2016

Artificial intelligence (AI) will allow us to do things we haven’t done before, but Nara Logics CEO Jana Eggers cautions against seeing AI as a mysterious or subversive force.

Dave Gray draws in order to understand the world. "When you draw, you are taking in the things that you see and translating them into something you can express with a gesture.”

Systems thinker Brandon Barnett says we don’t have a good intuition for instability. We don’t quite know what to do with it.

Cartoonist Liza Donnelly aims for the “affectionate poke” more than the straight joke. Her feminist cartoons are “scenes of men and women talking, on the ground floor, where we get at problems.”

Christine Goodwin says startup founders are modern-day frontiersmen. “The adrenalin doesn’t come from the fact that it’s chaotic,” she says, “but from what’s in there — real problems that need attention.”

Nurturing solid support networks is fundamental to what will matter in the economic and social scene taking shape around us, John Hagel says. Trust is critical in the relationship-based economy we are moving toward.

Everything moves toward harmony, says Todd Khozein, who helps clients address complex social and environmental problems through collaboration. The solitary genius who will save us with an a-ha moment is a myth.

Coss Marte’s philosophy: Work with what you have and build on it, even if what you have to work with includes a stint in prison.

An engineer is a person who envisions what has never been and does whatever it takes to make it happen, says Richard K. Miller, president of the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering.

In a medical culture that privileges some diseases over others, “regular bread and butter medicine” gets little attention. The doctor and the patient lose sight of one another., says Dr. Kavita Patel.

When Celine Schillinger speaks of employee engagement, she does not mean temporary spurts of fun orchestrated by management. But, she says, engagement for the sake of engagement just keeps people happy so that they don’t claim power.

“Business people are more creative than they think they are,” says songwriter Darden Smith. “My skills as a songwriter and in making it as an artist are very applicable to how business functions. It’s the same process, different tools.”

Taking the audience seriously is good business, says songwriter Darden Smith. “I want you to take my music home with you. I want you to come back." That give-and-take, he says, is what makes positive change in the world.

The standard ingredients for good physical health — rest, diet, and exercise — are also vital starting points for good mental health, says Ross Szabo. He urges people to be responsible for their own mental health.

In his book 'Simply Brilliant', Bill Taylor says he found and wrote about "long-established incumbent organizations that are able to rethink and renew their industries in ways that we wouldn’t normally expect.”

The consultant's 'S-curve' can be used as a structure to understand and navigate personal disruption, says Whitney Johnson.

Rabbi Irwin Kula has been on the vanguard of disruptive innovation since it became the mantra of the post-dot.com reality. He sees disruptive innovation as a necessary force in what he calls this ‘next epic’ of religion.

Hacking isn't just something that happens when you're in front of your computer. It happens all around your life.

Natalie Nixon is a proponent of chaordic systems thinking, the idea that chaos and order (or, randomness and structure) can exist in harmony.

NASA deputy administrator Dava Newman has been engrossed in massive planning for the administration’s next giant leap: the Journey to Mars.

“The thing that has fascinated me for most of my life is that we’re just starting to understand and manipulate living things,” says Andrew Hessel.

Amy Whitaker describes herself as a human Venn diagram, a person of many intersecting circles. Whitaker is an MBA with an MFA, a self-proclaimed jack-of-all trades who teaches business to artists and art to business people.

If our kids today can realize their link in the chain of the hip-hop tradition, it’s not so farfetched that they might create the next Facebook.

Gregory Downing's early experience in the intimate setting of a rural doctor’s office keeps him ever mindful of the goal of medical innovation — to bring people together to provide the best primary care for their neighbors.

The mind of the designer is mildly restless, Shaun Modi suggests.

Art holds the disciplines together and keeps us attuned to shifts in reality. Artists have a head start on the transformation of the world.

Most people have an extremely limited concept of aged people, Joseph Coughlin says. They're wrong.

Writer Kare Anderson firmly believes that learning to connect and collaborate more effectively can not only help us succeed, but can also foster collaborations that create opportunities to serve the greater good.