Speaker session: How we learn to think long-term

The last decade and a half have brought four massive contextual storms that have reshaped our world: the global financial crisis of 2007/08, the Covid-19 pandemic, the climate emergency, and now the war in Ukraine.

Together, they challenge how we plan for the future. The challenge is that the human brain is designed to give the highest priority to the here and now. And yet the survival of your organisation may depend on the ability to think ahead and to have built-in resilience in the face of massive new unexpected challenges. So how do you create a culture that thinks and acts now to protect the organisation for the future?

Being future proof

I’ll be exploring this topic in detail at the latest Richmond Learning and Development Forum on Wednesday 27th April at Savoy Place in London. My session is titled Future proof: How we can learn to achieve sustainable success. In it I’ll be exploring three big questions:

• How do humans learn?
• What do we mean by sustainability?
• What mindset do we need for long-term success?

As we’ll discover, knowing the answers is essential if organisations are to ensure sustainable long-term success and achieve real impact.

Also at the event by a number of inspirational, multi-disciplinary thought leaders, including: Dame Kelly Holmes MBE, Olympic champion and mental health campaigner; René Carayol MBE, author and TV commentator; Carol Martin, Director of Leadership at Cameron-Rees; and Stephen Fensome, Head of Learning at Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Check out the L&D Forum, book your place, and see Richmond’s other upcoming Forums here.

Spoiler warning: The title of my talk is also a wee preview of our upcoming Future Proof report and associated events, which will explore the 11 hacks that all organisations can embrace to be ready for the world to come. You can learn more about that here.

Human innovation

In the meantime, you can explore deep insight into how to create more human, innovative and future-facing organisations by downloading two more of our recent reports:

• The Human Organisation report posits that the world of work just isn’t working; many current business models are hangovers from bygone times, when humans were considered a resource to be controlled to ensure productivity. Instead, the report explains, this is our once-in-a-century opportunity to really challenge traditional notions of what constitutes work and the workplace; to take a step-back, and consider how human-centred our organisations are, and how to shape the best solutions for our people.
• The Innovation for Everyone report explores how innovation doesn’t just belong in a lab: it should be for every person, in every role, at every organisation. The report answers the big question ‘How do we make innovation accessible to all?’ with a deep dive into what innovators think, feel, believe and do. The resulting insights can help organisations to understand the factors that shape innovation, and how they can begin to create more innovative cultures.

And, of course, if you’d like a chat about how to make your organisation more human, more innovative, or more future proof, just drop me a line at John.Drummond@CorporateCulture.co.uk