80. Scott Smith | The Iowa Idea

Subscribe: Spotify | Android | Email | TuneIn | RSS

The Iowa Idea: Scott Smith

“How to Future”

In this episode of The Iowa Idea Podcast, I’m joined by futurist and author Scott Smith. How to Future: Leading and Sense-making in an Age of Hyperchange, co-authored with Madeline Ashby, was published in September 2020. I was introduced to Scott’s work by friend and podcast guest Nick Scappaticci.

Scott is a founder and managing partner of Changeist, a futures research and consulting partnership. He has consulted to a range of global institution and has engagements with some of the largest and most respected global financial, retail, telecoms, technology and media brands, such as the BBC, The New York Times, and Comcast. Scott has designed and delivered futures projects, talks and workshops in over a dozen countries and facilitated projects and workshops in multiple languages.

Scott helped create and lead the Strategic Foresight program for Dubai Future Academy, and lectures in the Innovation & Future Thinking program at IED Barcelona, a course he designed. He was also recently named to the Executive Board of the Center for Futures Studies at the University of Dubai.

Scott and I dig into how thinking about the future is a process that makes “sense of new territory” and that considering the future is not about predicting – “it’s much more about the present and eliciting concepts and assumptions about what’s going on.” Scott describes why “getting operating assumptions out on the table” is important when approaching the future and why the future is hard for many leaders to address. We explore why working on the future is not a linear process. I appreciated Scott’s perspective hoping the client isn’t seeing daily project progress, as much as they’re seeing increasing resolution. Scott also emphasizes why humility is incredibly important ingredient as we collaborate about the future.

It was a pleasure having Scott on the podcast. I hope you enjoy the episode.

About Scott

Scott Smith is founder and managing partner of Changeist, a futures research and consulting partnership established in 2007 in the United States, now based in the Netherlands.

Having worked for more than 15 years in futures, Scott has consulted to a range of global institutions, including SWIFT, UNICEF, The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, The Royal Society, Nesta, and the Dubai Future Foundation. He has also led engagements with some of the largest and most respected global financial, retail, telecoms, technology and media brands, such as the BBC, The New York Times, ASOS, AXA, VF, and Comcast. He has designed and delivered futures projects, talks and workshops in over a dozen countries and facilitated projects and workshops in multiple languages.

He has more than 25 years’ experience in forecasting, and has lived in three countries over that time. He currently makes his home in The Hague, where his spare time is currently devoted to developing several fiction and documentary projects. He is also author of How to Future: Leading and Sense-making in an Age of Hyperchange, published by Kogan Page Inspire in September 2020.

Links

Changeist — changeist.com
How to Future Book Site — howtofuture.com

The Design Squiggle – https://thedesignsquiggle.com/

Related Episodes

If you enjoyed this episode, you might like these other episodes that dig into innovation, future, design, and sensemaking.

https://www.theiowaidea.com/2020/05/15/3-nick-scappaticci/

https://www.theiowaidea.com/2021/03/17/73-dan-klyn/

https://www.theiowaidea.com/2020/09/03/36-mike-maddock/

https://www.theiowaidea.com/2020/09/21/39-michele-williams/

https://www.theiowaidea.com/2021/04/07/78-abby-covert/

Credits

Episode produced by Spark Consulting Group (www.inspiredbyspark.com) in Iowa City, with support from Executive Podcast Solutions (https://www.executivepodcastsolutions.com/).

The Iowa Idea Podcast theme music written and performed by Paisley Bible (https://paisleybible.bandcamp.com/).