Strategic planning is an oxymoronic term. While vision and strategy are back from the future inquiry, planning is the endeavor to move from today to the future. Though we need both approaches, they are not the same activity and they each require a different mindset. In many companies, strategic effort is not strategic at all. Rather, it is a financial-led, bottom-up planning exercise. In this episode, Aviv analyzes eight inquiries to evaluate your strategic innovation opportunities. Such inquiries explore a range of factors, including differentiated value, sustainability, exciting the imagination of your workforce and aligning with values and brand experience. Finally, Aviv provides actionable advice on how listeners can reflect on their strategic growth opportunities holistically to create the future of their business and unlock the future to which they aspire.

Adam Wray is the founder and CEO of AstrumU, a Seattle-based data science startup that translates educational experiences into economic opportunity. Adam held a variety of senior leadership and founding roles at data analytics, cybersecurity, cloud, and machine learning-focused companies. He was one of the founders and the CEO of Tier 3, a public sector cloud services provider acquired by CenturyLink, one of the largest U.S. enterprise telecommunications companies.
In this episode, Adam and Aviv dive deep, explore the power of building an exceptional culture and, specifically, insights that emerged out of Adam’s experience as CEO. Adam describes his entrepreneurial journey and what inspired him to focus on education. He then reflects on the most impactful lessons he’s learned throughout his career. Finally, Adam outlines what he values above all other ideas and insights and provides sage advice to the audience on leadership and starting a business.

Jon Herlocker is the Founder and CEO of Tignis, a company that provides a physics-driven software solution for managing industrial assets, processes, and operations. Jon is a technology entrepreneur, an experienced executive with a long leadership history in big data analytics and artificial intelligence. Before building his company, he was CTO of VMware’s Cloud Management, and CTO of EMC’s Cloud Services division. Jon is a former tenured professor of Computer Science at Oregon State University.

In this episode, Jon and Aviv engage in a deep conversation about entrepreneurship, the power of setting big, hairy, audacious goals and the future of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Jon speaks to his unique ability to enable others to achieve extraordinary breakthroughs and how this trait has been a critical tool for him as a leader and CEO. Finally, Jon shares the importance of being a lifelong learner and the one insight he values above all else.

What are the insights that propel the Create New Futures methodology? This was the framing question Aviv recently asked a Silicon Valley leadership team. Today, Aviv shares and reflects on two great insights that shaped his approach to creating new futures. Aviv dives deep into organizational potential energy and expounds on the concept of currency of leadership. Finally, Aviv provides the actionable advice he shared with the leadership team he worked with. He stresses that in order to unlock the greatest creativity and inspiration, it is critical to engage people in creating and shaping their own future. And to apply the currency of leadership, you must initiate a series of inquiry-based conversations designed to mobilize actions that produce results.

Have you been as provocative in your future explorations as you can? Today, Aviv reflects on this question and recalls the story of a three-day virtual workshop that inspired this discussion on creating slow, fast, deep work. In this episode, Aviv expounds on the Zone of Deep Work and outlines best practices that can be applied to create slow, fast, deep work. He provides examples of how the teams he worked with throughout this workshop produced three new compelling prototypes of the future and describes why this was such a game-changer. Finally, Aviv provides advice on how to imagine and bring to life a daringly novel future.

Meditative practices have helped guide Aviv through challenging events in his life. By developing these practices, Aviv hopes that listeners can discover the profound impact of these techniques and experience the many blessings and new doors of possibilities that can open for them as a result.
In this Part Three, Aviv addresses the fourth and fifth meditative practices that have helped him navigate both his personal and professional experiences. Aviv expounds on the power of prayer, repetition of affirmations and contemplative inquiries and showcases how he’s integrated these techniques in his everyday life.

Last month, Aviv dove into the Window of Opportunity concept and explained that how you respond to those windows determines your capacity to lead and shape outcomes. Today, this episode brings into focus a complementary idea that has helped some of Aviv’s clients unlock the awesome potential of their opportunities. Aviv poses the reflection question, ‘What is the most difficult feat in the world,’ and provides three key elements that must be present in order to accomplish these feats. By adapting and applying this idea, you will bring an advantageous urgency to your efforts.

Historians likely will look at 2020 as the year that initiated a multi-decade long transformation. As the effects of the global pandemic continue to be felt, many wonder when life will return to pre-pandemic ‘normal.’ However, most people recognize that there is no ‘back-to-normal’ path. Instead, there are opportunities to shape and create a new and thriving normalcy. In this episode, Aviv revisits the Window of Opportunity concept and urges listeners to consider the opportunities that are in front of them. Aviv expounds on the three components of the Opportunity Window Arc and speaks to what capabilities must be cultivated to respond in full when a window of opportunity opens.

Consider three ‘edge of the envelope’ scenarios: A Black Swan, A Perfect Storm and A Lethal Jackpot. A Black Swan is an unpredictable event that unleashes severe consequences. A Perfect Storm occurs when a rare combination of circumstances drastically and negatively aggravates an event. What is a Lethal Jackpot? It’s a convergence pattern of several conditions and irregularities that together develop into an inescapable, devastating consequence. In this episode, Aviv opens up about this surprising discovery and how it became a game-changer that saved his life on several occasions. Aviv provides best practices for identifying these Lethal Jackpot scenarios, both in life and business, in order to actively step in to stop these patterns of irregularities and risk.