Joyce Giola has consistently taken the long view of both her professional and personal life. A management consultant and keynote speaker by trade, she takes a focus on tomorrow’s challenges in her work. With a number of ongoing crises still shaping the landscape of our times, the value of Giola’s forward-looking insights are being demonstrated like never before. Today, the futurist sits down for a two-part conversation on the societal shifts that are inevitable for our times, and how they have impacted her outlook for the years ahead.

1:22 Concrete in a Crystal Ball

Between the COVID pandemic itself and its economic shockwaves, organizations across industries are scrambling to find answers to entirely new questions. Gioia opens the discussion by highlighting the importance of a progressive approach to establishing a foothold on what is shaky ground for many. Moving past conventional perceptions of a business futurist as a baseless speculator, she delves into the science behind her beliefs. 

2:15 Knowledge is Profit

Asked to share the spark that illuminated her path into futurism, Gioia reaches back to her time in marketing. Here, she quickly discovered that the ability to reliably predict trends had substantial tangible value in the boardroom. Rapid advancement in mind, she would scour publications and periodicals for data that she could translate into actionable advice. Armed with this hard-earned knowledge, she was able to double her advertising revenue 5 years in a row. It became clear that educated guesses could prove a profitable commodity.

3:12 Childlike Enthusiasm

The unfiltered curiosity of youth can never be satisfied, and Gioia identifies this trait as the one from her childhood that has served her best in her adult life.  Describing herself as “curious about everything,” the information she absorbed in her spare time frequently found use in the Herman Trend Alert. This weekly report is distributed to a regular audience of nearly 30,000, and translated into multiple languages. Interacting with such a diverse array of influences gives her perceptual radar broad reach, driving a collective vision of the future.  

7:03 Balancing Proof and Projection

On the topic of futurism, it can be easy to get lost in flights of airy speculation. The celebrity futurist emphasizes a grounded perspective on assessing the trends of tomorrow. For example, it’s easy to see the immediate ways in which COVID and its related crises have forced us to reimagine our modern lives. However, Gioia always evaluates the process of change with both trends and outlook in mind. With so many factors at play, she views looking to the future more as generating a spectrum of possibilities than yielding a hard prediction. 

10:53 

Among other social shortcomings, the COVID era has exposed critical weaknesses in American systems and infrastructure. From first responders to the labor force, federal support as well as local initiatives have been woefully inadequate in the world’s wealthiest country. The meager action plan at all levels of government bodes poorly for any future crisis that American citizens will face. For this progressive thinker, any lasting recovery for the nation will center on how well it responds to being weighed, measured, and found wanting.