What Would Your Business Do Differently Today If You Knew the Future?

For half a century, Bob Johansen has been forecasting the future. Clients, including Procter & Gamble, Walmart, and McKinsey, trust his vision. Moreover, he is an instructor at the Army War College.

Along with coauthors Joseph Press and Christine Bullen, Bob has recently released “Office Shock: Creating Better Futures for Working and Living” — his 13th book.

Ostensibly, Office Shock peers a decade ahead to describe the workplace of the future — the officeverse. Today’s office towers face strong headwinds, as the purpose and function of tomorrow’s office spaces will be rejiggered to prove a more equitable, accessible, purposeful, climate-positive future for knowledge work. 

But host and award-winning author Dean Rotbart says Office Shock is about much more than real estate. It’s about looking to the future now to take immediate steps to better prepare for what’s to come.  

“It's actually easier to think ten years ahead than it is one or two years ahead,” Bob says, discussing the effectiveness of taking a “futureback” approach to planning.

Bob and his coauthors are associated with the Palo Alto, California-based Institute for the Future, a spinoff from RAND Corporation founded in 1968. IFTF is the world's oldest continuously running futures research and educational organization.  

OTHER BOOKS BY BOB JOHANSEN:

• The New Leadership Literacies: Thriving in a Future of Extreme Disruption and Distributed Everything

• Get There Early: Sensing the Future to Compete in the Present

• Leaders Make the Future: Ten New Leadership Skills for an Uncertain World

Photo: Bob Johansen, Institute for the Future
Posted: May 29, 2023
Monday Morning Run Time: 47:59
Episode: 11.41

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