What do you do when the world changes faster than you can make sense of it?

The Season 3 finale of How We Future features Stanford educators Scott Doorley and Carissa Carter for a conversation about design, technology, and what it actually means to adapt in a moment of runaway change.

Scott and Carissa are the creative and academic leaders behind Stanford’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design and the co-authors of Assembling Tomorrow, a book that offers language and tools to design a better future.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why if you feel NUTS! Or “Never Up To Speed,” you’re not alone.
• What “bothness” looks like when technologies can simultaneously help and harm
• Why speculative fiction and “histories of the future” help us think more clearly about the present
• How playful practices like mapping your monsters lower fear and open better conversations

This finale invites us to slow down just enough to notice the narratives we’ve inherited, question the ones that no longer serve us, and practice designing — not just reacting — inside uncertainty.

Links from the episode;

• Assembling Tomorrow by Carissa Carter and Scott Doorley
• d.school mission
• d.school Design Abilities: “Let’s stop talking about The design process”
• The Secret Language of Maps by Carissa Carter
• Make Space: How To Set the Stage for Creative Collaboration by Scott Doorley and Scott Witthoft
• Map the problem space activity
• Scott’s website

Follow How We Future:

• Lisa Kay Solomon on LinkedIn
• @lisakaysolomon on Instagram
• @howwefuture on TikTok
• howwefuture.substack.com

Want to contact us? Email hello@howwefuture.com

“The absence of intentionality is a recipe for resentment.”

This episode of How We Future features Erica Keswin, a longtime advocate for human-centered leadership and the author of Bring Your Human to Work, Rituals Roadmap, and The Retention Revolution. Lisa and Erica explore how leaders can intentionally design work environments that honor connection, dignity, and trust in an era defined by AI, hybrid work, and constant change.

Erica shares three strategies to improve human connection that, data shows, increases ROI, productivity, and morale.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• How return to office policies may be working against an organization's best interest
• How clear protocols can dramatically improve trust and engagement
• Why connection, empathy, and dignity are measurable business advantages
• How trust determines whether employees embrace or resist AI and change

At a moment when many organizations are defaulting to control, compliance, or exhaustion, this conversation is a reminder that bringing your human to work may be the most future-ready move of all.

Links from the episode:

• Erica’s website
• Erica’s blog
• Erica on LinkedIn
• Bring Your Human to Work
• Rituals Roadmap
• The Retention Revolution
• EXTRA Commercial
• Thank You For Being Late by Thomas Friedman

Follow How We Future:

• Lisa Kay Solomon on LinkedIn
• @lisakaysolomon on Instagram
• @howwefuture on TikTok
• howwefuture.substack.com

Want to contact us? Email hello@howwefuture.com

What kind of leadership do we need right now?

In this episode of How We Future, Lisa sits down with cognitive scientist and host of The Psychology Podcast Scott Barry Kaufman and longtime technology strategist Chris Shipley to explore what it means to lead with humanity in a world shaped by AI, uncertainty, and nonstop change. The conversation centers on their upcoming book, Leading for Tomorrow, and the question of how we use our most powerful technologies to become more human, not less.

Drawing from psychology, history, and decades at the frontier of technological change, Scott and Chris reflect on agency, bravery, and why leadership today is less about control and more about creating the conditions for people to thrive.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why continuous disruption demands a fundamentally different model of leadership
• How AI can amplify creativity and self-understanding when used with intention
• What it looks like to shift from efficiency and performance toward learning and becoming
• Why optimism, humility, and agency are leadership skills we can all practice

Let’s try to rethink leadership as a shared, human endeavor where technology supports our best qualities instead of crowding them out, and where the future is something we actively shape together.

Links from the episode:

• Pre-order Leading for Tomorrow: Unlocking Human Potential in the Era of Continuous Change and Endless Possibility
• If you Pre-order the book, fill out this form to receive special offers!
• Scott Barry Kaufman’s website
• Chris Shipley’s website
• The Psychology Podcast
• Scott’s theory on Maslow’s sailboat
• Scott’s course with Oprah on gratitude

Follow How We Future:

• Lisa Kay Solomon on LinkedIn
• @lisakaysolomon on Instagram
• @howwefuture on TikTok
• howwefuture.substack.com

Want to contact us? Email hello@howwefuture.com