Without a doubt, 2020 will go down as one of the most disruptive, transformational and challenging years of recent history. Between the global pandemic shock, the corona-coasters, the chaos caused to the world’s economies, the inspiring acts of solidarity, the rapid acceleration of pre-covid nascent technological trends, and the development of vaccines in a record time, I think we’ve experienced a decade’s worth of disruption in under a year.
We are marching towards what I think is the most critical decade in human history (our ‘Fork in the Road’ moment). This is why I have decided to revamp most of my ‘old’ speaking topics, and I will present them here in the next few days.
My most popular 2020 topic was (no surprise there) the With/PostCOVID World and that will continue to be a staple for this year, as well (albeit with a strong tilt on going BEYOND CORONA) as organizations struggle to deal with the impacts of the crisis, discover new opportunities, or pivot entirely.
“Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.”
― Noam Chomsky
But Covid-19 is not the only thing on peoples’ minds. Automation, virtualisation, cognification (all these trends I call the Megashifts) and the relentless march of ever-more powerful technology has a lot of people worried about the future of work and jobs, and this debate has only accelerated in the Corona crisis.
Thus, the second topic I’m excited to announce is what I have come to view as the ticket to the future of work and education: Awesome Humans on top of Amazing Technology – a collaborative existence of man and machine with the potential to unleash a new era of human flourishing. A new human renaissance that uses technology as a tool, not as a purpose.
However, such a future, i.e. The Good Future is only possible if we evolve beyond our current form of extractionist capitalism, address the root issues of our society (such as inequality and outdated economic logic), and rewrite our social contracts with a new focus on People, Planet, Purpose, and Prosperity.