Welcome to the Ian Khan show. I'm so thrilled to have you here. Your contribution to the world of futurism is incredible. Your article in aftershock is amazing. Let's have a conversation about state of the world and the future. First of all, welcome to the show. Thanks, Ian. You know, it's been great looking at your work, too. And I've gone back to see your other podcasts and you're doing a tremendous service by introducing not only this word, but the other participants in this project, what a what a fantastic project for 50 years after, after this one book came out. And I am humbled to be part of this amazing group of people who have written and compiled this book to their thoughts and ideas and the diversity in all the futurists who are in there. Some of them are medical practitioners, some of them are educators, some are scientists. And every time I have a conversation with someone, I learned something new because of the incredible work that they do. Well, you know, the first thing that came to my mind was the jacket cover says the world's foremost futurists. Yes, and I don't consider myself a futurist, if anything, if anything, I'm a practitioner. So you see, you've seen the the range of participants here, I've only sampled a few of them and look forward to both looking at your podcasts and reading the rest of the material. As I told john only got the book a few days ago, and been looking into it. And I think there is a very wide range of perspectives that generated from this cultural change that the book signified, you know, gave us kind of license to go out and think differently about change, and to start communicating about change. And so from my perspective, one of the ways to frame this is that it's not just about the future, I mean, the future is one dimension of change, right? We want to have something happened differently, that it could happen in the future. And so we could either be prepared to respond to what's going to be happening in the future, or we can help create the future. And you've had a number of guests talk about both those dimensions. But the other element of change is in it really, I think it is related to Future Shock is that the present, we understand now contains a lot of opportunities for change, there are things happening, there are technologies being developed, there are organizations being developed, that you don't have to wait for the future for them to impact your life. So the same kind of outreach and forecasting that you would do to look at assess what are the possibilities for the future applies to the present? Well, the near future, I'll call it the present, the near future is happening right now. So many opportunities for change, that you don't have to either invent or wait for them to happen to you just changing the perspective and the mindset of how those developments in current activities can offer opportunities for improvement and change and that it's just another way to frame what we have been calling the future. Absolutely. I think the future is really an evolution off maybe. And I was thinking about this yesterday, I think about this all the time is you know, we always define the future as Okay, it's tomorrow it's there, but you're creating it today like your actions right this second determine your future. So the question is, is the future really the thing that's going to happen tomorrow as a result of your actions today? Or or is it right now? Is this what we are procreating? So there's so many definitions, I'm really fascinated by the by a couple of things, human potential, our potential to create change our potential to adapt our potential to change the state of human the people around the world, you know, eliminate poverty and homelessness and, and all of these things. And so there's so many different definitions. Some of the people that I've interviewed are scientists, some of them are medical doctors and surgeons. And so looking at everybody and understanding what they do as futurists, you know, you mentioned you don't consider yourself as a futurist, but anybody who's procreating this tomorrow, they're working on something that will benefit humanity. I think as a futurist, I often tell people who are my clients or who are who I engage with, is that everybody's a futures that you can be a futurist. If you start thinking about tomorrow. Have you started working on things that will change tomorrow, that's my no two pens. I feel better have a be included in your group now thank you knows them, then you have such an incredible career you've you've done so many different things, I don't want to put a label on you that you're an educator or you're a visionary, you have done literally so many things from working, you know, any MIT to working with Congress writing a book, working with God, as he, uh, you faculty, I want you to help us understand, first of all, what has been the trajectory of your career, because what I want to do to that is inspire people who are viewing this and who will view this, we're looking at new careers to see the diversity in someone's career that goes from one thing to the other, and how our lives are shaped. And your career is so incredible, I just want us to be inspired. So tell me a little bit. When did you start? Yeah, the trajectory is easy to plot, but I want to draw a common thread through that trajectory. So the trajectory started when I went to the Air Force Academy, and then graduated as a second lieutenant in the Air Force spent 21 years in the Air Force, mostly doing research and development, program management, primarily, in what was emerging at the time is the military space program. And of course, when in those days, the military didn't know anything about space. Now, not only is the military totally dependent on space, but we now have a new service called the space force as of a few months ago. So been a lot of changes through that. And I participated in that along the way. And then when I left the military, and went into industry, I was at Hughes Aircraft. And at Boeing, after Boeing bought my part of us, which was the use space and communications company. And we did both military, other government like NASA and commercial space activity. So the commercialization of space was another thread that pulled into that then when I retired from Boeing became a consultant with Toffler associates, we then had the opportunity to go back and help those organizations that I'd worked with, and a number of others in doing the kind of things that toddler does best. And after toddler, I consulted on my own for a little while. And then, as you said, join the Defense Acquisition University, and have been involved in program management in the business faculty, both in terms of a instructor and facilitator, but also as a consultant and executive coach. Now, in the thread I want to draw, draw through all that is thinking strategically about how to achieve success. And by strategically you can think of that as future planning. Where do I want to be in the future? What's a vision for the future? What strategies do I want to put in place to be successful in that future, or that could be as I said, a minute ago, a very near term future there are opportunities for success today. And the example that I picked up from your work looking for example, at blockchain right now, this is an emergent opportunity that so many organizations are taking advantage of to understand a new way of using information technology, to build a framework to be able to do services that have been done in the past and do in different ways that doesn't wait for the future that's happening right now. So that's the thread that goes through that. And what I'm doing in de au is trying to help the professionals in the Defense Acquisition world, understand how to define success, do the kind of scanning of opportunities and threats and what's really happening in the context of strengths and weaknesses, the old SWOT format, if you will, but then develop strategies and implement those strategies to be successful. So that's the common denominator through that along the way, I did want to mention that that common denominator kind of manifests itself in an organization I helped start some years ago called it's called the Association for strategic planning, which strategic planning was in Vogue, 70s and 80s kind of fell out of Vogue organizations went away. By the time the 90s came around. We wanted to start it again. So in Southern California, we created a group for strategic planning, it became the in a California organization, a national organization, and now it's a global organization, thinking strategically about how to achieve success. Thank you, Stan really helps me understand how your career has shaped until now, a few things that I want to ask you about is I think strategy is one of these things that a majority of people lack when it's about creating success, creating a company building a company becoming an entrepreneur, and the importance of strategy is critical enable in order to be able to execute on something that you think will take you to your goal to your destination to be whatever you want to be. Have you used any specific frameworks for strategy throughout your career. Do you have a favorite framework or some some recommendations that you can provide? Yeah, and in a way, what I just described captures that in and became the essence of what I wrote about in the book. And that is the way that da you reconceived education to create and I put it in the frame of the toddler's words, leaders who have the future in their bones to think about the future to build the future to conceive, change, understand strategy. And so so much of what we're doing at da u has to do with putting these emerging leaders and executives in situations very similar to what the toddler's described, where instead of traditional education, we give them problems to work. We work in teams, we have multiple instructors come through not just one instructor have them think strategically about defining success, about then doing scans of to understand, as I said before, the classic you can call it, SWAT, what are the opportunities and threats that we need to work within and then how to define successful strategies in terms of the strengths and weaknesses of the organization, what can be developed, and how those can be leveraged to take advantage of the opportunities and create the future. It's consistent with that vision of success that is very similar. And I looked at the toddler's prescription for education to what they talked about 15 years ago. And so seeing how the AU had been successful and been recognized, successful in using that and other similar frameworks that the toppers recommended was a natural way for me to comment on where Future Shock is going. Now. By the way, I also in the article talked about something that you are very familiar with. And that is the Millennium project, and that the Millennium project was created and has recommended a variety of approaches to education and tackling current problems in a future context, using many of those same methodologies. So tried to be in a short way capture that in this article in aftershock. Absolutely. I want to ask you about you know, what, what were your experiences working with Toffler? But before that, before you answer that, I want to ask you, when did you first read Future Shock? I don't remember who it was. Obviously, probably when I was at MIT. I was in grad school in 1970. And so my guess it was during that time, yeah. So Alvin and finally put together Future Shock. And you know, it definitely was very futuristic. Only 50 years ago, the book is is is 50 years is a long time, given how much change occurs right now in the world in two years or five years, right? They say that we have all the data generated in the world today is equal into that, that humanity has generated 100 years and we're doubling our data and all of those things. So for for Alvin to foresee and understand the impact of change happening on the world 50 years ago. It's incredible. And I'm floored by that. So different futures that I've been speaking with, and different experts have a different take on it. Some love it. Some have. Some are critical. Some said, Oh, he missed something. And some say, Well, he got banged on, you got to do it. What are your thoughts on what he foresaw 50 years ago? And how the world is today? Do you see being different or kind of in line with what he what he said? So let me answer that question with a question, if I could, because I want to take advantage of the short time that we have to make this into a true dialogue. Sure. The title of your article in the book was the toddler secret to unlocking human potential, right? What do you think was the tougher secret to unlocking human potential? And I noticed in your article, you talk about the seven axioms, which are very powerful. And I want to get a feel from you about how you think those seven axioms relate to the toddler's secret for unlocking human potential because when I read your article you answered it answered for me the question that you asked. So a great question. Thanks. Then I think beyond what Toffler wrote as this futuristic world, this mega trends and things that will shape our lives and so on. I think beneath that, Toffler was also trying to give us a message of how to adapt to this world, how to be successful in this world, how to change our state, in order to survive and thrive in this world that is so futuristic and full of change. And so the seven axioms literally are for me, they are the foundation of what I do and in my work in the framework that I have called future readiness score, and I have a few different things that are part of my work. They make sense to me when it comes to changing our state when it comes to adapting to change when it comes to creating a better future. And those are for me, completely maps on what Toffler wrote in his books and his works. And what every futurist talks about, right in today's data names, or they've talked about in the past, is how do we change the future and for me, It's those seven things, you know, we're constantly in a state of change with respect to how our environment changes that it's the engagement, the state of engagement has changed. Yes, technology has accelerated that a lot. Social media has exponentially changed that a lot. But that rate of engagement has always always been changing because of different things that are happening in our world. Our relationships have changed with people, the way we communicate, is constantly changing. And the other coins whether it's, you know, people, the changing generations, I mean, generations have always changed. There's always been multiple generations. So there's nothing new right now, if we have millennials and the post millennial generation, it's always been happening. But we recognize that these generations have different needs different ways of thinking, maybe we have much more focused on that right now. collaboration, and execution being the last one, which is really Yes, we know all of these things are happening. But people who actually execute on these strategies, ideas and plans that they make, are actually the ones who adapt the change the best way possible. And so that's kind of what I wrote about was, you know, the secret to do what Toffler said, The secret to futures org and offers, that was work as well. Those were my thoughts. So thank you, thank you. And that really helped me understand what you wrote for unlocking human potential later, I think the toddlers understood that. And you mentioned this before, the emerging opportunities for increased and improved collaboration, co op petition, if you will, and your talk about the opportunities for collaboration and partnerships, leveraging people and their need to self actualize. And so this opportunity to do that, as a collaborative, you know, like we can share you and I today, over over this medium in ways that we couldn't do 50 years ago. And so we've seen and I think, in a way been guided by the toddler vision as these technologies emerge, that they have tremendous potential and value. And now we find ourselves in a situation where, like it or not, many of us are having to rely on these collaborative technologies to get things done. And we're finding that there's much more powerful tools than we might have otherwise realized. Yeah. As we speak, you know, we're having to convert so many of our traditional methodologies da EU, in particular, but da you along with everybody else, to understand how to leverage these powerful technologies to do what you and I are doing right now to have a mind meld at a distance, which is much more powerful than we knew how to do before we were forced to explore these technologies. And I think the toddlers, at least in my limited exposure to Alvin, when I was working for topler Associates, really was excited about that opportunity that not only was emerging, but people were still just beginning to learn about and again, I worked for Toffler associates, you know, over 10 years ago, so things changed a lot since then. Yeah, of course, I want to read a passage I want to read a quote from from the book from your chapter, that goes something like this increase focus on developing creativity, critical thinking human relationships, philosophy, entrepreneurship, art, self employment, social harmony, ethics and values, Know thyself to build and lead a meaningful working life, that self assessment of progress on one's own goals and objectives, I can take that post it on my wall, and just freed from it for the rest of my life, honestly, because you summarize things really, really succinctly very nicely. Help us help us digest that a little bit. Tell Tell me a little bit more about that. Well, the cabinet, what we're trying to do, of course, is capture a lot of toddlers intention and how that intention had manifests itself. In a short paragraph, we only had a few words to to deal with. So it's a compendium, if you will, of opportunities, a companion of perspectives of if we keep these perspectives in mind, we can better leverage the kind of emerging opportunities we've been talking about this morning. And that Toffler saw both Topher saw coming at the time is just trying to squeeze the juice out of it, of course, and this is like your your five recommendations, if you will, on how to proactively create the future. You also talk a lot about STEM education, what's the future of education? How should we make it more transparent, more acceptable more? What can we change in the field of education? Well, I'm not an expert on that. No, you see it from my knothole. But from my knothole, if I want to leverage what we've already talked about, we would take the technologies that are available, along with the attitudes that you just discussed, and the intention about looking at not only the future, but looking at as I said, What's so today and help people understand and develop the tools to reframe Their ability to mine watch. So to understand what so and to develop strategies to create that positive future. That's the the core skill that I'm interested in. Absolutely. I know, Stan, we don't have a lot of time. But I'm really grateful for you for joining us and talking to us very briefly about some of the things help you understand or tell us a little bit more about your book and some something about your work where people can approach you find more about you read some of your writings. So the latest book that I think you're referring to is called space 2.0. And this was produced with a lot of help with some great writers and artists and thinkers to share which the opportunities that are emerging right now to change the way that civilization relates to its existence, not just on the surface of this planet, but in the greater universe. And the point is that it's not just about space colonies or space settlements, or migrating to other planets, but also using the resources, that space offers everything from being in orbit to look down to being able to communicate globally, to be able to develop capabilities using those technologies to for example, navigate GPS, and what GPS is done, did use space for manufacturing. And right now we're on the cusp of many, many changes in those developments. We started back in the late 50s, with Sputnik develop revolutionary capabilities to put things into orbit, then to go to the moon and to go to beyond, then we learned how to put people in space, we've had the International Space Station, all the framework is there. And now you're seeing the private sector get much more involved in putting private money into developing businesses and other capabilities for both both government customers and private customers to expand civilization. So space 2.0 is looking at what's happening right now, in terms of that revolutionary change. And its opportunities for new careers, new investments, new policies, new international cooperation as a new framework for changing the way we think about human civilization. In a way hopefully, it was written in a way that's not just for the space club, or for the people that already understand that which there are a lot of books about that. That can be was written so it could be a gift for your teenage son, or a gift from your for your seven year old or give it to dad so he understands what's going on. Written for a very general audience by a very talented team on behalf of the National Space society. That's what this latest book is. space. 2.0 incredible is the space 2.0 available on Amazon. Where can people get absolutely Oh, yeah. Okay, all the normal outlets. Perfect, perfect. Stan, I really appreciate your time. I know we're over our time. But I really do appreciate it. I hope we were able to continue this dialogue at a at another time. But in the meanwhile I want everybody to grab a copy of Aftershock from Amazon and wherever else they buy books. This is the best read that I have had in many, many, many years. And I really recommend everyone buying a copy read your content and your thoughts in it and really be inspired. Stan, thank you so much. You take care and we'll continue this dialogue another time. We definitely will be in and thanks so much for allowing me to participate in your in your podcast. My pleasure. Thank you so much Dan, you take care Thank you Take care. Hey, friends, this is Ian Khan. If you like what you saw on my video, then please subscribe to my YouTube channel and be inspired every single day with innovative content that keeps you fresh, updated and ready for the future. For more information. Also visit my website at Ian khan.com
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