Free Articles & Papers
Strategic Thinking and Public Presentations
This page is constantly updated to enable you to gain access to full articles and abstracts of various strategy papers, Journal articles, and Public Presentations on the topics of Human Values, Innovation, Strategic Foresight, Marketing and sustainability. Feel free to drop by and access what you'd like.
Remember that Looking Up Feeling Good can provide training, presentations, key note speaking & other strategic options for your business designed to suit your needs.
Most of the links to Public Presentations are now active - enjoy the read and we'd be happy to answer any questions you may have or hear your feedback
If you have any questions in the meantime, by all means ask away!
Journals; Press & Magazines; Other Media Releases
Adelaide Independent Weekly: An article following an interview with the Independent Weekly in July 2009 looking at actions businesses need to undertake to avoid the severe impacts of a recession, and what they can do to be better prepared for future events. (Link to article here)
Brisbane Courier Mail: 'Discipline, routine keys to working from home' by Sandra Killen looks at the types of actions required to make 'work at home' and 'work from home' a success and quotes Marcus Barber's presentation to the RCSA Workforce Symposium in Canberra (link)
The Age: 'The World Tomorrow' was a Jan 31st 2008 article by Leon Gettler looking at how our world might look in the future. Strategic futurist Marcus Barber is first to respond to the blog (link)
'The Tiger Woods Effect' is another Leon Gettler article published in February 2008. I respond to the article and the cited research offering alternatives ways to motivate employees via the 8 Factors model. (link to article)
Sydney Morning Herald: 'Technology and Teenagers' was a June 1st 2006 piece by Roulla Yiacoumi looking at the differences in the ways generations approach communicating with each other. Marcus Barber offers his thoughts as to the true tool of choice for teens and why it is so (link)
Occupational Health News: Following a presentation made to the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists' annual conference wherein I looked at some potential emerging issues in the field of Occupational Hygiene, editor Johanna Egberts-Huf penned the following article for edition 857 of the Occupational Health News
Supply Chain Logistics News.Net also covered the 2008 Queensland Supply Chain & Logistics Conference at the Sofitel. In this article, 'Queensland Supply Chain conference begins in the Future, end in hysterics' Michael Bennet provides the coverage for how day one of the conference occured and the quality of the speakers, suggesting that 'Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber must have felt a little like Cadel Evans, after being pipped in the entertainment stakes by Dr Jeremey Davey's closing address on drugs and alcohol in the workplace'. It was indeed a great start to day one and a precursor of the high quality of all sessions over the two days. (you may require a free sign up on this website to access the full articles)
Women Making It Work - coverage of Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber's presentation to the WMIW networking group, looking at the types of events likely to influence growth of businesses in coming years
Nine to Five Magazine - an interview with Elise Pitt in the February 09 edition formed the cover story that asked Marcus Barber to look at aspects of the future and also changes to the greater Sydney area, was mixed with a view from Stacey Demarco, 2009 Psychic of the year whose views were somewhat different
Stakeholder Magazine (June-Aug 09)- in a brief article for Stakeholder Magazine - the quarterly business magazine published by the City of Greater Dandenong's Economic Development Unit, futurist Marcus Barber suggests that in times of turbulence, business don't have the time to panic
Eco-Industrial Parks: Coverage by the Eastern Riverina Chronicle where Marcus Barber was both key note speaker and Master of Ceremonies for Lockhart's Eco-Industrial forum. This link takes you to the online report and the copy of the full article text can be downloaded here. The Lockhart event saw some of Australia's leading experts in industrial ecology, symbiosis and energy discuss the benefits of Eco Industrial parks and what they can do not only for local communities like Lockhart, but also for business sustainability and profitabilit. As the Strategic Futurist, Marcus Barber focused on the emerging issues likely to change the pressures on business and how symbiotic relationship enhance the way businesses run. The event was also covered on Prime News on the 9th of October who interviewed a number of the speakers
Logistics: 'Ripe for Change' was an article put together by Anna Game-Lopata for the Supply Chain website and online magazine 'Logistics' in July 2008, which considered the way in which Supply Chain of the future might evolve overtime. Anna interviewed Marcus Barber along with others to create a great overview of current and emerging issues in Supply Chain and Logistics. A copy of the article is also available (link)
Merge Magazine: The online edition of Merge Magazine ran a story by Joshua Fanning looking at what people can do in times of economic downturns to help their local places of business. I offered Joshua a few thoughts (some of) which appear in the article available online (link) about why a dollar really does make a difference to the local business.
Julie Farthing's Career Report: Julie Farthing specialises in helping people make better career decisions and in this blogspot, discusses the rise of 'the futurist' as a career, as well as relating her approach to helping her clients to how futurists help their clients deal with the emerging future. Thankfully Julie manages to separate some of the alternative offerings from some of the more involved futurists she mentions - Berard Salt, Maree Conway and myself
Journal of Future Studies: 'Wildcards - Signals from a Future near you' (full article). In this article Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber discusses the use of 'Wildcard' events - those seemingly impossible, 'never going to happen' events that are the cause of major disruption. In the piece a new strategic tool called the 'Reference Impact Grid' (RIG) and a new Wildcard category referred to as a 'Cascading Discontinuity Set' (CDS) are discussed and proposed as useful tools for strategy and risk managers.
In the paper 'A Drop in the Ocean for Foresight Practitioners' (full article) Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber proposes a new universal currency based on one litre of water, called 'the Global' as well as showing how all trade exchanges rely on water availability. The paper suggests (among other things) that societies will be forced to choose between high water use and low water use products and processes and that it is fresh water (and not oil) that is the single most significant requirement for all countries regardless of their status of development.
Questioning Scenarios (full paper) is Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber's look at the process of scenarios - what makes them work, what makes them 'useless' and how to avoid the traps that beset many users of the Scenario process, thus making them more useful for setting organisational strategy
Journal of Cleaner Production: 'Increasing the rate of sustainable change: a call for the redefinition and concept of the model for implementation' (Marcus Barber, co authored with E Goncz, U Skirke & H Kleizen) The paper discusses the need to redefine what we mean by 'Sustainable Development' along with a call to significantly alter the typical mechanisms through which we attempt to 'install' sustainable initiatives into places with ill fitting 'solutions' (Abstract). Along with the Introduction, Marcus Barber's contribution offers a model for engaging people on the sustainable development journey (full paper available here)
Futures Research Quarterly: 'An Hypothesis of Value Systems as Foresight Frameworks' (Full Paper) Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber looks at the idea of Value Systems - the bio/psycho/social model developed by Clare W Graves and later to become 'Spiral Dynamics' through the ongoing work of Don Beck and Chris Cowan, and how each Value System approaches the idea of 'future' - where they get their clues and guidance about what path their future will take.
Futures: 'All you need is a 3LA'. This paper is one of a series responding to a previous Futures edition focused on Ken Wilber's Intergral Theory. In my paper I respond to the suggestion that Causal Layered Analaysis (CLA) requires to be 'tricked up' using the Integral Theory to make it a more useful tool in futures work - a notion I reject. People wishing to review the paper for educational purposes can contact me to request a review copy or can contact Elsevier to purchase a copy (Request copy of paper for review)
Australia 2020 Futurists Summit: In March 2008 a group of Australian Futurists were conveyned to respond to the upcoming Australia 2020 Summit in Canberra, an initiative of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. In anticipation, Australian Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber sent an invite out to a group of colleagues to come together to provide a 'futurist's look' at the Summit themes, likely outcomes and to provide an additional way of considering how Australia's future might unfold. Given the independent nature of the gathering of futurists the Australia 2020 Futurists Summit provided perhaps more scope to critique the themes, identify the potential biases inherent in the framing of the themes and suggest ways that 'vested interests' of all sides are likely to respond to any attempt to shape Australia's future.
To help maintain integrity of the output, the Australia 2020 Futurists Summit report was embargoed from public release until AFTER the Prime Minister's Summit in Canberra a few months later. This step was taken in direct contrast the the flurry of 'white paper' styled press releases issued by interest groups of all kinds which Marcus Barber saw as a deliberate attempt to influence the thinking of participants at the Summit in Canberra and therein the likely outcomes. Perhaps surprisingly, despite the Summit being called to discuss the future of Australia, NOT ONE Australian futurist was invited to attend. In his covering letter for the Australia 2020 Futurists Summit report to the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Marcus Barber lamented that 'although there were plenty of experts in their respective fields of advertising, health, economics and so on, no Australian Futurists attended your summit.’ The attached Australia 2020 Futurists Summit report is the output from all those who contributed to the Australia 2020 Futurists Summit.
Fast Thinking Magazine:
'How to Spot Innovation' (Marcus Barber - Full Article) Summer 05/06 edition
'Identifying & Overcoming Barriers to Organisational Innovation' (Marcus Barber - Full Article) Spring 06 edition
'Funnel Vision & Missed Opportunities' (Marcus Barber - Full Article) Summer 07 edition
'Innovation in Employee Engagement' (Marcus Barber - Full Article) Winter 07 edition
'How to Catch a Stealth Bomber' (Marcus Barber - Full Article) Spring 07 edition
'Driving Away Recession' (Marcus Barber - Full Article) due for publication Summer 08 edition
'Looking Back to The Future' is a Fast Thinking interview with Marcus Barber Winter 2009. Discusses the 1999/2000 ideas paper 'A Blueprint to Advance Australia Collectively' (available here) and what future based issues and ideas might be worthwhile for Australia in the next ten years (Full Article)
Conference Presentations by Marcus Barber
'Committing Universities to Sustainable Development' (UNESCO - Austria, 2005) Full Powerpoint The paper was published in conference proceedings was listed under the abstract 'Sustainability - Why Bother?' by M Barber Full Paper available
The Future of Education Conference (Swinburne University - Adelaide 2003) (Abstract of Powerpoint)
12th International Conference on Thinking (ICOT - Melbourne 2005) (Full Powerpoint)
TiE Innovation Program (Australian Innovation Festival - Melbourne 2004) (Abstract of Powerpoint)
Dimensions 2006 Sales & Marketing Industry Conference (The following PDF files are available by emailing your request)
- 'Is your approach to Branding poisoning your business?' and
- 'Killing Trends: The Graceful Art of Innovation'
AusForesight 2006 (Professional futurists conference) - 'Exploring the Future through Scenarios' and 'Which Scenario Approach is Right for You?'
AusForesight 2007 (Professional futurists conference) - 'From foresight foreplay to corporate consummation' a presentation made to the conference by Marcus Barber and Steve Tighe. You can request a copy of this presentation here
IXC's Water Innovation Conference This link takes you to the presentation at the Water Technologies Breakthrough Forum in May 2008. Titled '3I7M' (which stands for 'Three ideas in seven minutes') Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber provoked thinking by suggesting that 'new water technologies won't save us'
Radio, Writings & Books
Here you'll find assorted writings on futures related topics, miscellaneous articles not found elsewhere and snippets from views published in newspapers, online websites and work with the National Geographic Channel TV program 'Future Matters'.
Books
'The Money Tree and How to Grow One - Creating Success in Your Business' - Geared towards business owners and managers of business divisions, each chapter is a specific area of focus, from 'managing a sales team' to 'effective marketing' and 'The 3 E's of Business' to case study examples and more. Originally published in 2000 by TBRB, it was updated in 2006 and is now available in CD format - contact us directly to purchase a copy.
'Killing Trends: The Graceful Art of Innovation'. Does your business understand the difference between 'creativity' and 'Innovation'? Does it know exactly how to 'do' innovation and where specifically it should target its efforts? Does it understand how to establish, nurture, protect and leverage the efforts of a focused innovation capability? This incisive book lays it all on the table and along the way, shows that the 'innovation industry' is kidding itself when it thinks it encourages innovation because by and large efforts at innovation are poorly targeted and lack clear criteria for what is and isn't innovative outcomes, as well as guiding you through a specific and well defined Innovation process. Due to be completed in August you can pre-order your copy by contacting us directly
'Death and Anti-Death, Volume 5 - Thirty Years After Loren Eiseley' (1907 - 1977)'. Edited by Charles Tandy PhD, published by Ria University Press 2008, this is anthology five in the series and I have written the first chapter titled: 'Asking the unaskable question - do people have a right NOT to die?'. This chapter explores the use of advanced technology to keep people alive and asks whether, given the costs of those technologies, any one individual should be able to use wealth to extend their own life at a time of extreme life disparity across the world. The book is available at Amazon here
'Recession Proof Marketing - How to Survive and Thrive in a Recession'. Co-authored by Tod O'Reilly and Marcus Barber, this e-book is a short, punchy 'how to and must do' tome aimed at assisting businesses with their marketing focus during the 'lean times'. Due for completion by the end of February 2010, this is very much a 'hands on' book that is less about theory and more about the action. Pre-orders can be made via this link
Radio
774 ABC Melbourne
- Conversation Hour with Tim Cox - Marcus Barber discusses the role of futurists and how people can better prepare for changing times
- Conversation Hour with Jon Faine - Marcus Barber discusses the Australia 2020 Futurists Summit (free report downloadable here)
- Conversation Hour with Raphael Epstein - Marcus Barber joins a panel to discuss trends in 2009
ABC Rural
This link will take you to a brief overview of my chat with Kathy Cogo at ABC Rural in December last year, looking at water related farming issues in the future. I suggested that it is likely that with increased water access challenges, both cross fence and cross farm type battles will see water rights and economic value become a 'farm v farm' problem. Request for the interview can be made directly to ABC Rural. This link will give you an additional quick snippet that might also be of value and this linkalso from the ABC Rural website gives an overview of the same story with a slightly different take with the heading 'Australian Water wars within a decade'
In this interview with Robyn McConchie of the ABC Country hour in Queensland, Marcus Barber joins two Dairy Farmers, Stuart and Vanessa to discuss the Young Dairy Network's Climate Change Forum and current and emerging issues for Dairy Farmers around the country. Thes link will take you to a podcast of the Country hour and if you cue the link to around 17mins 10sec you'll hear the lead in to the discussion.
Ideas Pieces
Ideas Pieces are designed to create discussion and thinking on a particular area through suggesting alternative and additional approaches to existing challenges. The first major piece of work in this format was 'A Blueprint to Advance Australia Collectively' written in 1999 and 2000. Each chapter from that work will be made available soon and some are available via the links below...
Ideas Piece - The end of Speed related Accidents What would you say if someone suggested that speeding fines actually encouraged speeding? Society already has the technological know how to solve the majority of speed related accidents in this country. What is preventing our success is our social approaches to traffic management and the motorvehicle. This ideas piece offers some suggestions as to how we might dramatically reduce speed related vehicle accidents and the cost of human lives, family pain and financial resources used to deal with the challenge.
Ideas Piece - A Potential Answer to the Health System Crisis Why do we find it so hard to make the Public Health System and Private Health System work together? Is it because there are so many vested interests in keeping us sick and unhealthy? The ideas in this piece could shake up a few 'sacred cows' in the health sector!
Ideas Piece - Making Cigarette Packet Warnings Work 'Your Breath Stinks!' 'Hey did you know your gums were bleeding?' You can't solve a short term gain using a long term message. If cigarette packet warnings are to have any long term impact they need to target short term pain.
Ideas Piece - The Australian Presidential Raffle The Republican movement got it all wrong. Rather than borrow some model from overseas, we need to select our President using an Australian Icon - the good old raffle!
Ideas Piece - Accurate Product Labelling If we are serious about protecting Australian jobs and in particular the farming community in this country, it's time that product labelling accurately reflected where the content came from and where the product was manufactured. The Australian consumer deserves the right to choose to buy products based on their geographical origin and to do so, we need accurate product labelling
Ideas Piece - Privatising Telstra by Demutualising The idea of selling T3 shares in Telstra is misleading - we already own it so why are we being asked to 'buy it' again. A much fairer idea is to GIVE the shares to every Australian based on their years as an Australian Taxpayer. Then if they choose to keep or sell the shares, that is their choice
Ideas Piece - Advertising & Australia's Culture Why do advertisers insist on using commericals from overseas? Surely if these companies want us to spend our Australian dollars buying their products, the least they could do is use Australian made TV commericals?
Essay - A metaphorical look at the 20th Century and cultural approaches to sustainability and protection of the planet was pursued in this piece, orginally submitted to my Master's program. The piece jumps forward to the 21st Century where a panel of eminent entities were discussing the history of the planet back in the 20th Century. Looking Back at the 20th Century - a view from the future
Essay - Whilst the current water crisis is 'news' to many people, others have been warning about the challenge for a significant period of time. In this piece put together in 2003, I drew on a vast array of leading and aware thinking from around the globe that looked at the challenge of water. In assessing that information, two key ideas emerged - a singular currency unit called the 'Global' (the equivalent of one litre of fresh water) and the Global Currency Map (GCM) - a way to look at the different approaches and strategies a society will likely apply depending on their wealth and available water resources. A Drop in the Ocean for Foresight Practitioners'. This file is available in PDF format upon request - email here
Australia 2020 Futurists Summit - A group of Australia's best and brightest futurists gathered in Melbourne on the 2nd of March to provide a futurists' view of Australia in 2020 as an input to the Prime Minister Rudd's Summit in April. The results of the futurists summit were then kicked around for additional input and thought, culminating in the report that has been sent to the Prime Minister this week. Unlike many of the discussion papers and media releases arguably intended to shape the perspectives of those attending the PM's Summit, this report was embargoed from public view until the Canberra Summit had commenced.
Teaching Kids about their own Brains
This discussion takes place on the Stephen Downes website (downes.ca) a Canadian specialist in education and learning. Stephen is one of the very few people I 'follow' online. Stephen, Christian Long and I have a brief chat (with links to articles) about Pattern Recognition and what I refer to as the need to teach kids 'unpatterning' to improve their thinking methods.
Running on the back of their highly successful 'FAQ's series, the National Geographic Channel commissioned a series to look at emerging technologies and their potential implications on our lives. The first program went to air in May 2006 and looked at issues such as flying cars, robotics, the home of the future and smart technologies among others with the second show pushing the boundaries of the future of Sex, Sleep and Death
'Future Matters' - TV Program from the National Geographic Channel
Central Highlands Water have just undertaken an extensive Scenario Planning project, the outputs of which now include an Executive Summary of the Environmental Scan; the full Environmental Scan with over 40 pages of links and analysis; a DVD of the scenario presentations; a DVD that covers an overview of the Accelerated Scenario process (ASp) and what Central Highlands Water were aiming at achieving; and a list of Robust Strategies in response to the key issues emerging from the scenarios. We are hoping that CHW make the overview of the Scenarios available to the wider public and in the meantime, the Environmental Scanning Executive Summary is now available for download via the link.
For questions regarding the Accelerated Scenario process, please contact us here
More Ideas Pieces, podcasts, and bits & pieces will be posted here from time to time and for now try the following:
Posted to Thoughtware.TV, the Future Matters segment where Marcus Barber talks about the Future of Robotics, complete with subtitles for our Danish friends
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Events
Wednesday 10 March 2010
Following on from the highly rated 'Skimming the Cream' forum in Brisbane on the 9th of February, members of the Young Dairy Network and SubTropical Dairy groups reconvened to consider the impacts of Climate Change on the dairy sector in Australia using the high-impact 'Accelerated Scenarios process'. The '2030 Dairy Scenarios' brought together the members of the YDN and SubTropical groups using the core issues raised by the almost 100 farmers and industry representatives at the Skimming the Cream forum to consider what changes might emerge in the sector in coming years.
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Thursday 18 February 2010
Queensland is one state that leverages its weather to the hilt - and the fact is the 'Sunshine State' earns its reputation. The odd thing is that in the past week I've spent in the Gold Coast experiencing the warm, humid and often wet weather it has occured to me that Queensland might be missing a massive tourism angle.
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Monday 1 February 2010
In a recent article in The Age, Clive Williams of Macquarie University's Centre for Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism suggested that athletes booked in to attend the Commonwealth games in India need to consider a terrorist attack as a potential wildcard. Whilst an interesting perspective, I'd like to suggest that a potential terrorist attack at the Commonwealth Games does not fit the true criteria of a 'Wildcard' event. In the true sense of Wildcard events, a terrorist attack on the games seems far more likely than not likely.
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