RMIT FORWARD

Helen Babb-Delia, development partner at FORWARD, in conversation with Deanna Pantín Parrish, an experienced consultant, educator and dispute resolution professional. Deanna is currently a Lecturer at Harvard Law School, a Clinical Instructor at the Harvard Dispute System Design Clinic, and the Assistant Director of the HNP Negotiation Teaching Network. Helen talks to Deanna about conflict resolut...

Peter Thomas talks to Sam Spurlin, one of our FORWARD Fellows and partner at The Ready, an organisational design consultancy focused on the future of work. Sam and Peter talk about the work that The Ready does in helping organisations find better ways to work. The Ready is based on the premise that as the world becomes increasingly complex and uncertain, bureaucracy and hierarchy are holding us ba...

FORWARD development partner Daniel Bluzer-Fry in conversation with Senior Industry Fellow Sami Mäkeläinen. Having spent his early career as a software engineer in both his native Finland and the US, Sami proceeded to work for Nokia, and recently finished 13 years as a leader in Telstra, in which he established the organisation’s strategic foresight practice. He has recently founded Transition Leve...

Pete Cohen introduces FORWARD Senior Industry Fellow Stephen Bartlett, founder of the software application Precise, a Software as a Service (SaaS) product used by some of the leading tech consultancies in Australia to share profiles of their staff (similar to a private LinkedIn). This software includes a strong skills component, as this is the primary information (along with experience) which the...

In this episode, FORWARD development partner Daniel Bluzer-Fry talks to Senior Industry Fellow Meredith Doig OAM. Meredith is a professional company director and governance consultant. She has sat on boards of a variety of commercial and not-for-profit organisations along with university councils. Meredith is also fellow at the Australian Institute of Company Directors and for five years took thei...

As our network of FORWARD Fellows grows and gets to know each other, we're inviting them to get together for impromptu discussions on topics that are on their minds. In this episode, we invite you to join FORWARD development partner Daniel Bluzer-Fry and Fellows Diana Wu David, Sarah Lorimer and Sami Makelainen for their discussion about the kinds of skills and capabilities that underlie the pract...

How do young people succeed in the face of setbacks, and what can we learn? The current and future drivers of our workforce are facing unprecedented obstacles – from completing schooling in a time of COVID-19, rapid changes in technology and worldwide increases in mental health challenges. In some cases, young people face extremely tough situations at home and school. In what ways can dealing with...

Pete Cohen introduces FORWARD Senior Industry Fellow Lex Li, founder of Deckle - a software application designed to help students stay productive and social by studying together. As a recent graduate himself, and being so focused on the current generation of learners, Lex brings an important and relevant perspective to the FORWARD community. In this conversation, Lex gives us some insight into his...

Debuting at a recent event titled “Nothing is quite what you think it is: Stories from the future of work”, Diana Wu David has crafted a story that teleports us into a fictional future context that brings to life how the various innovations we are just hearing about today, such as DNA profiling and the metaverse, could reshape work and society as we know it. In this episode of the podcast we hear...

Demystifying diversity, equity and inclusion – what does it really look like? You might have heard the terms diversity, equity and inclusion at work, in newspapers or in conversations about leadership. But what might be harder to work out is what to do about it. Why does future-facing leadership require us to develop our inclusive leadership skills? What does doing a good job at diversity, equity...

Pete Cohen introduces FORWARD Senior Industry Fellow Lene Rachel Andersen, author of several books on the topic of bildung and co-founder and president of the future lab Nordic Bildung. In this conversation Lene introduces the concept of bildung, which we are waving into several of our workstreams at FORWARD, and gives a rich overview of its history and applications in a skills context. “Bildung i...

Pete Cohen introduces FORWARD Senior Industry Fellow Antony McMullen where they discuss his background working in the community sector and his current focus on cooperatives and the dynamics surrounding shared ownership. Freelancing and the gig economy are also discussed in the context of the Co-operative Freelancers Society - an initiative that Antony and Pete are incubating with the support of FO...

Pete Cohen introduces FORWARD Senior Industry Fellow Jerry Michalski, who 24 years ago started feeding a mindmap which is today the world’s largest - which is reflective of his gift and commitment to connecting concepts, people and communities. Jerry is a keynote speaker on topics including consumerisation and trust, and in this conversation he weaves the threads of these themes back to the skills...

Development Partner Daniel Bluzer-Fry in conversation with FORWARD Senior Industry Fellow. Sarah Lorimer. Sarah is a cultural insight strategist with a background in brand strategy, and a focus on using futures to push brand and narrative growth. She is interested in how technology can illuminate predictive shifts in culture. Beyond her experience conducting research and consulting, Sarah has been...

FORWARD Development Partner Pete Cohen in conversation with Industry Fellow Diana Wu David. Diana is a female futurist, speaker, educator and author who is passionate about empowering individuals, businesses and boards globally to master the skills, mindsets and capacities they need to create inspiring futures that matter. Pete and Diana discuss the shifts she is observing in industry from “just i...

Peter Thomas talks to Stowe Boyd, one of the FORWARD Fellows, who is a work ecologist and Chief Scientist at Workfutures, an exploration of critical themes in the ecology of work and the anthropology of the future. In this conversation, Stowe and Peter talk about 'rewilding' organisations: essentially the idea that while organizations are seen through the lens of process optimisation, they are in...

Peter Thomas talks to Josie Gibson, FORWARD Fellow and co-founder at the catalyst network, a membership community of accomplished individuals who apply breakthrough thinking to complex business and community issues. Our starting point is that "culture conversations are a waste of time", a point that Josie connects to the need for effective collaboration. Culture is an output of repeated behaviours...

Daniel Bluzer-Fry talks to Tracy Brown, author of 'How We Talk About Work', which looks at what ‘creative makers’ - the designers, developers, creatives and strategists who conceive of and build the digital products, services and experiences that we rely on today - think about work. The book is based on three years of research with 85 participants across six continents with over 200 illustrations...

We’re living in a time of growing complexity and pace. We’re living longer and working longer than ever before. And at the same time, jobs and skills are no longer linear or stable: technology advances mean upskilling and reskilling are now the norm and will continue to be so. What’s the impact of this context on our capacity to adapt to ongoing change? Can building change capacity have a multipli...