Fear not the future!!!

For many years we've been involved in the disruption and transformation space helping organizations overcome the disruption occurring in almost every industry across the globe. We'd meet with organizations and do something called an AWAKENING session. We'd show them how the world is changing quickly. How new business models are forming that are changing their business landscape. How technology was going to destroy their current business. Basically, we were saying they were F#%@'d if they didn't start adapting now.

Somehow, this was supposed to create some sort of epiphany where they'd go...wow...I see the light...we need to change.

Looking back now, that obviously doesn't work. After some reflection and digging deep into the human experience, we realized that going in with a focus on fear does nothing but shut down your audience. Instead of opening their minds, we were creating a dystopian view of the future for them, that was closing their minds. They were walking away from those sessions disheartened and turned off. They definitely didn't get the message that there's a way to a utopian future.

Now we all love watching a good dystopian science fiction movie but do we really want to live it?

So, we started testing a new way of bringing organizations together on a journey to the utopian future they want. We heard about SciFi Design Intelligence through Lowes Innovation labs and decided to put a bit of a spin on it. We thought, what if you take the idea of science fiction future visioning and incorporate group intelligence and a collective effort into a program. A program we now call SciFi Hive.

In the early days, we were bringing people together at in-person events, seeding the sessions with some research that we'd done, and had the groups create a story of the future. When we think back to some of these original sessions, that were wildly successful at the time, they seem so archaic to us now. When the pandemic hit we had to rethink how we could continue to offer this unique service when no one could meet in person anymore.

We had to pivot and rebuild our process to work online and it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Our first test was at the ExO World global conference right at the beginning of COVID. We ran 8 teams through 5 different future scopes and when we did the retrospective that we always do with participants we were amazed by the response. Even though we brought strangers together from around the globe, all different races, all different ages, all different genders the collaboration was exponential compared to what we were seeing at in-person events.

Almost every participant said it was one of the best conference experiences of their lifetime.

You see, when we were doing in-person sessions, collaboration was held back by the restrictions of physical space and access to assets. Once someone had the pen and paper, it was difficult for someone else to input their thoughts unless they were willing to put themselves out there or ask for their turn with the pen and paper. This left the shy or introverted or even skeptical out of the conversation and the experience wasn't equal for everyone. When we built the online framework we built it so everyone has their own pen on a shared piece of paper. This allowed everyone to participate and for it to become an equal shared experience...even for those who didn't want to talk.

Since then, we've tested and iterated and adapted our process many times with more than a thousand participants, in more than 50 countries, across many industries, global challenges, and corporate events. We now have a proven methodology that incorporates the mind-opening effects of science fiction comic books intertwined with hero's journey storytelling and hive collaboration. We've found a way to allow adults to get involved in unstructured play as they did as children where their imagination wasn't constrained by the responsibilities of daily adult life. Where they were able to tap into the creative muscle that we all have but don't get the chance to exercise.

Now, when we're done a SciFi Hive session the organizations walk away inspired by the future they built together...and that's not all.

One of our clients recently told us that we need to change the way we present what we do because he thought what he was getting was a really cool team building event and a professional comic that would be shared around the office. He said that the event and comic was just a small fraction of the value he received. What he got was a mind shift within his organization...the beginning of a cultural shift that moved his people from top-notch operational leaders to strategic leaders. What he got was a new future for his organization that his people are excited and compelled to engage in. What he got was buy-in to transformational change across the organization because it was their story.

And what we got is an organization that's looking to the future not as something to fear but with excitement and eagerness.

An organization that's opened their minds to the possibilities that exponential technologies, new business models, and a changing world could create for them. And most importantly, we've been a part of them building their story and we've created a level of trust that allows us to now have those tough conversations about disruptive forces without creating fear and discomfort.