Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Graeme Codrington's Future of Work

On December 4, 2024, the CEO of one of America's largest healthcare insurers was shot dead on the streets of Manhattan. Angry people, living in a world that is filled with inequality and feeling squeezed on every side, will eventually snap. This is not something we want, nor is it a call to arms. But it is a possible future scenario that CEOs of large companies might need to be as careful of their personal security as many politicians currently are.

The antidote is to build future-proof businesses that see doing good as good for business. This isn't just a cute tagline - it is a core pillar of the DNA of a future-proof business.

Our team at TomorrowToday helps organisations to understand what a future-proof DNA looks like, and to identify the drivers of disruptive change taking us into that future. Contact us to discover more about our work:

It could happen. Sometime in the future. Data centres use an incredible amount of electricity and water. Towns that incentivise these data centres to locate nearby for jobs and tax benefits might find themselves dealing with unrealistic demands for power and water - to the point where a data centre could sue the town to continue providing them with water even if it means the people living in the town get cut off.

For more details of just how much power and water data centres use, listen to Paris Marx’s 4 part mini series on the Tech Won’t Save Us Podcast: https://techwontsave.us/episode/241_data_vampires_going_hyperscale_episode_1 

Nearly 100 years, the famous economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that by 2030 we would all be working just 15 hours a week. If only, right?

What went wrong? There is an answer, but you're probably not going to like it. We need to change the whole system to ensure we are not crushed by a system that seeks relentless productivity, endless activity and soul sucking workloads.

Maybe the 15 hour work week is an idealistic fantasy. Or maybe it's a motivating goal to drive a change in our current world of work?

Elections are messy, noisy and can overwhelm voters with too much information and too many choices. In the future, it could make sense for us to rely on our personal AI assistants - algorithms trained on our preferences, understanding our worldviews and able to mimic who we are in communications and interactions - to analyse every politician, their promises, their track record and what we expect them to be able to achieve, and advise us on the best person to vote for in any given election. It’s a great application of the power of data analytics and pattern recognition that GenAI apps are capable of, and it would probably help voters make more informed choices… rather than voting based on charisma, fears or history.

#election2024 #election2050 #future

Don't get too excited by the title - it's not quite what you think. In the future, it is possible that companies will not supply us with email addresses, but we will rather bring our own (just like we buy our own cars, phones and have your own personal cellphone numbers these days). 

This is more than a technology conversation - this is about fractional workers (senior people working for more than one company at the same time) and top talent being confident to say that their personal brand is more important than the brand of the company they work for (we do that already on LinkedIn, by the way). 

Now... if only we could actually get rid of email. Am I right?

Don't forget that our team at TomorrowToday Global works tirelessly to help our clients imagine scenarios for the future, anticipate disruptive change and build adaptive DNA in your business today. Contact us to find out how we can help you do this. 

See http://www.tomorrowtodayglobal.com or contact me personally at graeme@codrington.biz (you see what I did there) for more. 

Imagine logging into your web browser and there's just nothing: no websites anywhere. You check your internet connection, and that seems fine. Your phone seems to be working. Except most of the apps are showing error messages, and there are just no websites. 

This is what would happen if the DNS system stops working. This is the system that turns your website request into an address the IP and HTTP systems can understand. And our DNS systems are incredibly fragile, completely out of date, and most are run by under supported volunteers. Yes, you read that right. One of the most important parts of the Internet sounds like it organised worse than your local primary school parent association. 

We live in a fragile world - way more fragile than we know. 

And the system could fall over at any time. It did so earlier this year, with a bad Microsoft update shutting down airports, banks and water processing plants for two days. That was a warning of worse things to come. 

On that happy note... have a great weekend. 

Come with me to 2029, when a dark side of the robotic world becomes reality. The robots we will deploy in care homes and kindergartens - those humanoid robots who look after our elderly and children - are now revealed to be controlled by underpaid and overworked human operators in sweat shops on the other side of the world. 

Yes, of course, we will one day have fully autonomous, talking robots in the future. But for quite some time between now and then, the best way to achieve this is to have some level of human control. I don't think it will be benign and beneficial to the operators, sadly. 

There's a cautionary tale here about capitalism, worker rights, technology hype and the illusions of progress. 

It's sometime in the future, and the next version of your favourite smartphone has just been released. Once again, the marketing hype is astounding, but the reality disappointing. What did they say: it's a few millimetres smaller (or bigger), and slightly lighter, and the camera has some extra megapixels and zoom, and ... that's it?

Smartphones should be curing cancer already. There's more computing power in my smartphone than existed on the entire planet when I was born half a century ago.

As much as we live in a technology world, innovation seems to have stalled a bit. We've got multi-billion dollar companies competing with each other for incremental improvements in features that are already good enough. What we really want is innovation that excites and delights, that makes a real difference to our lived experience, and that changes the world.

This week's ThrowForward Thursday is bordering on a rant, but it has an important point to make. What is your company doing to create new products and services that excite and delight your customers and clients? We need to uplift our innovation goals, and aim to do much more than merely optimise stuff that's already good enough. 

Imagine what the world would look like if we all had the data about our genetic makeup, and we could see the many multiple ways our genetics shape who we are and what we are capable of. Imagine that gender wasn't the issue it is today as we think of the classifications of sports codes - no longer would be it "male" and "female" as the only two categories, but rather many different categories based on whatever genetic characteristics were most applicable. And then imagine, we could also apply genetic enhancements to these sporting codes?

We can only imagine now. But this is our future reality.

They're coming (as you will see if you watch the video on YouTube, mine has already arrived ;-). But the clones of the near future won't actually be copies of our bodies, but rather algorithms designed to copy our thinking.

https://youtu.be/B4hwb1ELvXY 

Sometime in the future, we will develop the technologies to allow us to create copies of humans. But that's probably a long time in the future. More practically, we should be able to copy the way that people think, and digitise their personas, styles, knowledge and thinking. Using Large Language Model type tech, we could make these algorithms searchable and interactive, and in that way clone their thinking.

It's September 2082, and we mark the 50th anniversary of the official start of what has become The Great 50-Year Global Drought. Cities have been emptied, country borders changed, wars fought and entire economies gutted... and there seems to be no end in sight. 

This episode of ThrowForward Thursday is based on historical facts. Back in 1177BC, a 300 year drought caused the almost complete collapse of multiple civilisations in the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean areas. You can listen to Dan Snow's History Hit podcast, as he interviews Eric Cline, the author of '1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed':  https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/the-bronze-age-collapse/id1042631089?i=1000664352855 

It's a sobering lesson from the past. It's an alarming possibility for our future. 

Sports News Headlines for 4 September 2039: Jet Pack Drone Racing League Suspended

Just ahead of the first African Olympic Games in 2040, the latest Olympic sport of Jet Pack Drone Racing has been dealt a blow as two more deaths results in the suspension of the European League. 

What might the future of dangerous sports look like? How do we push the boundaries of human endeavour while minimising risks?

More of a hope than a prediction, this episode of ThrowForward Thursday has a rant warning attached, as we imagine a future where companies have stopped outsourcing their supplier management to procurement services that make it incredibly difficult to sign contracts, send invoices and get paid for the products and services rendered. Stopped because - maybe - it has been made illegal to outsource procurement!

The cost savings companies make by outsourcing procurement services are completely outweighed by the brand and reputation damage they incur as suppliers are made to jump through time-consuming and costly hoops just to get paid. 

Let's imagine a future where companies are driven more by creating a great environment in which to do business than they are by cost-cutting efficiencies. 

Breaking news in 2037: the thawing of Arctic ice releases a 40,000 year old virus that doctors have never seen before. Another unintended consequence of global warming, and a reminder that our world is changing dramatically right now.

How would your business respond to another pandemic lockdown? What would the impact of a global health emergency be on your infrastructure, supply chain, and market. These are scenarios worth considering as you build antifragility into your business.

Contact our team at TomorrowToday for more assistance in building future-ready, antifragile organisations. 

'Bionic' means Humans and Technology not just working with each other, but augmenting and even integrating to supercharge our outputs. There are three obvious ways this could happen: (1) Robotic exoskeletons and human/robot hybrids, (2) software and applications augmenting human intelligence, and (3) techno-diversity where technology becomes part of our diversity quotient. 

We need to move from a goal of automation to a mindset of augmentation.

NOTE: The book referenced in the video is David McCandless, "Information is Beautiful". See his excellent website: https://informationisbeautiful.net 

Imagine a world where a government bans energy drinks if they are proven to be bad for public health, and people are abusing their impact and causing damage to themselves and others.

This is not a prediction, just a scenario.

The question for you in your company is how would you handle a change in sentiment towards your products and services, maybe even to the point where some or all of what you do is banned by the State. It's about making sure you've considered worst case scenarios in your planning.

If you'd like help thinking about future trends, or future-proofing your company strategy, please contact our team to chat about what we can do for you. See our consulting work at http://www.tomorrowtoday.consulting 

This is the start of Season 5 of ThrowForward Thursday. 

Welcome to 2029, where a weekly 15 second recording of your voice is used to diagnose a whole range of diseases and give early warnings of health problems in your body.

This idea is based on the reality of recent medical experiments. Read more in the first comment below.

Season 5 of our Future Scenarios series is coming next week, starting August 2024. I hope you've enjoyed the past few weeks as we have profiled the work I am doing with Buhle Dlamini on The TomorrowToday Podcast.

See http://www.tomorrowtodayglobal.com/podcast for previous episodes, summaries and links to your favourite podcast platform. Please subscribe, like and review The TomorrowToday Podcast - especially on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. It really will help us. 

In episode 3 of The TomorrowToday Podcast, Buhle Dlamini and I take a deeper look into organisational design and what it takes to build successful and future-ready businesses with competitive edge in the modern, connection-driven economy.

In this excerpt you can hear a snipper of my interview with Keith Coats about "The Connection Economy", and how the past helps us understand the future. Are our businesses ready for the future, or are we stuck in past practices that no longer serve us?

This episode covers essential questions about transformation, organisational structures, leadership and executive team agendas.

Search for 'The TomorrowToday Podcast' wherever you listen to podcasts, or find direct links at http://www.tomorrowtodayglobal.com/podcast 

In the latest episode of The TomorrowToday Podcast, Buhle Dlamini and I take a deeper look into organisational design and what it takes to build successful and future-ready businesses with competitive edge in the modern, connection-driven economy.

Are our businesses ready for the future, or are we stuck in past practices that no longer serve us? This episode covers essential questions about transformation, organisational structures, leadership and executive team agendas. In this excerpt you can hear a snipper of my interview with psychologist, Tamryn Batcheller-Adams about her book "Mavericks: How Bold Leadership Changes the World".

Search for 'The TomorrowToday Podcast' wherever you listen to podcasts, or find direct links at http://www.tomorrowtodayglobal.com/podcast

We are still taking a break from our regular future scenarios, while my colleague Buhle Dlamini and I share an our new podcast, The TomorrowToday Podcast with you. We are looking at the characteristics of future-ready organisations, and in Episode 2 we hear from Dean van Leeuwen about the Three Dimensional Strategy Framework.

A 3D strategy has three distinct elements: (1) a strategic foundation that aligns purpose, values and a true north, (2) strategic essentials required to compete well, and (3) strategic differentiators that elevate your performance. Most companies focus just the second dimension, asking what we have to do to compete well and be effective and efficient. But to be future-ready, the foundations need to be aligned with elements that will really set you apart from others in your industry, not just now but in the foreseeable future and beyond. 

This is a brief excerpt from the full episode. You can sign up to listen to The TomorrowToday Podcast wherever you get your podcasts, and listen to the full Episode 2 with Dean and Buhle and myself.

Get links to your podcast platform of choice at http://www.tomorrowtodayglobal.com/podcast 

Here is a short excerpt from Episode 2 of our new offering, The TomorrowToday Podcast. Together with my colleague, Buhle Dlamini, we are mapping the future of business, looking at the key characteristics of organisations that are designed to be future-ready.

In Episode 2 we look at the Future of Organisational Design. If you like this sample, please find our podcast on your favourite platform and listen to the full episode.

Links to various podcast platforms can be found at http://www.tomorrowtodayglobal.com/podcast 

OR:

• Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tomorrowtoday-podcast/id1746264816?uo=4 
  
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0fphQFAXYCGNIAxbJtyn38 
  
• Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1746264816 
  
• Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1436a5d9-920a-4820-b5d7-d89623ff0fd0/the-tomorrowtoday-podcast 
  
• Castbox: https://castbox.fm/channel/id6149206 
  
• Podcast Index: https://podcastindex.org/podcast/6911071 
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhZgoak3HZrDFgfAUcrDmF6oY63MEJq2d
  

A special bonus edition to introduce our new Podcast to you.

Sign up now so you don't miss any of the episodes of The TomorrowToday Podcast. Buhle Dlamini and I are the co-hosts, mapping the future of business for you and your team. Our goal is to show you what it will take to build an organisation that can handle the rest of this decade and the 2030s.

We will show you what a true future-proof business looks like, and what changes you need to make now to build one. Each episode highlights key research and our experiences, providing resources and actionable insights.

Sign up links to various podcast platforms are :

OR:

This is the final episode of Season 4 of ThrowForward Thursday. It's a longer episode today, as we review the most significant theme of the last 40 episodes.

This is your reminder that the future isn't just written in data — it's shaped by those who know how to use it. Lead with data, and let it lead you to unprecedented success.

Download the Strategic Imagination Toolkit at http://bit.ly/SIToolkit 

Come with me to the future, where we realise that Artificial General Intelligence is not just an improvement on Generative AI but something different, developed on a different path.

GenAI / LLMs are brilliant. They're amazing tools, taking the sum of human knowledge (including all the incorrect stuff lots of people believe) and making it very accessible. Keep using and improving GenAI, but don't get sucked in by the hype of AGI just yet.

AGI is coming. But it is coming down a different path than we are on right now. 

Imagine a world where the boring parts of learning - the dumping data into our brains - is all done easily using neural transfers, augmentation and technology assistants. What's left is for the human brain to do what it does best: creative thinking, problem solving, idea generation, and more.

This week's leap into the future takes a view that Generative AI is not actually that intelligent - it just has access to all the data. When human beings have access to the same data, we will come up with much better new ideas, insights and wisdom than GenAI seems capable of now. The future is bionic: humans and machines working together, each doing what they do best to move our world forward.

Imagine the Indian elections in 2052 taking just 5 minutes to process, rather than the 6 weeks it takes this year. The vision is of digital first, ubiquitous, secure, personal technology connections in every sector and industry, reducing friction, demolishing time scales, flattening barriers.   

Ageing musicians still touring, and ageing fans still wanting to go to their concerts, might prefer an afternoon start time rather than waiting until 9pm or later for the main event. It's not just Festivals that should schedule afternoon concerts - maybe every band should do so.

The theme of this week's "jump into the future" is that we should be open to questioning what is considered "normal" in our industries, especially when doing so could open us up to new opportunities, markets and customers. What's "normal" in your industry? And what experiments could you try to see how you could change that?

All plants extract minerals and nutrients from the soil they're growing in, but some appear to be able to extract metals as well, or at least metal ions that we can in turn extract from the plants. If we can do this at scale, we can use phytomining to get the metals we need to build the batteries we use to power our lives.

Here are some links to experiments underway on phytomining, and the promise of what this might bring in the future:

• https://thebulletin.org/2024/03/the-greenest-way-to-mine-metals-for-batteries-could-be-with-plants/

• https://resoilfoundation.org/en/innovation-technology/tropical-plants-contaminated-soils/

• https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/metal-guzzling-plants-harvested-to-make-nanomaterials/2500240.article

As we watch elections in 2024 spanning nearly 70 countries and 4.2 billion people, one thing is clear: the current systems are not working. Voters are not happy, and have little enthusiasm for the politicians they can choose between (if they have any real choices at all).

So, come with me to the future, and consider four 'ridiculous ideas' for new approaches to Parliaments and Governments. We need to stretch our strategic imaginations in an effort to come up with new political systems.

Watch episode 9 about AI Politicians: http://bit.ly/TFTAIPolitics 

Download the Strategic Imagination Toolkit sample: http://bit.ly/SIToolkit 

ChatGPT, CoPilot, Llama, Bard, Grok and all the other Generative AI Large Language Models have demonstrated that we can engage with our technology using natural language. Now we need to get our devices to understand the heuristics of requests and actions we ask them to do.

Rabbit R1 was launched to much fanfare in December 2023, as a first model of a device that can do this. I doubt it can deliver yet, but it's definitely heading in the right direction. And I love their coining of the LAM: Large ACTION models.

I think that Apple's AI play later this year will integrate Siri with early algorithm capabilities that take another step down this path of getting our devices to understand how the world actually works and be able to do a lot of repetitive and mundane tasks for us.

Your company should already be working on which tasks could be given to LAMs, building the algorithm systems to make these work seamlessly, and deciding how humans and machines will continue to become more bionic as we work together in the future. If you're just thinking about automation you're not thinking correctly about this.

We have to do this! In our lifetimes we have to find a way to end the use of plastic as we use it now, so that we stop adding more toxins and pollution to our planet.

Imagine a world in which Rogue Waves made the oceans too dangerous for ships to sail, and we had to stop cruise liners and container ships from sailing. It would change our world as we know it.

It is an extreme and alarmist scenario, with one of the worse cases for the impact of climate change and global warming. It's designed to keep us thinking about what needs to be done to mitigate the impact of extreme weather on our world.

It's not a horror movie, with spider-like robots clambering around the outside of buildings. This is the future of the $40 billion window cleaning industry, using robots. They can do more than clean, though - they do real-time, ongoing analysis of the external skin of the buildings, keeping a record of issues and greatly enhancing preventative maintenance. 

This is just one example of the potential of predictive data analytics when applied to real world objects that are instrumented and analysed. How might you be able to these data analytic ideas to your business? 

A company is suing its own AI chatbot for providing misleading information to a client. I wish I could make up a headline from the future that was better than this - its actually a real story from February 2024 involving Air Canada. 

The practical lesson is that we need to be careful of automating our workforces, rather than augmenting them. People who use AI are better than people who don't. AI, though, is better when it is used by people than when it is left on its own.

Learn from Air Canada's mistake. 

Would you trust an AI-driven algorithm to help choose your life partner? If people were honest about the data they entered into these systems, and genuine in their desire to find a true life-partner match, this would definitely be an improvement on the basically random, luck-based most of us rely on.

Happy Valentine's Day... from the Love Algorithm. ❤️

In the future, we will use smart devices and even implants to monitor our every move, maybe even our thoughts too. How will we use this data?

It could be for Big Brother style management of our lives, or it could be for our benefit and wellbeing. That will be up to us.

This is actually not a prediction about the future, but rather a scenario to help us think about what we should be doing in our world and our workplaces now.

Imagine arriving at the office, and the lighting and aircon are just perfect, there's exactly the right ambient noise, the desk is set up perfectly, the food and drinks easily available are precisely what you need... everything is set up just right to ensure you can deliver your best work. 

This is the workplace of the future that adjusts in real time based both on who you are and what you're trying to achieve in the next few hours. 

Elite sportspeople already use data analytics to craft the perfect work environment for themselves. We need to use the same approach in our workplaces - not to extract MORE from our people, but to help them give their BEST. 

Imagine we voted for the managers of our teams at work. Imagine our workplaces worked like democracies should.

Today's episode has a bit of an activist and culture war tone about it, as I suggest that one possible future for corporations is being more democratic. You see, here's the problem: while the corporation is the cornerstone of Western democratic capitalism, there is almost no democracy in our workplaces at all. We don't vote for who our managers should be. We don't vote for how much we should be paid. We are hardly even consulted about strategy or what products and services we should sell to clients.

Why not?

In a democratic world that glorifies individual freedom and the rights to self-determination, why is the corporation so authoritarian, class-based and anti-democratic.

I really do believe that this is one of the keys to building the organisation of the future. I hope this video gets you thinking about ways you can change and improve your workplace today.

Come with me to January 2026, when a major company announces a new reward system for the senior Executives: part of your bonus depends on how well you sleep each night. That's right: we are going to measure your sleep, and reward you if you do it well.

The science is pretty clear: sleep is one of the most important factors in clear thinking, regulated emotions, good decision making, ethical judgements, strategic thinking, and actually almost everything that makes a good leader good. So, why wouldn't we insist that good leaders get good sleep? I think we should. I think we will. Soon.

This is just one idea in a series of "future of work" suggestions you'll be hearing from me this year. I am passionate about helping organisations getting the BEST out of the people rather than just the MOST. Speak to me for more ideas if you don't want to wait for future videos. 

We decided to publish this edition on Monday, 15 January 2024 - welcome to the first "full on" week of the year and welcome to another year of significant shifts in the world of work.

In this video, we look at the ten trends we believe will have the most impact on the workplace and the workforce in the year ahead. For more information on these trends, and if you'd like us to help you think through how they will impact you and create opportunities for yourself and your teams, please be in touch for a no-obligations chat.

Have a great year!

CONNECT WITH GRAEME AND THE TOMORROWTODAY TEAM Let's start a conversation to find out where I can make the biggest impact in your journey to being future-fit. Email me graeme@tomorrowtodayglobal.com 

In the first episode of ThrowFordward Thursday in the new year, we apply our "Grey Elephants" framework to give you some scenarios for what might happen in the year ahead. The biggest question is not "what might happen", but rather "are you set up to take advantage of the opportunities that uncertainty will bring in 2024"?

Speak to our team to find out how we can help you both anticipate tomorrow's disruption and prepare to take advantage of it today. Send an email to graeme@tomorrowtodayglobal.com to set up a time to chat.

LINKS:

• Episode 115: Introducing the "Great Grey Elephants" - https://youtu.be/vZl29L6VEjQ
  
• Episode 116: Facing a Perfect Storm (Part 1): https://youtu.be/1QmvbNt7xlA
  
• Episode 117: Facing a Perfect Storm (Part 2): https://youtu.be/vmdcRjIXynw

This is our final ThrowForward Thursday for 2023, and I look back at the work I have done with 154 different client engagements. There are five big themes that have emerged during the year, and I am sure will continue into 2024:

• 1. Generative AI 
  
• 2. Future Trends - TIDES - Grey Elephants - opportunity mindset 
  
• 3. Antifragility - Future of work and people 
  
• 4. Peak Performance - 4 day work week 
  
• 5. Think Like a Futurist - especially rethink and unlearn systems
  

See you in 2024. Have a good break if you're able to take one. 

A Texas based company, Cemvita, has proposed using microbes that eat oil and excrete Hydrogen and Carbon Dioxide as a solution for both cleaning out oil wells and generating clean energy.

This is the final episode of our future energy mini series.

We need new ways to generate energy - methods that don't damage and deplete the resources of our planet. In this episode we look at two very interesting ideas: ocean thermal and space farm energy sources. 

Come to the future with me, where the current frustrations about the size, range, weight and cost of batteries have all been resolved. And check out a very clever solution for fast recharging that already exists. The future is electric. And it is very smart. This is the start of a few week mini-series on the future of energy. 

In the past few episodes of ThrowForward Thursday, we've looked at a variety of technology tools that allow you to create digital versions of humans. Today, we look at three ways you can use these technologies in your businesses today (or at least, start experimenting with them in 2024). 



The full episode is only for members of my Futures Club, which you sign up for at http://www.JoinTheFuturesClub.com . I hope you give my Futures Club a trial - if you try it and don't like it, you can unsubscribe and get your money back. No risk, no mess, no fuss. 



Listen to this episode to understand what it means to build a bionic business. 

Neuroscience is grappling with the issue of consciousness: what is it, where is it located, how does it work? When they discover these answers, it may be possible to transfer your consciousness from your body to something else. Or maybe just a machine that has consciousness. 

What would happen if we could that? This thought experiment invites us to imagine a future where humans and machines are much more integrated - augmented each other and building a better world together (dystopian options are available, of course).

In next week's episode we'll come back to current reality and think about what a bionic business might look like. You'll need to be a member of my Futures Club to access that episode. Why not check the futures club out now and see the valuable resources there (no risk - money back guarantee if it's not for you) - link is in the first comment.

Are you keen to see a famous musician from the past live in concert, or to hear new music from them generated by their digital persona? This is now possible - but do we want it?