Episode
Designing Future Narratives in a Changing Workplace: Lisa Kay Solomon and Jeffrey Rogers
- Published
- Apr 15, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3164
- Processing state
not_requested
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/workplace-stories-by-redthread-research-3600959/episodes/designing-future-narratives-in-a-changing-workplace-lisa-kay-solomon-and-jeffrey-rogers/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/workplace-stories-by-redthread-research-3600959/designing-future-narratives-in-a-changing-workplace-lisa-kay-solomon-and-jeffrey-rogers.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
In this episode, we welcome Lisa Kay Solomon, designer-in-residence at Stanford's d.school and host of the "How We Future" podcast, and Jeffrey Rogers, principal of Learning and Facilitation at Radical and co-founder of Projectory. We discuss why foresight—the ability to anticipate and design the futures we want—is everybody's job, not just the domain of senior leaders or specialized futurists. They challenge the idea that organizations operate on an "official future" built from unexamined assumptions, and explore how narrative shapes both our approach to work and our readiness for rapid change, especially in the face of AI disruption. You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in... [00:00] Rethinking future-focused leadership [03:39] HR's evolving role in shaping the future [07:18] Understanding contested narratives and the potential to challenge them [21:50] The importance of adopting futures thinking through broad learning across multiple perspectives [25:47] Strategic foresight and future practices [35:13] Rethinking knowledge and learning priorities [39:21] Reflecting on AI adoption barriers [47:08] Helping leaders develop future-oriented skills [51:14] Looking ahead to the future The Leadership Muscle We Forget to Use One of the most powerful ideas to emerge from the conversation is that of foresight as a "leadership muscle." Most leaders are trained and incentivized to focus on quarterly results and annual plans. The urgent often squeezes out the important, leaving little room for the kind of long-term, strategic thinking that anticipates disruption rather than simply reacts to it. Foresight isn't someone else’s job—it's every leader's job. Yet, most organizations have let this muscle atrophy. Through scenario planning and immersive exercises like…