10.3.17 The Future of Board Leadership

Future
Gazing
The Future of NFP Boards
This present moment
Used to be
The unimaginable future
14 March 2017
Adam Jorlen, Futurist. MSc, MMgmt Strategic Foresight
Member AssociaEon of Professional Futurists, World Futures Studies FederaEon
@adamjorlen @enkelcollecEve
Why think about the future?
The inescapable dilemma:

All our knowledge is about the past, but
all our decisions are about the future.

Ian Wilson
What does a futurist do?
What does a futurist do?

1. Scan the environment
2. Analyse ndings - IdenEfy trends
3. Making sense of these What lies beneath?
4. Build scenarios for the future

The future is not a desEnaEon. It is created by our acEons,
i.e. what we do (and dont do).
Alicias Brief
What tools and strategies can NFP Boards use to
forecast the future?
What leadership and governance skills are
required for board directors to navigate new
futures?
To explore how the NFP sector might evolve over
the next 20 years.
How do organisaEons collaborate for be]er
impact?
What organisaEonal structures will emerge?
1. Environmental Scanning
Things happening

Scan broadly
Look where you
normally dont look
Open systems for
capturing insights
2. Analyse Findings
What seems to be happening?
FOR EX:
VALUES
SOCIAL
TECHNOLOGICAL
ENVIRONMENTAL
ECONOMIC
POLITICAL (LEGAL)
Everything is interconnected

3: INTERPRETATION
Whats really happening?
THE LITANY
THE SYSTEMIC
FACTORS
THE WORLDVIEWS
THE MYTHS AND

METAPHORS
4: PROSPECTION
What might happen?
Scenarios = Stories of the Future.
Example of a Scenario
AutomaEon of the workforce >
Unemployment >
Basic Income >
Mental Health Issues >
Volunteering en masse >
Future challenge for us:
To nd meaningful work for volunteers
To explore how the NFP sector might
evolve over the next 20 years.
Big shiis are underway.
Global trends are impacEng

on WA whether we want
it or not.
SOME BIG SHIFTS
#1: INCREASED COMPLEXITY OF
SOCIAL PROBLEMS
POST-NORMAL TIMES

VUCA VolaEle, Uncertain, Complex &
Ambiguous

Hey, its crazy out there!
SOME BIG SHIFTS
#1: INCREASED COMPLEXITY OF SOCIAL
PROBLEMS
Wicked and complex problems need whole-system
soluEons.
CollaboraEon across sectors, departments,
communiEes

SOME BIG SHIFTS
#1: INCREASED COMPLEXITY OF SOCIAL
PROBLEMS
COMING SOON
Smart Cities
Solution to complexity
or creating further
complexity?
SOME BIG SHIFTS
#2: DISTRUST IN LARGE INSTITUTIONS
Distrust in the people in power
Populism
Frustration with the system
Corporations rule our lives?

SOME BIG SHIFTS
#2: DISTRUST IN LARGE INSTITUTIONS
We find ourselves now at a crossroads in

history.
The institutions commercial, educational,

political and civic - that we created in an
earlier era in an eort to expand our
potential have now become increasingly
significant barriers to progress.
It is not surprising that our trust in these

institutions is plummeting around the
world. We see so much opportunity and yet
the institutions that are supposed to be
helping us are increasingly standing in our
way.
John Hagel, Centre for the Edge

SOME BIG SHIFTS
#3: POWER SHIFT FROM INSTITUTIONS TO
PLATFORMS
Increased Corporate
Influence
SOME BIG SHIFTS
PLATFORMS
Plamorm provided by big organisaEons and users
produce content.
Crowdsourcing an example of this. The people provide

soluEons to problems.
What would your organisaEon look like as a plamorm?

SOME BIG SHIFTS
PLATFORMS
Pull plamorms good for breaking down siloes

SOME BIG SHIFTS
#4: PURPOSE DRIVEN CAREERS
The world is acceleraEng in complexity with coherence of purpose

becoming an a]racEve with individuals, organisaEons and
communiEes seeking leaders who are clear and arming in
navigaEng uncertainty.
The fragmented work/life balance is becoming only balance.

People are looking for a more seamless integraEon of all elements
of life.
A tenth of the workforce (one million Australians) ask themselves

why they do the work they do.
People want to work in meaningful occupaEons and to feel a sense

of saEsfacEon in what they do.
SOME BIG SHIFTS
#4: PURPOSE DRIVEN CAREERS
THE NEXT RESOURCE BOOM?

"The real treasures in futures are not in the ground.
The real resources are within us. But most of those
resources are neglected because many people are
arrested in their development at a certain age, and
because human development is seen only as
educa@onal development you learn more and
more but you dont look at your inner sources of
imagina@on.

Futurist Robert Jungk
SOME BIG SHIFTS
All these shifts point to a need for

#3 Power shift from
new ways of organising. For a VUCA
institutions to
world (VolaEle, Uncertain, Complex & platforms.
Ambiguous
#4 Purpose-driven careers
#1 Increased
Complexity of
Social Problems.
#2 Distrust in
large institutions
How do organisaEons collaborate for
be]er impact?
Everyone's talking about collaboraEon, cross-
sector iniEaEves & breaking down silos.
A majority of our organisaEons are not
designed for this. They are designed for
command and control, separaEon rather than
wholeness.
We need new ways of organising for social
impact.
#1 Hybrids
Polarized For-prot vs. Non-prot no longer useful.

We need a cultural change general percepEon.
We need exibility while transiEoning to more inclusive .
#2 Social Impact Networks
CollaboraEon
People rather than organisaEons?
Focus on the whole, which is
greater than the sum of its parts
We need systems thinkers!
#3 Edge Players, Third Spaces
Emerging innovaEons on the edges are
rising up to challenge the core.
Third Spaces, social surroundings separate
from the two usual social environments of
home, neutral place for collaboraEon. Edge
Space
We need to create spaces to accelerate
learning
Third
Space
THE FUTURE OF
Want to create the organisations of the future?
We live in a world where resilience, flexibility and
innovation are needed to thrive. More collaborative,
ORGANISATIONS democratic and flat organisations where ownership

and power is shared are necessary. How do we build
these organisations? What are some of the options?
WORKSHOP SERIES
What can we learn from others across the globe?
16 March The Future of Organisations Intro

6 April The New Co-operatives CLICK
11 May Collaborative Networks 4 MORE
QuesEons?

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Future

The inescapable dilemma:

THE MYTHS AND

Big shiis are underway.

Global trends are impacEng

Distrust in the people in power

Frustration with the system

Corporations rule our lives?

We find ourselves now at a crossroads in

The institutions commercial, educational,

It is not surprising that our trust in these

John Hagel, Centre for the Edge

Crowdsourcing an example of this. The people provide

What would your organisaEon look like as a plamorm?

Pull plamorms good for breaking down siloes

The world is acceleraEng in complexity with coherence of purpose

The fragmented work/life balance is becoming only balance.

A tenth of the workforce (one million Australians) ask themselves

People want to work in meaningful occupaEons and to feel a sense

THE NEXT RESOURCE BOOM?

All these shifts point to a need for

Polarized For-prot vs. Non-prot no longer useful.

ORGANISATIONS democratic and flat organisations where ownership

16 March The Future of Organisations Intro

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