The Industries of the Future
by Alec Ross. Published by Simon and Schuster Paperbacks, 2016.
A few pages into "The Industries of the Future" I checked its publication date because its description of the effects of globalization and innovation seemed so prescient. It was written in 2016.
Alec Ross brings a raft of credentials to the horizon he explores. Ever mindful that "innovation brings both promise and peril," the author makes it abundantly clear that every group will not benefit from inevitable change. He brackets his argument with sentences like this: "If you can imagine an advance, somebody is already working on how to develop and commercialize it."
With good reason, workforce development and membership roles are subjects that dominate discussions in association boardrooms. Of all those affected by the swirl of dramatic change in store, one group is entirely voluntary -- those who take the time to understand what's happening. This book is a great first step for association C-Level executives interested in doing due diligence on the future of the organizations they lead.
Ross examines the ever expanding roles robots will play, how new generations of computer code will be built on genetic code, the weaponization of the Internet ("Cold War" into "Code War"), how data is increasingly the raw material of the future, how new compacts of trust need to be written between corporations, citizens, and governments.
Where Good Ideas Come From: the Nature and History of Innovation
By Steven Johnson. Published By Riverhead Books, 2010
It's no surprise that Steven Johnson, author of several, dynamic classics in contemporary thinking, treats this elusive subject in an insightful, unsentimental way. You can hear echoes of principles found in another of his works -- Emergence -- about how critical mass and proximity alter the nature of interactions. Johnson challenges with authority romantic notions of breakthroughs as sudden events unique to the individual who articulates one of them at a certain moment in time.
Rather, the author presents the case for types of environments that encourage creativity. This prescription should be uplifting for all kinds of organizations, especially associations whose very existence is centered on drawing diverse people together around a single focus. The traditional mandate that an association strive to remain the primary source of information for its members or donors should be expanded to include becoming the primary inspiration for meaningful breakthroughs that advance the industry or search at its core.
The time is right. As Johnson points out the 10/10 rule of past decades, that a new invention took 10 years to develop and another 10 years to be understood and accepted by the populace, has been shrunk in our internet age sometimes to a 1/1 rule. At the same time, the author cautions that everything is not possible. He explains "the adjacent possible" how out of the scraps of existing elements and ideas, new formulations emerge. But new formulations create new scraps out of which even newer ideas will emerge. Organizations of all kinds, especially associations, are urged to foster an environment of openness and continuous learning to remain relevant. It's not an option. It's a requirement.
In all of this mix, there are guidelines for how organizations and individuals can comport themselves to retain identity and remain on the right side of change, often by loosening the grip of the past.