The Assumption Ground Audit: Everyday Futurism as a Leadership Practice

And today I want to talk about the make it so sorry that I'm launching June 1st. So the signup page is open now, it's capped to 20 people. And I'm looking for people, smart people, who understand how to implement. They're interested in futurism. They understand how it's a leadership capacity and it's essential for being able to manage in a world where ambiguity is normal, change is constant, and the convergences of multiple different aspects of life and work are really what are going to be designing the future of work. Right. So the practice that I have is everyday futurism. It's designed in conjunction with an assumption ground audit. So what decisions are you making based on what you believe to be true? The assumptions that you make, your values you hold, your experiences that you've had, all of these are personal and they're woven into your daily life and how you will treat your personal life, but also how you work. You can't really just divide it up. So how do you adapt for the future? And especially when future you is really a stranger, but a stranger who knows your past and who understands how you make decisions. And so it's an experiment. It's eight weeks. It's designed to be mostly asynchronous, three different levels of accents. There's a completely async access, which is cheaper, then there's one that actually has regular office hours and then there's a one to one personal coaching version as well that also gets you access as a substack founder number. And that's where I'm going to be publishing trend reports, convergence reports. I haven't figured out the wording for it and that's really what we're going to look at. And how this is different is again, it's designed to create belonging and recognition for you as an individual. Belonging in the fact that you're part of a cohort and a group of people who are interested in learning how their individual thinking practices, their noticing practices, their views on the possibilities for the future can really be woven into the daily decisions that they make. And it's not all about prediction, flying cars, futurism. It's about the integrated ways of thinking and making decisions in your daily life that accumulate and then become the foundation and the groundwork for the future of work. Right. It's not a big messy practice, it's not untouchable. Sometimes futurism feels like you're a sage on the stage and you've got all the answers and what you say goes. That's not the version of futurism that I really appreciate, it's how do we make it approachable, how do we make it tangible, how do we make it feel like it's something that you can integrate into your regular way of being? And we all do it, really. Even if you're like a walker or a runner, you're investing in practice that is contributing to a different future of you. I got a dog because I noticed that I was sitting at my desk way too much and I wanted an excuse to be able to walk away from my desk that couldn't be rescheduled, right? And here are the reasons. I wanted the dog too. But that was one of the big reasons, is I did not want to be the person who in 10 years time had completely subsumed to a sedentary way of life because work was all that was ever valued, right? That's investing in a future version of you. And so futurism happens in small moments. It's not the big, large, grand gestures. And it can be, but it doesn't have to be. And it's about the storytelling, stories that we tell ourselves, stories that we tell other people, how we're influenced, how we influence others. All of that is really peaceful. And I've boiled it down into a systematic approach that I feel is valuable. And so again, it's an experiment. I want to see who's interested in it, how they engage, how it drives belonging and how it really helps set people up for operating with futurism as a core of their practice and ways of showing up. And that's a form of leadership, a different way of thinking, a different way of being. And I think there's a lot of potential in how we view community and how we engage. There's a school of thought these days that, because everything's changing, Ara is involved and everybody's just connected and lonely and all that stuff. That connection has to be happening in person. And I, I still have an issue with it because the reality of my circumstance hasn't changed. I still live in the middle of nowhere. It takes two hours for me to get to Toronto. So if you tell me that my only opportunity really to connect is to have to commute, that's a really high bar for me because that's a four hour investment. And what's the return on that? Maybe I'll find somebody nice, maybe I'll find somebody who thinks like me. I'm looking for more certainty with that. And honestly, I've had better luck connecting with people who think in a futurism. Aspect globally than locally. So this is my attempt to see how we can build that common understanding. But also does that actually facilitate community. And so I'm sharing what I know that my current state and how I've got to my current level of thinking. But also it's an experiment in how I design for the future as well too. Right. So is it worth eight weeks? You're going to have to assess that for yourself. As I said, I've tried to design it with intention, with a lot of flexibility, especially over the summer. But if you do the work, the groundwork, the mindset work, does that set you up for September when everything gets busy? And are you really setting the stage for 2027 in the next five years? That's really the question that you want to pose to yourself if you're looking at engaging in this. Anyways, as I said, it's called Make It. It's on the front page of my website and if you need to talk to me, you can certainly book a call to discuss. It's only open until Sunday because again, this is an experiment. I'm gauging interest. If there's no interest, I'm not going to run it. Finding yourself in orbit.