by futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. What follows is an excerpt from a chapter of the book I’m currently writing. This section is quite topical right now because of what’s happening in Wisconsin and elsewhere, so rather than wait for the book to appear, I’m publishing this excerpt. The book should be out in the late […] Read more

by futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. The Earth is a complex system. Indeed, it is a series of interlocking, overlapping, complex systems, and such systems often affect each other in surprising ways. Accordingly, although at first it may seem strange to say that climate change will increase both the number of earthquakes and volcanoes, that actually […] Read more

by futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. Like all years, there will be good news and bad in 2011. Because of the bad planning, bad judgment, and bad behavior of previous years and decades, some of the potential bad news is very scary indeed, as I’ll get to in a moment. The odds are that 2011 will […] Read more

by futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. An unusual report was just published by insurance company RSA, which essentially stands for “Royal and Sun Alliance”, based in London, England. RSA is celebrating its 300th anniversary, and decided to do a report on the past 300 years of dealing with risk (which is what an insurance company does), […] Read more

by Richard Worzel, C.F.A. Salespeople typically are, and should be, optimistic. It’s easier to sell if you’re upbeat, it’s easier to convince people they need to buy if they feel good around you, and it helps keep your spirits up through the inevitable rejections. Optimism is good. And there’s an old business cliché that “tough […] Read more

by futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. I’ve noticed a strange development recently: two indicators that I follow for inflation and deflation are both rising, implying that we may be headed for a period of both inflation and deflation at the same time. Since no reputable economist that I’ve ever read would conceive of such an apparent […] Read more

by futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. On a recent Transatlantic crossing with one of the major cruise lines, I had extensive conversations with the foodservice staff and chefs, mostly because I have a gluten intolerance, which most people would think of as a food allergy. I found this exchange to be quite interesting, and met with, […] Read more

by futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. The following article was first published in Teach magazine. A recent government publication highlighted all the marvelous things that individual teachers and school boards were doing with technology in my region. It was both uplifting, and disquieting. It was uplifting because I could see that there were entrepreneurial, creative people […] Read more

by futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. This article was originally published in Teach magazine. For most of the 18 years I’ve written this column, I’ve focused on how education will change. This time, I’m going to focus on why it must change, and it relates to the purposes of education. There are two major schools of […] Read more

What follows is a summary of a presentation I delivered to the World Education Congress of Meeting Planners International in Vancouver, Canada at the end of July, 2010. This was part of a series of “Flash” presentations, each limited to 15 minutes, which didn’t leave a lot of time to elaborate. I’ve fleshed some of […] Read more

And now that we’ve officially embarked on Summer, it’s time for something completely different, as Monty Python famously remarked. Mathematics is a thing apart, like nothing else in our world. It’s a human invention (I think), but not like other inventions. It exists in our minds and nowhere else – although its effects are felt […] Read more

Unless America and Americans force a drastic change in the country’s direction, the American dream is dead, and America’s place as the leader of the world is over.

How will health care evolve from where it is today to where it might be in 25 years? That’s the subject of this blog.

How will health care change over the next 25 years? Here’s one possible scenario.

Could a common cold virus change your body – permanently? I think so.

This is the second in a series of blogs on the likely events of the next 10 years. If we’re lucky, 2010 could be a lousy year. If we’re unlucky, 2010 could be a disastrous year, worse than 2008, because there are potential nasty surprises lurking out there. Such surprises could precipitate another, even worse […] Read more

by futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. Ten years seems like an eternity if you’re talking about technology, but is almost nothing if you’re talking about the Earth’s environment, which tends to shift at the pace of geological changes. Yet, the next 10 years should refute that idea. I expect we will see measurable shifts in climate […] Read more

This is a continuation of last week’s discussion of risk management, which appeared under the title Risk Management for 2009 and Beyond. Now let’s turn to some of the methods that can help you with risk management. Remember at the beginning I told you that risk management involved asking the right questions about what might […] Read more

What follows is an amalgam of presentations I made to two risk management groups in very different sectors: one in health care, and the other in insurance. The principles are the same, even though the immediate concerns may differ. Let me start by defining risk management as the process of asking the right questions about […] Read more