Five Possible Futures: Which are You Counting On?
Ruben will lay out, explore, defend and critique the five visions that are now competing for the power to shape our future. He will explain that the struggle for dominance is real and that it will intensify. Our “official” future, while still dominant and unquestioned by many, is losing its coherence and its grip on our imagination and hearts. In order to consciously participate in shaping the future you desire, you need to understand this competition and what is driving it.
Making Sense of it All: A Fresh Story of the Human Adventure
We all love a tale of great risk and successful adventure. In this presentation Ruben will offer fresh insights into the 300,000 year old story of our species. New light is shed on our past, our present and our possible futures. Ruben will explore the thought and offer evidence that we, Modern Techno-industrial peoples and cultures may not be in the story we think we are in. If this is the case, the future we are counting on will not likely be ours. This possibility implies that the deep work we need to do in the 21st Century may not be the work we now think it is. In short, we need a new cosmic and human story – one which makes reliable sense of who and where we are in history, the unsettled temper of our times and the futures that can still be ours. This is the story Ruben will tell.
Is Civilizational Overshoot Our Next Black Swan?
A “Black Swan” is an unimagined event or phenomenon that blind-sides and deeply traumatises us when it happens. Think WWI. Think 9/11. Think the 2007-’08 global credit crisis. Think COVID19. These examples raise these questions: “What Black Swans are we in our Modern Techno-industrial cultures blind to and unprepared for?” “Is Civilizational Overshoot among them?” How might we respond to this new and unique existential threat?” Ruben will explore these questions. He will also identify the hope that lies beyond despair. Ruben knows that whether our future is a tragedy or a comedy is largely up to us. To have it be comedy, we need to have enough courage, capacity and character to, as Northrop Frye put it “survive to the end of the story.”
Post-Despair Hope: How Worried Should We Be About the Future?
In our private thoughts and conversations in back yards and boardrooms we are no longer confident that our children and grandchildren will be all right. We worry about the future we are unwittingly creating for them. Yes, in public our official cultural optimism steers us away from such dark thoughts. Officially, we whistle past this graveyard. Yet, this fact is worrying: those who are most knowledgeable about the systemic challenges of the 21st Century are also the most worried about the world we are leaving our grandchildren.
Our future is indeed perilous. Ruben will help you understand the logic, the drivers, the dynamics and the drift of our situation. And he will explore the insight that in order to cope we need to be grounded in a post-despair hope – the hope that lies the other side of despair and cynicism. He will also explore the grounds for such hope and the challenges of living by it.
What on Earth is Going On in Alberta and Canada?
Ruben provides a unique perspective on the unsettling turmoil that is now roiling Alberta and Canada. He was born and raised in Calgary. That fact alone makes him a committed Albertan. By living in Eastern Ontario over thirty years, he has come to know, work in and love Canada from coast to coast to coast. Ruben is deeply worried about the subtle and overt ways that anger and even hatred are being stirred up and legitimized in and beyond Alberta. He will explore: “Is Canada headed for a civil war with Alberta playing the role of the South?” “What can we who are committed to a culture of civility in and beyond Canada now become and do to heal ourselves, our country and our fellow citizens?
Re-imagining Multiculturalism: The Whys, Whats and Hows of It
For the sake of our future we must re-conceive Multiculturalism.
Ruben Nelson is well positioned to explore the future of multiculturalism in Canada. He was raised on the Western prairies where it was invented. His work has taken him to almost every corner of Canada. In 1971, he was among only a handful of people who crafted Canada’s first Multicultural policy. He has paid close attention to the issues since then. His expertise has been recognized as he has advised several European senior public servants on multiculturalism.
Ruben will begin by explaining the official understanding of Multiculturalism as it was developed in the early 1970s. He will then consider the signs that today’s Multiculturalism is showing its age and may no longer serve us well in the 21st Century. Ruben will explore why we in Canada need a clear and updated rationale for our decisions about who we allow into Canada, what we expect of them and what all of this will require of us. Ruben will then lay out an updated understanding of Multiculturalism and the changes it will require to be effective.
Strategic Foresight 2.0: What it Is, Isn’t, How to Buy and Use It.
Strategic Foresight 2.0 (SF2) is the next generation of strategic foresight. It is the new work of leadership and governance.
Ruben will explore and engage you in understanding the most current generation of strategic foresight. He will demonstrate how SF2 enables you to make reliable sense of a world that is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) – the new normal of the 21st Century. Exploring and understanding the adjacent futures that lie beyond our now normal understandings is the key to avoiding the surprise and tragedy of overshoot – being run over by the trends and events which we have not yet learned to see, much less learned to pay attention to and understand.
Typically, strategic foresight errors cost billions, while strategic planning errors cost only hundreds of millions and operational planning errors cost only millions. Yet we tend to invest our attention and money in the reverse order of these costs. Ruben will argue that it is time we got our priorities straight.
More than Slightly Ahead of My Time: Adventures and Lessons of My Life
Panasonic used to say that it was, “Just slightly ahead of our time.” Yes, we cheer innovation and creativity. But the results have to make sense to the market. The unspoken message is: Don’t get too far ahead of your culture. This is advice you need to heed and on select occasions also learn to ignore.
In stable times this is all well and good: a better version of yesterday will still serve us well tomorrow. But it is increasingly obvious that ours are not stable times. UVCA rules – uncertainty, volatility, complexity and ambiguity. Today, paradigm-bursting insights, thoughts and actions are required. And, yet, we must be accepted enough to be seen as a trusted member of our society.
Walking this thin line is a like walking a knife-edge.
As a ground-breaking organizational designer/leader, future-oriented Social Policy wonk, boy bureaucrat and social activistRuben knows this challenge all too well. As a pioneer of serious futures work in Canada he has often been more than slightly ahead of his time. Accordingly, he is well-suited to share stories of his life – both successes and failures – that illuminate the tension between being one of the gang and being an authentic future-creating leader.
My Journey towards a Faith Fit for the 21st Century
“Behold, I make all things new.”
In this presentation Ruben will offer stories, insights and personal reflections on his own journey towards a faith that is fit for the 21st Century. He will note that this is not merely “a personal” matter. Ruben has come to the view that as things get tougher the superficial optimism of our Modern cultures will collapse. The profound challenges of the 21st Century will require the resilience of a 21st Century faith – one that is deep, heartfelt, mindful and embodied daily.
Ruben’s hope is that his experiences may be of some use to others who are struggling to become faithful 21st Century persons and institutions in the midst of the confusion that marks our time.
Strategic Insights Into…
Ruben is willing to focus on a subject of your choice. Strategic Foresight 2.0 is a powerful perspective that can be used to see and explore afresh virtually any question, topic, sector or organization. If you wish Ruben to turn his mind and heart onto your chosen topic, organization or sector, just ask him to do so. He will tell you whether or not the scope of his competence includes your chosen focus.
