When it comes to the future, we can't design for what we can't imagine
Victoria began her career as a forensic psychologist before turning her fascination with human nature to use in improving the lives of people in developing countries. She worked in Africa, Asia and the Pacific creating new tools and methods to achieve genuine change.
Back in her home country of New Zealand she has focused her attention on another forgotten group of citizens: the citizens of the future. Retraining as a futurist, Victoria has become a local expert on how to envision the future - a skill she says is a mix of science and imagination. By their nature, humans can only imagine what they've already experienced - it takes out-of-the-box thinking to picture life in 50 years time. What could go right, and what could go wrong? What do we need to do now to set us on the pathway to the future we want?
She is host of The Futures Workshop, an international podcast training facilitators to use these skills in their practice.
Alongside futurism, Victoria specialises in Ways of Working and Design Thinking in the Workplace. Whatever issue or roadblock you have with your staff, chances are she has worked on it before. She believes in leadership through "ground-up" thinking, ensuring that real change happens through engaging and energising the people most affected by that change.
She is a regular writer for Business Desk, on topics such as: creating meetings people look forward to, how to train the 'accidental manager' and making hybrid workplaces work for leaders and their staff.
Talking Points
Futures 101 - How a futurist sees the world
Around the world, organisations are hiring futurists to help them find a pathway to success. Multinationals like McDonalds, Lego and Ikea all have a fulltime "director of foresight" or the equivalent to help them imagine the future they want and guide them on how to get there. In this session Victoria Mulligan, host of The Futures Workshop podcast, will run a beginner's guide to futurism and strategic foresight. She'll talk about why humans have so much trouble imagining things that haven't already happened, and share some useful tools for overcoming our "bias towards the present". Expect a creative session grounded in business thinking. You will leave with a strong vision of what you want your organisation's future to look like, and a clear roadmap to get there.
Futures 101 - How a futurist sees the world
Supercharge your Workplace - the world's best tools for a productive, happy team
It's easy to feel as though you're the only one struggling to manage hybrid working, staff burnout and a new generation of workers expecting more, for less. But these issues are being faced by leaders around the world right now. The pandemic accelerated change we were already seeing, leaving organisations stranded in a halfway house between old and new. In this session we'll look at how the best organisations have coped with these challenges and adapted their workplaces to thrive in the modern environment. With real world examples from Netflix to Microsoft to Atlassian, you'll explore and experiment with proven tools to get the most out of your staff, in a workplace that works for everyone. You'll look at all aspects of daily productivity, from zoom calls to meetings to report writing, and find out how the best thinkers in the world have turned these roadblocks into fast lanes.
Supercharge your Workplace - the world's best tools for a productive, happy team
