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Insights from Jonathan Brill’s Rogue Waves, Chapter Two:“Ten Undercurrents Will Cause the Next Rogue Wave” In his book Rogue Waves: Future-Proof Your Business to Survive and Profit from Radical Change, futurist Jonathan Brill, the 2025 Envision Greater Green Bay’s World Futures Day keynote speaker, warns that the world’s greatest disruptions rarely come from nowhere. Instead, […]

As you map out the domain of strategic foresight for your organization, you’ll note that national and even global trends and drivers will impact your future. But all of us are also embedded in our local region and communities, and are affected by local economies, local governments, local workforce, etc. Looking at local trend data […]

The recent draft of the Go Big Green Bay 2050 Comprehensive Plan seems to indicatethat Green Bay’s population may decrease in the next twenty-five years. Yet, whatgoes into forecasting this type of figure? Here are some insights into what makes aprojection plausible. Forecasting the population of a city like Green Bay isn’t about predicting one […]

By Jim Golembeski High-waisted, baggy, flared jeans, neutral colors. Comfort. Birkenstock sandals were essential. And they have to be worn with Nike socks. My wife and I got to spend two days shopping with our granddaughter, and it was a wonderful chance to get a glimpse into her tweener brain. Seventh grade is an important […]

By Tony Pichler There he was—trapped! Dave Wegge was driving down to Brookfield in his SUV to join Devon Christianson and Randy Lawton in providing a workshop at the Wisconsin Non-profit Conference. Little did he know that I had an ulterior motive, not to mention a notebook and pen in hand. What was I seeking […]

Envision Board Member Jim Golembeski reviewsMen Without Work by Nicholas EberstadtAnd offers thoughts about the Wisconsin corrections system Envision Board Member Jim Golembeski reviews and offers thoughts about the Wisconsin corrections system. Our ENVISION Upward Mobility Signals Team recognizes that unemployment is a serious barrier to financial success. We have also identified a continuing worker shortage […]

Foresight tools plus a strategic action orientation: Randall Lawton reviews Rogue Waves by Jonathan Brill Brill’s book and methods are built on many of the strategic Foresight foundations familiar to us, but he removes the academic & bureaucratic processes and replaces them with practical and accessible methods that most organizations can use and afford. These are built around […]

For a more detailed document describing what may shape the future of Greater Green Bay 2025-2040, click Drivers of Change PDF

Foresight on our Future Economy Jim Golembeski, Upward Mobility Twenty-five years ago, as Director of the Bay Area Workforce Development Board, Iexperienced, along with my colleagues, the shockwave of local plant closings andworker dislocation as new technology and economic globalization drove overwhelmingeconomic changes we hadn’t seen coming. Companies closed and workers lost jobs.We weren’t looking […]

Nan Nelson, Economic Transformations Futurist Andrew Curry is recommending we check out an interview with the social philosopher Roman Krznaric on Five Books about how the lessons of history might help us navigate the present. It’s prompted by Krznaric’s recent book History for Tomorrow. There’s a long tradition that we can’t learn from history, and there’s another one that says that we […]

Jim Golembeski, Upward Mobility Signals Team Tariffs are coming. The aggressive approach to international trade that began in the first Trump administration will get renewed life in the next four years. What will it mean for Americans struggling to get by month to month? I wanted to better understand this renewed focus on tariffs and […]

Upward mobility is the desired status for any society that wants to achieve economic growth and sustainability. It supports achievement by merit versus privilege, the prerequisite for a society that seeks continuous improvement. So where does the US rank internationally in upward mobility? The International Organization of Economic and Community Development measures upward mobility across […]

For a more detailed document describing what may shape the future of Greater Green Bay 2025-2040, click Drivers of Change PDF

Bill Ziemendorf, Leading Edge Economy Signals Team You read an article in the November edition of Horizons about how your Envision Board hasbeen using Strategic Foresight to help us all shape the future of the Greater Green Bay area. Learn more here.

As our Fall cohort presented visions of their transformed scenarios, AI played a significant – but very functional – role in each report. Read about their futures here.

Nan Nelson, Envision Success Stories It’s really important for leaders to ‘go where the puck WILL be,’ as Wayne Gretzky famously said,” Alexander noted, “not aim for where the puck is today. It’s always challenging to think about change— what can happen and how to respond—but embracing change is the key to a successful organization. […]

Bill Ziemendorf, Leading Edge Economy Signals Team When the Envision brand went public in 2020, following 30 years’ service as Bay Area Community Council, the plan was to teach Strategic Foresight to the entire community, sharing what the Envision board members had, themselves, learned. But the board knew they’d have to commit to more than […]

Jim Golembeski, Upward Mobility Signals Team As we prepare for Greater Green Bay’s fourth annual celebration of World Futures Day, I can’t help but reflect on how things were in northeast Wisconsin 25 years ago—if we’d only known then what we know now! But we did not, and we paid a huge price. Read about […]

We welcomed 15 new strategic foresight students, representing GRACE, Schreiber Foods, Oneida Professional Services, YMCA of Greater Green Bay, Packer Freight, and the Inclusa Foundation. See their pictures and read their collective story. Meet the 2024 Fall SF Cohort.

Nanette Nelson, Envision Board Member The State of the Future 20.0 is a whopping 500-page overview of the current situation and prospects for the future of the world—a report card for humanity. Nearly a thousand futurists, scholars, and other experts organized by The Millennium Project have produced this magnum opus, which provides humanity’s prospects for […]