Is Future Shock and Poly Crisis relevant?

The first thing I did in 2024 was to finally publish my (short) book called ‘Future Shock to Poly Crisis. Moving from coping to thriving in an accelerating world.’ The process of exploring this concept and the ideas that we discovered in the writing, was fascinating. In this topic we explore the incredible Pace (Alvin Toffler. Future Shock.) and the extreme Complexity (Adam Tooze. Poly Crisis.) of the world today.?

The best way to find out if your topic works is to test its relevance to the market, and I have had a number of opportunities to do that this January.?

Professional Speakers - Worldwide?

Technically I did this talk to the Virtual Speakers Association International? (VSAI) in December of last year. These professional speakers are thought leaders, trainers and coaches around the world. What I hoped to share with them is the realisation that they, and most definitely their audiences, are caught in the Pace / Complexity tension. While we share our messages we need to consider how our audiences receive them. Are they so overwhelmed that they cannot hear let alone learn anything new? Are we causing distress with our new content or can we help audiences to get perspective and see how the speakers’ content can help them to address the Pace or the Complexity of their professional lives?

Entrepreneurs - Nigeria?

Coach and speaker, Stephanie Kadiri StephREDD, hosted her 5th annual UR3 conference in Nigeria recently. UR3 stands for Unveil, Review, Redefine and Relaunch and the theme was about moving beyond disruption. I spoke on a panel, online to the audience in Lagos, about these ideas of finding our way past Pace and Complexity and defining clearly what kind of life we want to lead and how to craft that. Instead of trying to keep up with fashionable trends, we can define our own paths.?

Stress Management Experts - UK

This is probably the biggest test of the Pace / Complexity tension defined in Future Shock to Poly Crisis. Tomorrow I speak to the members of the International Stress Management Association (ISMA). These members are steeped in the latest treatment modalities for mental health and understand well the implications of being overwhelmed by stress and the journey back to mental and physical health.??

Podcast for Financial Advisors

How does a financial advisor help a client to protect their family’s income, to put resources aside for retirement and potentially create wealth enough to pass on to the next generation? This goal is tough enough without having to coach a client through generalised anxiety about the future and a feeling that the problems in the future are so big that there isn’t anything that can realistically be done about it in the present moment. We explored this in a podcast discussion with Francois du Toit.

Conclusion?

Obviously there are more stressors in our lives than just pace or complexity but I hope that this framework gives us something to work from. If a situation is too complex, we have to slow down. If we have to move fast, then we cannot manage a complex situation. And once we see this in our lives, how do we draft that plan to move from beneath the Pace / Complexity line, to above it, and then beyond it, to thriving.?

I would love to hear how you see Pace and Complexity and if this concept can be applied to your experiences.? Please connect and share or comment below.

?

Links

A public webinar on Future Shock to Poly Crisis will be held on 30 January. You can register here.?

If you still want to sign up for the ISMA webinar you can do so on Eventbrite here.?

And the book is available on Amazon here.