Session overview

Everyone talks about “keeping up with the pace of change”, but in a world that feels less like neat VUCA and more like BANI – Brittle, Anxious, Non-linear and Incomprehensible – that’s getting harder to take seriously. The old promise of futurism was that if we could just predict what’s coming, we’d be safe. But history is the story of unintended consequences – the future resists prediction.

In this provocative and energising session, Mark Stevenson will explore why trying to “future-proof” everything is the wrong game, and how leaders and organisations can instead build a confident relationship with uncertainty. The future, he argues, is a contact sport: you don’t get to shape it from the sidelines.

You’ll leave with a different way of thinking about change, risk and possibility – and practical ideas for how to lead when the future feels chaotic, fast, and fundamentally unknowable.

What the session will cover

We’ll explore questions such as:

• How to hear the questions the future is already asking you
• How to uncover the questions you don’t yet know to ask
• How to navigate geopolitical, technological and organisational shifts with more confidence and less fear
• How to move from prediction to participation – shifting from trying to control the future to actively shaping it
• How to build leadership and culture that can live with, and act in, uncertainty

About the speaker

Mark Stevenson – Futurist, Writer and “Chief Annoying Question Asker”

What do the CEOs of the world’s largest corporations, the planet’s biggest recording artists, senior government and military officials, influential NGOs and some of the most maverick investors have in common? They turn to Mark Stevenson to help them make sense of, and navigate, an uncertain future – so they can help create a better one.

Mark’s work ranges from international diplomacy to working with schoolchildren, across fields as diverse as national security, the law, education, boardroom governance and investment oversight. He helps organisations embrace profound and cathartic change in the service of a more equitable, humane, just and regenerative world.

Often branded a “futurist”, Mark prefers the label given by one of his clients: “Chief Annoying Question Asker”. He helps organisations change the way they feel, think, invest and operate in order to answer the intertwined questions the future is already posing.

He is the author of two bestselling books, An Optimist’s Tour of the Future and the award-winning We Do Things Differently, which map out existing and proven solutions to today’s dilemmas. His new book, How To Think About the Future, is due next year.

Alongside his strategy work, Mark has a successful side career as a comedy writer and songwriter, which he sees as essential to maintaining the storytelling and emotional skills that real systems change demands: “The brain does the PR for what the heart has already decided – if you can’t speak to the heart, any systems change is dead in the water.” His hit podcast with comedian Jon Richardson and systems change advocate Ed Gillespie is available on all major platforms.

Who should attend

This session is ideal for:

• CEOs, executive teams and future leaders
• Board members and non-executives
• Strategy, transformation and innovation leads
• Anyone responsible for making decisions in uncertain, fast-changing contexts

If you’re tired of neat prediction models, want a more honest way of thinking about the future, and are ready to swap fear for agency, this session is for you.