Nikki Bush in conversation with futurist, economist, and trends-analyst, Bronwyn Williams about the past, the present, and the future. Bronwyn is a partner at Flux Trends with Deon Chang. Her research focuses on how macro socio-economic trends and emerging technologies will impact businesses, industries, and nations in the near and long-term future. She is a guest lecturer for leading business schools and is the co-author of The Future Starts Now, published by Bloomsbury UK. She is a regular guest in the media and is also a member of the Association of Professional Futurists. For more information visit www.fluxtrends.com. Enjoy my blog The Gift of Disruption

This conversation covers:

  • The challenges of disruption
  • Postalgia, prostalgia and nostalgia
  • Bouncing back, not forwards
  • Tending to your own garden first
  • The trade-off between freedom and security
  • Can we have it all?
  • Pay-as-you-go vs ownership economy
  • Selling our kids the idea of a career vs finding your place in society and adding value
  • Constructive aggression

“We can get stuck in the past or we can get stuck in a lost future, which is a very paralysing condition. It’s a condition without agency; we cannot go back in time and we cannot have what we are not going to be able to have in the future anymore.”

Bronwyn Williams, Flux Trends

“We should cultivate our own garden.”

Voltaire, Candida,

“Do what you can with what you have, and don’t worry too much about what everyone else is doing”

Bronwyn Williams, Flux Trends

“Whether you’re in business, or dealing with your personal life, get your house in order. Do what you can do. Do the weeding in your office: make sure that you are investing in your employees to make sure that they’re going to grow in the future. Make sure that you are culling the dead wood and getting rid of those projects that are distracting you.”

Bronwyn Williams, Flux Trends

“Agency is something that if you don’t use it, you lose it”

Bronwyn Williams, Flux Trends

“Hope has two beautiful daughters: courage, and anger.”

St Augustine

“Anger helps you to notice what’s wrong, and then you need the courage to go ahead and do something about it.”

Bronwyn Williams, Flux Trends

“We need to reclaim our agency, and be proactive and firm about what we want going forward. We also need to be firm about our boundaries, which again that comes back to that garden metaphor for guarding our time and guarding our energy; making sure that we are looking after ourselves and our own”

Bronwyn Williams, Flux Trends

“We still have a schooling and education system that is giving the message to young people that they’re going to have a career, rather than that they need to find a place where they add value to society.”

Bronwyn Williams, Flux Trends

“I think that we need to start planning periods of pauses throughout the journey, rather than looking forward to one long pause when you get into retirement.”

Bronwyn Williams, Flux Trends

“We’ve decided to improve our quality of living as a generation (as a global generation) but at the expense of future generations”

Bronwyn Williams, Flux Trends

“I would encourage you to think about those choices and the trade-offs involved, every time we choose access over ownership”

Bronwyn Williams, Flux Trends