 6 min read
Crossing The Liminal Gap
When we envision the shift between one socio-economic era and another, we can see a gap form as old systems are breaking down and new systems are yet to be created. I describe this as the “liminal gap:” the space between now and next; between our present ways of operating and what the future needs; and even between me, the leader, and you, my potential collaborator.
· 16 min read
Introduction to Leadering. Change Your Mindset. Change The World.
Structures put in place to reduce risk and drive success in the 20th Century are now often the very things creating vulnerability in the 21st Century. It’s time to ditch the outdated playbook and radically shift our approach from static leadership to dynamic leadering to think much bigger and ensure a thriving future for all.
· 8 min read
Welcome 2021: Building a Better Next!
Yesterday, January 1st, I hosted a 90min online experience that many of you were a part of, and I wanted to able to share the link to the whole thing with you! Themed Building A Better Next, it highlighted several audacious yet remarkably tangible ideas that are shaping our future right now. I’m excited to give you a quick overview here because this is the kind of thinking, caring and acting we are being called to do now.
· 6 min read
Leadering: Why Visionary Leaders Are Investing In Adaptability Quotient.
Today we cannot wait for decisions or direction from a few empowered leaders or small select committees (or even from just one author). We need to collect, synthesize and prioritize a lot of new information quickly, which means that organizations with rigid bureaucracy and no clarity of purpose often miss windows of learning and opportunity. How can we learn to adapt?
· 6 min read
Leadering: Making Peace With Paradox: The RIFF Model
Engaging often requires that we hold two or more competing narratives about what things mean—and to rely on more than “thinking.” To help us find the value in these conflicting narratives, I developed a deceptively simple tool that teases out emotional distinctions. It is especially illuminating when used with a group. I call it the RIFF model.
· 15 min read
Status Fluid: the Future of Work and Working (… and Us)
Like it or not, we now are all wide awake and actively thinking through what this collective insight means for where we go next. But as we focus more specifically on what work will look like, rather than discussing the merits of plastic shields and home office allocations, the place to start is by clarifying what we actually mean by “work”?
· 4 min read
Welcome To The Femme Futurists Society.
With a desire to balance the dominant masculine side of the conversation with the currently underrepresented feminine, we are so excited to showcase and amplify the thinking and work of this thoughtful collection of futurists. Each of whom has her own take on what the frontier holds in business, technology, and society, and who collectively offer a truly inspiring look at what’s ahead.
Want Nancy’s thinking in the room?
Keynotes, executive workshops and immersive experiences, tailored to your audience and the questions keeping them up at night.