Envisioning the Future(s) of Community Health

Stark County Health Summit – February 2019 Trene Hawkins – Program Officer, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Roadmap for the Day

INTRODUCTION About me

About RWJF

OUR CHALLENGE:

Envisioning the future and bridging to the present

HOW 2 Tools

Signals

Slow Hunches

Slow Hunch Jam

Round 1 – Jam, Report, Break

Round 2 – Jam, Reflect

SO WHAT?

WHAT’S NEXT

About me

Health nerd

AB Molecular Biology, MS Cell and Developmental Biology;

Clinical and academic laboratory science – sequencing, diagnostics, automation

Healthcare market research

Formally trained facilitator

Technology of Participation (ToP)

Liberating Structures

Sustained Dialogue

Foresight (Institute for the Future; Future Today Institute)

Student

Executive MBA (May 2020)

Grantmaker

Innovation and technology

Health equity

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Our aim: Improving the health and well-being

of all in America

What is a Culture of Health?

Our Home State: NJ

Our Home State: NJ

Now Future

Animation of Circuit Design browser game from https://www.freegameplanet.com/circuit-design-browser-game/

North Star vector: https://pixabay.com/vectors/belen-star-star-christmas-1837569/

Our Challenge: Filling the gap between now and the future

? measures and metrics community needs

and norms local resources

Pioneer: Looking to the future to build a Culture of Health

“A Culture of Health is a bold vision, demanding

equally bold ideas to help us bring this vision to

life.”

RWJF.org

Image credit: (clockwise from the top) markernurse.com; Pexels.com user -

rawpexel.com; dataandsociety.net

WHAT

HOW Cataloguing signals

Slow Hunches

So WHAT?

WHAT’s Next? RWJF grantmaking

Exciting trends

Featured grantees

3 criteria:

1. SPECIFIC – AI =/= AlphaGo beats world champion

2. CURRENT – (18 mos.)

3. COMPELLING – sparks emotion or reaction

Signals: a definition

“A signal is a small or local innovation with the

, or scale up in size

or geography. Foresight Toolkit – Institute for the Future

Signals: an non-example

Not a SIGNAL: voice assistants

Image credit: geeksfl.com

Signals: an example

Signals: an example

SIGNAL: “Alexa! Play ‘Baby Shark” WHAT? Toddler asks Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant and home

device, over and over to play a hit song, frustrated that it can’t

understand.

SO WHAT? Children are interacting more with responsive

technologies during developmental years. This may influence their

social relationships and behaviors, long-term mindsets and beliefs

about technology and inanimate objects, and their speech

development.

SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzfBedGaIjU

(Oct 2018)

Slow Hunch: a definition

Slow Hunch: key points

Space fosters creativity and collaboration

Physical space

Figurative space

Transformative ideas don’t come in an “ah-ha” moment

Great ideas take time

Transformative ideas need collision and collaboration

Hunches need each other to become a full idea

Sharing signals hunches and signals are important for team building and sense-

making

Slow Hunch: key points

Space fosters creativity and collaboration

Physical space

Figurative space

Transformative ideas don’t come in an “ah-ha” moment

Great ideas take time

Transformative ideas need collision and collaboration

Hunches need each other to become a full idea

Sharing signals hunches and signals are important for team building and sense-

making

Slow Hunch: key points

Space fosters creativity and collaboration

Physical space

Figurative space

Transformative ideas don’t come in an “ah-ha” moment

Great ideas take time

Transformative ideas need collision and collaboration

Hunches need each other to become a full idea

Sharing signals hunches and signals are important for team building and sense-

making

Slow Hunch: The Jam

• React/add new info to “in play” signals

• Share a related signal

• Share a different signal

• React /add new info to “in play” signals

• Share a related signal

• Share a different signal

• React/add new info

• Share a related signal

• Share a different signal*

• Shares a signal

Person 1

Person 2

Person 3

Person 4

ROUND 2

ROUND 1

Practice seeking and

sharing signals

Strengthen signals

ID 1-2 compelling signals

Get good at hunching

Document “AH-HA”s

Note next steps

Slow Hunch Jam: Ground Rules

BE OPEN focus on possibilities not constraints

BE CURIOUS Ask questions, get clarification

TAKE NOTE(S) write down your “ah-ha”s, point to research

or follow-ups; take note of how you feel during the experience – is

this easy? hard? exciting? nerve-wracking?

HAVE FUN!

ROUND 2

ROUND 1

Practice seeking and

sharing signals

Strengthen signals

ID 1-2 compelling signals

Get good at hunching

Document “AH-HA”s

Note next steps

So WHAT?

WHAT’s Next?

HOW Cataloguing signals

Slow Hunches Jam

“Foresight is not about predicting the

future…Instead,

: positive futures, negative

futures, weird futures, and amazing futures.”

Foresight Toolkit Introduction – Institute for the Future

“[Understanding t]he requires

us to look at the .”

Futures Workshop (Dec 2017) – Future Today Institute

Future Future Future Future

SEE MANY FUTURES instead of focuses on one (or none)

Foresight and the future

DEFINE YOUR PREFERRED FUTURE in imaginative but grounded ways

PLAN AND TAKE ACTION together

Now Preferred Future

Signals tune your brain to the future

Signals tune your brain to the future

The Case for Signals

Signals help overcome

cognitive and psychological

biases and limitations

Source: slate.com, Apr 2017 - Photo by tommasolizzul/Thinkstock.

Signals tune your brain to the future

The Case for Signals

Signals help overcome

cognitive and psychological

biases and limitations

Source: The Atlantic, Nov 2017 - Olivia ZZ / Getty Images

Signals tune your brain to the future

The Case for Signals

Signals help overcome

cognitive and psychological

biases and limitations

Signals help overcome the

Paradox of the Present

CURTISS “AUTOPLANE” 1917

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Signals tune your brain to the future

The Case for Signals

Signals help overcome

cognitive and psychological

biases and limitations

Signals help overcome the

Paradox of the Present

JESS DIXON in his flying automobile c1940

Image: flickr user floridamemory

Signals tune your brain to the future

The Case for Signals

Signals help overcome

cognitive and psychological

biases and limitations

Signals help overcome the

Paradox of the Present

TAYLOR AEROCAR 1954

Image: smithsoniaN.com (originally listed on hemmings.com)

Signals tune your brain to the future

The Case for Signals

Signals help overcome

cognitive and psychological

biases and limitations

Signals help overcome the

Paradox of the Present

UNCREDITED 1973

Image: Future Today Institute Foresight Workshop Presentation, Dec 2017

Signals tune your brain to the future

The Case for Signals

Signals help overcome

cognitive and psychological

biases and limitations

Signals help overcome the

Paradox of the Present

PAL-V LIBERTY 2018

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Signals tune your brain to the future

The Case for Signals

Signals help overcome

cognitive and psychological

biases and limitations

Signals help overcome the

Paradox of the Present

Image: Wikipedia

Signals tune your brain to the future

The Case for Signals

Signals help overcome

cognitive and psychological

biases and limitations

Signals help overcome the

Paradox of the Present

Source: theverge.com

Ignoring signals can be our downfall

The Case for Signals

Signals help overcome

cognitive and psychological

biases and limitations

Signals help overcome the

Paradox of the Present

Capture emerging

phenomena before a trend

is obvious

Provide grounded detail

about novel information

Help us assess

broader patterns

Take action more quickly

Source: theverge.com

Now Future

Better manage and understand current information

Help overcome tunnel vision; seek and organize new information without overwhelm

Signals can reveal gaps in current knowledge, suggesting key next steps

Illuminate possible futures

Overcome brain-based barriers

Evidence of the future in the present

Signals: tackling key challenges at the ends of the spectrum

Future

?

Future Future Future Future

Using foresight to chart the course

Now Preferred Future

opportunities and challenges on the path

gaps in evidence

immediate next steps

clarity

imagine many possibilities

What’s Next?

START CATALOGUING SIGNALS individually and in

teams

What’s Next?

START CATALOGUING SIGNALS individually and in

teams

44

Moving signals into action

What’s Next?

START CATALOGUING SIGNALS individually and in

teams

HAVE A SLOW HUNCH JAM put your heads together to

incubate partial ideas and make sense of new information

What’s Next?

What’s Next?

START CATALOGUING SIGNALS individually and in

teams

HAVE A SLOW HUNCH JAM put your heads together to

incubate partial ideas and make sense of new information

“PAINT” A VIVID PICTURE OF YOUR FUTURE COMMUNITY define who and what are there. Consider other

possible parallel futures.

Thank You!

The Future of Work A Case Study in Slow Hunching and Signal Watching

source: Intuit Contingent Workforce Forecast 2015

LEADERSHIP FOR

BETTER HEALTH

THE ROLE OF BUSINESS IN

WORKER HEALTH

HEALTHY CHILDREN

AND FAMILIES

CHILD CARE

TRANSFORMING

HEALTH SYSTEMS

HEALTH BENEFITS AND

ACCESS TO CARE

Well-being in the Gig Economy

source: pixabay user mohamed_hassan

“I’ve been in situations where I went

to the person’s house, text, called,

rung the bell…nobody responded.

I still have to wait in the rain, sleet,

snow for 30 minutes…

…it’s uncomfortable because I am

black and I do be in a lot of rich areas

and I stand out, so I don’t like to be

in that situation…

…I do tell Handy like ‘listen, I don’t

feel comfortable staying in this area’,

and I will leave. Sometimes I don’t get

paid for that and I don’t think that is

fair.”

Well-being in and the Future of Work

Resources

• Foresight and Futurism

• Institute for the Future (IFTF)

• Future Today Institute*

• For finding signals

• Data & Society Research Institute’s Points blog

• Fast Company

• NYTimes

• WIRED

• Medium

• For a baseline

• RWJF County Health Rankings Report