David Zach, futurist

Futurist Gets You Thinking article, South Bend Tribune

Nice article in the South Bend Tribune about a recent talk I gave in Elkhart, IN for local business, industry and labor attendees. With an 18.8% unemployment rate there, the future looms a lot closer than it might in other areas of the country. 

Quoting one attendee: "This was the first futurist I've heard that actually talked about a reliance on a tradition or the past." 

Instead of everyone in these economically depressed areas being recruited into the agency of change, we might just need a few of them to be agents of tradition - helping to safeguard the treasures of the past, be they communities, values or perhaps just even little bits of common sense.  

If we treat the past more like a toolbox instead of an outdated anchor, we might build better futures. 

Outsourcing your Home Life to Robots

Uh-oh.

So, say you're a busy traveling executive and have to spend a lot of time on the road, away from home. iRobot (makers of the rather delightful Roomba vacuum cleaners) are bringing out ConnectR the Virtual Visiting Robot. This will allow you to interact with loved ones. Read to your kids. Talk to your spouse. Discipline the dog. All great fun in the modern Jetsonian world.

It has audio, a video cam, and with a joystick from your comfy hotel room, you can zoom around the house, spying interacting with your family just as if you were there instead of being represented by this silicon-based little robot. This could get so good and easy, you might never have to come home.

Good thing you'll have your work to keep you company.

Does this make any sense at all? Good sense, that is. We've become quite good at figuring out how to stay connected via technology, whether texting, emailing or cell phones. This seems a logical next step beyond the video cams. Does this make it easier to stay away? Does it make excuses all the more easy?

Kids are impressionable. If this is what Dad or Mom looks like to them too often, which one will they bond with? Or will they just make the slightly logical conclusion that parental units are not that much different from the other electronic units that are laying around the house? Add an ATM function to this and lots of kids will see the opportunity for upgrading.

Much more practical is this gutter cleaning robot from iRobot. I think we can safely outsource this task and not lose quality time with the family.

The WalkStation

From The Mayo Clinic and Steelcase comes the WalkStation. Cubicle Farms will no longer be the site of sedentary slugs, but now active, lively and energized denizens.

Hook up catheters and why would anyone want to leave? On the one hand, this sort of thing is great because we shouldn't stay at our desks too long, but on the other hand, does this sort of thing (which I can't imagine selling all that well) just make it easier, both mentally and physically, to stay at the office even longer.

I keep thinking that such technological solutions are hiding other problems that are more philosophical and theological in nature. Why are we here? Why has work become the focus of our lives? Work is vital and necessary, but we used to say that about community and even family, but for more and more people, those are falling to the wayside. I don't see enough workplace efforts to make themselves more supportive of community and families. If they do, quite often the workplace is still at the center of it all.

Our local Milwaukee Magazine had an article about the best places for people to work here - and noted that one extra supportive firm offered time off for sick children. When they start offering off time for healthy children, I'll know it's a great place to work.

Business Owner's Conference, Wausau, WI

September 20, 2007, I'll be speaking in Wausau, WI at a Business Owner's conference - see here for the local newspaper article and links for registration.

WWOvBD? What would Otto von Bismarck do?

Apparently Otto von Bismarck did not set retirement age at 65 as the legends tell us. He set it at 70 (he was 74 at the time). In 1889, Germany set up old age security pensions. And this may have seemed an easy thing because only about 2% of Germany's population reached that age and average life expectancy was 72. Was this the grand birth of entitlements - or at least maybe that's when it got it's smelly foothold. Compare in your imagination their simple program in 1889 to programs in 2019 when so many of the apparently poorly prepared boomers are fully into those so-called retirement years. Government-addicts are going to love such an opportunity.

In 1916 the age was lowered to 65. Most people today will reach well beyond age 65, so what are they going to do? More of the same apparently. An AFP story says that Americans love to work, especially after retirement age. Three-quarters of those working after age 65 expressed high satisfaction with their jobs.

I'm not sure if "jobs" is the right word. Maybe careers - or if they've changed careers in their later years, re-careers. It seems that retirement is for people who had jobs, not careers. Quite often something they fell into, or stayed in it with reluctance but still had responsibilities to keep getting checks. The study notes that unskilled workers were the least satisfied with their jobs. I would imagine their list of dissatisfactions would go far beyond just work.

Brings to mind the Latin words, vocarè and educatè. Vocarè means "a calling" and educatè means "to draw out what is already there." The better allignment of those two characteristics would almost certainly reduce the need for retirement. This also means that as far as I'm concerned career counselors have a much bigger role to play in the future - I would even say they are essential for a well designed economy (Full disclosure - my brother is a career counselor). I worry about the ones who lack imagination, but these people really are futurists - practical ones who help others decide and design their own futures.

Here's some speculation on some options. They think OvB would have had to raise the retirement age to at least 78. Today retirement in Germany is at 60 and average life expectancy is 80. Why should the state or anybody else for that matter pay for those "sunset years" as they were called in OvB's days?

The Future of Work in Business Week

Special issue of Business Week on all the various futures of work.

Also in this issue is an article about iWork - the Apple program that includes Keynote. This is the program that I use for my presentations. The latest version is very, very cool.

Manpower launches 'virtual work' site

Below is a press release that a friend sent to me regarding Manpower, the largest employer in the world and their plans to be in what I suppose is the largest virtual community, Second Life. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has an article on it here.

Of course many people ask me if I'm in Second Life - and I politely tell them that I'm turning 50 this year, so I'm concentrating on this life for now. Part of this whole notion doesn't appeal to me at all. I see enough people completely avoiding reality but to wanting to have more and more of a virtual one doesn't make much sense to me. Well, it does make sense to me, but not in a good way.

I do know that a variety of companies hold corporate meetings in Second Life and with some of the fast-paced corporate environments where there is not much personal criticism, I can only expect that people show up in these virtual meetings manifesting themselves in an avatar that could be anything: a tree, a raccoon, a school of fish. If you're uncomfortable with tattoos, this might not be the place for you.

Someone in my audience back in Ft. Wayne said that his friend's wife was making close to $2000 a month selling digital clothing to residents of Second Life. Those people who say the economy is not booming are just nuts apparently.

I'm continuing to worry that work is a virus that infects your internal clocks, making you think it's always 8 to 5, those with the worst infections never stop thinking about work. You had maybe assumed that something like Second Life would innoculate you from that?

Here's the release:
Manpower Inc. (MAN), the second-largest employment services company, is
venturing into another world today with the launch of a corporate presence in
the virtual community of (www.secondlife.com).

Citing the growth of opportunities in "virtual work" such as telecommuting and
outsourcing, where work is done outside of traditional physical office space,
Glendale-based Manpower said it intends to be a leader in virtual world of work.

"Manpower's mission is to help people, companies and governments understand
what's coming next in the changing world of work," Tammy Johns, senior vice
president of work force strategy, said in a statement. "The virtualization of
the labor market is a key issue for all of these groups and our presence in
Second Life will enable us to further define the next stages of virtual work,
which are emerging in 3-D worlds."

Manpower said it's building an "island" at Second Life, where job seekers,
employers and entrepreneurs can interact to learn about and explore collaborative possibilities. The site will
include resources and advice on such matters as how to create a virtual resume.

As examples of commercial success from Second Life, Manpower cited a game
developer who has sold the rights to a couple of his Second Life creations, as
well as an attorney who has met clients through the Web site.

For a video explaining Manpower's Second Life site, please go to Second Life.