Shabnam Erfani is a futurist at Microsoft who focuses on modern work and productivity. She has an incredible talent to investigate the future and make forecasts while connecting those forecasts to practical actions we can take today to realize the forecasted future.
On a panel, Shabnam revealed the dark side of the future, that people can easily be left behind if we aren’t intentional about including them. It is the responsibility of a good leader to make sure we don’t leave people behind. Then she said something that struck me.
The same sentence can be heard differently by different people.
Shabnam Erfani
It is a remarkably simple concept. To avoid the dark side of the future, we should invite many people into our conversations – especially as it relates to problem solving. The different interpretations will lead to broader thinking, more creative problem solving, and overall better outcomes.
Open your journal (or favorite note taking app) and write down one or two names of people that you know think differently than you do. Now that you have these names, are there ways you can pull them into conversations to help you be more inclusive and think more creatively?
