Category: article

Trend Talks vs. Futures Literacy: from passive consumption to active shaping
Anyone who has ever listened to a keynote by a typical “trend guru” or “futurist” will probably remember the frenzy of buzzwords, futuristic videos and seemingly inevitable forecasts. This article starts right there and shows why such appearances often cause short-term amazement rather than building long-term capacity for action. Instead of mere trend fireworks, it focuses on the question of how real future competence is created – and why organizations don’t just have to be spectators of the future, but can actively shape it.
1. The Future Dilemma
Describes the mechanisms behind overwhelming “trend shows” and analyzes why companies often feel helpless afterwards.
2. The Side Effects of Cognitive Overload
Shows how passive “wait-and-see” or hectic reactions tend to block long-term innovation rather than promote it.
3. An Alternative Approach
Explains the methods and principles with which the future can actually be understood and shaped – from historical embedding to critical source selection and clear derivation of action.
4. The Right Mix
Offers suggestions on how to combine inspiring elements with sound analysis in a meaningful way – depending on the occasion and target audience.
5. Conclusion
Provides food for thought on how organizations can gradually move out of the consumer mindset and become creators.
Instead of cookie-cutter visions, the article encourages a reflective examination of new technologies and trends. This creates more confidence in dealing with the future and thus a much more robust basis for sustainable decisions.
1. The Future Dilemma: The Mechanisms of Overload
“The best way to predict the future is to issue a press release.”
This sentence by education technology critic Audrey Watters crossed my mind when I recently experienced a typical future presentation: a trend scout projected a cascade of videos and statistics at breakneck speed. They all proclaimed revolutions and innovations. What I saw there was essentially a curated collection of press releases and promotional videos – without critical classification or contextualization.
The faces of the audience showed what I had often observed: cognitive overload and the fear of being at the mercy of an unstoppable development. The Q&A session confirmed this with comments such as: “I’m completely overwhelmed”, “How are we supposed to keep up?”
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13. March 2025
Never Stop Learning: Getting coached at the SPEAKERY Masterclass
You might think that public speaking training is only for people who haven’t done it much and want to get over their fear of it. I have been speaking in public for 15 years. But when I attended Marcus John Henry Brown’s first SPEAKERY Masterclass in Berlin in October 2023, I learned so much in just two hours.
📷 by Daniel Fürg
How a SPEAKERY Masterclass works
The format is fantastic. He invites five people to each give a five-minute talk. Then he works with each of them live on stage to improve their performance. It’s very intense. And not just for the speakers, but in a weird way for the audience as well. Not only do you learn a lot from watching him coach. You also root for the speakers and get emotional watching them improve instantly. Since then, I have Marcus’ voice in my head when I prepare a talk, and they are all better because of him. So when he asked me to speak at the latest Speakery Masterclass, I was in.
📷 by Daniel Fürg
What I’ve learned
Three things I want to highlight from the experience last night:
1. Being coached live on stage is terrifying. The only reason it works is because Marcus is the most gentle, caring and supportive coach you can imagine. He’s obsessed with creating a safe space for his speakers.
2. Public speaking is not a binary thing that you’re either good at or bad at. It’s also not about improving, it’s about growing. Even with tons of experience, I know I have a lot of notes on how to level up and then level up again and then …
3. The surprising element of the evening was experiencing the audience and what I mentioned above from the stage. Whenever Marcus gave me a note and I tried it out, people in the audience would beam at me and nod enthusiastically. It’s an incredible feeling.
4. Don’t forget to eat before you do something like this. I somehow forgot and felt the adrenaline hit me that much harder.
So if you ever get the chance to attend a SPEAKERY Masterclass, do it. You won’t regret it. And if Marcus asks you to speak at one, especially if the idea scares you to death, jump at it. There’s no better way to learn so much in such a short amount of time. And if it doesn’t work out for you, we know whose fault it is, right? Marcus’ 😉
Want to read the talk I gave? How to talk about the future
📷 by Daniel Fürg
One more insight: It’s funny how you instantly bond with your fellow speakers of the night. Those conversations before and after the event, were a real highlight for me. Thank you for bringing stories from your hearts to the stage.
19. January 2025
Angela Merkel’s Mindset – What her Biography reveals about Germany today
I admit that when Angela Merkel’s autobiography was published (see review), I was sceptical at first. As someone who often criticises her policies and has never voted for her party, I had little interest in another political justification. What finally persuaded me to read it was pure curiosity: what are the thoughts of a woman who, as “the most powerful woman in the world“, has played a central role in almost every major crisis for 16 years? What insights would she offer into the processes and decisions that have shaped all our lives? But the deeper I got into the book, the more fascinating it became – for a completely unexpected reason.
Angela Merkel’s autobiography is much more than the memoirs of a former chancellor. It is a fascinating contemporary document that offers deep insights into a state of mind that has shaped Germany and its institutions over the past twenty years – and continues to do so today. It is a state of mind that is reaching its limits in the face of today’s global challenges.
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4. January 2025
Future Orientation: Understanding Hidden Narratives in Your Organization
Recently, I worked with the management board of a well-established insurance company convinced their organization had no future. Their industry was changing rapidly, and they saw themselves as stewards of an inevitable decline. Yet after examining future challenges in their field and mapping these against their organizational strengths, something remarkable happened: their perspective shifted 180 degrees. They discovered not just potential survival paths, but opportunities for meaningful impact and growth. This dramatic transformation of their future orientation stemmed not from changing market conditions or developing new capabilities, but from consciously examining and reshaping how they thought about and used the future in their organization.
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16. December 2024
Sorry, this is not a trend report
As the year draws to a close, we are treated to a familiar ritual: the publication of countless trend reports designed to explain the future of the coming year. With mechanical regularity, the buzzwords of the moment are analysed – from artificial intelligence to new work to the metaverse. But amidst this deluge of predictions, a fundamental question arises: what distinguishes a genuine trend report from an elaborate marketing tool?
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9. December 2024
Brand resilience through future narratives
On 4 December 2024, I had the opportunity to participate in a webinar on ‘Brands under fire‘. Together with my old companion Gerald Hensel of Superspring, Markus Mayr of Storypark and Lars Niggemann of PREVENCY, we discussed how companies can strengthen their brand resilience in an increasingly volatile world.
I focused on one aspect that is often overlooked in discussions of brand resilience: the role of future narratives.
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4. December 2024
Navigating Uncertainty, Shaping Futures

I recently had the pleasure of joining Matt Ballantine and Julia Bellis on the WB-40 podcast to explore some of the most pressing questions facing organizations today: How do we make sense of an uncertain future? What role do our shared narratives play in shaping the paths ahead? And how can we proactively design strategies to thrive in complexity?
The conversation, sparked by a recent meeting with Matt at the Speakery Summit (it’s all Marcus’s fault), touched on a range of interconnected themes—from the subjective nature of uncertainty to the power of collective future visions. Here are the key insights from our conversation.
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3. December 2024