Before Week 1

• Review the entire Syllabus, including Review This First, Deliverables, Schedule, Calendar and Course Policies
• Set up your Slack profile
• Complete the Introduce Yourself and Learning Contract posts in Slack
• Purchase The Signals Are Talking and Range
• Follow these thought leaders: Kevin Benedict, Erik Brynjolfsson, Susan Cox-Smith, Benedict Evans, Frank Diana, Tessa Finlev, Richard Florida, Cindy Frewen, Tristan Harris, Gerd Leonhardt, Mei-Mei Song, Amy Webb, Amy Zalman

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Week 1, Classes 1 & 2 | What’s This DT&L Thing About?

• Introduction to DT&L (Monday)
  • DT&L Project
  • Team Organization
  • Project Focus
• DT&L alumni visit (Wednesday)

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Week 2, Class 3 | How Do You Get To Carnegie Hall?

• Explain the role and purpose of a futurist
• Classify probable, plausible and possible trends and futures
• Identify and summarize key 2020 trends

• Familiarize yourself with the following so that you can use these sources throughout the course
  • Future Today Institute:
    • 2021 Tech Trends Report
    • 2020 In Review
    • 2020 Tech Trends Report
    • 2020 Trends Key Takeaways
    • 2020 Trends Highlights
    • Trends Search v1.2
  • FTI framework & materials
    • Forecasting Model
    • Framework for Strategic Planning
    • Key Stakeholder
    • Assumptions vs Knowledge
• Read/Watch the following in sufficient depth that you can participate in informed discussion
  • Signals Are Talking, Introduction, Chapter 1 & 2
  • Amy Webb
    • How Futurists Cope With Uncertainty
    • The Flare and Focus of Successful Futurists
    • How to Do Strategic Planning Like a Futurist
  • Frank Diana
    • Think Like a Futurist with Frank Diana | FOBtv
    • Our Emerging Future
    • A Framework for the Future

• FTI Framework
• Role of futurists and forecasting
• Review current events

• Gretzky Evaluation due Saturday no later than 11:31p EDT

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Week 3, Class 4 & 5 | A Pandemic Drives Acceleration

• Analyze the impact of the pandemic on developing trends
• Determine the influence of the pandemic as an accelerator
• Explain the impact of the pandemic on trends

• Familiarize yourself with the following so that you can use these sources throughout the course
  • FTI: Axes of Uncertainty
  • FTI: COVID-19 Acceleration Matrix
• Read/Watch the following in sufficient depth that you can participate in informed discussion
  • Signals Are Talking, Chapters 3 & 4
  • Frank Diana
    • Learning from History
    • A Post Pandemic Society
    • The Future Is All About Uncertainty
    • The Third Tipping Point
  • Bill Gates
    • The next outbreak. We’re not ready
    • How we must respond to the coronavirus pandemic
    • How the pandemic will face the near future

• FTI Methodologies
• Pandemic as an Accelerator
• Coping With Uncertainty

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Week 4, Classes 6 & 7 | Dots… What Dots? & Creativity & Ideas

• Investigate the impact of the fringe on trends and futures
• Identify problems that are ready for new solutions
• Identify potential new solutions to problems
• Identify and determine what is the future of “x”
• Develop a fringe map
• Apply CIPHER to “What for X” perspective

• Read/Watch the following in sufficient depth that you can participate in informed discussion
  • Signals Are Talking, Chapters 5 & 6
  • Back To The Future (of 1994), Danny Hillis
  • A 30 Year History Of The Future, Nicholas Negroponte
  • Why We Need To Imagine Different Futures, Anab Jain
  • The World In 2200, Pete Alcorn

• How did we get here? The significance of 2007
• Review current events

• Familiarize yourself with the following so that you can use these sources throughout the course
  • Creativity, Wikipedia
  • Ideas, Wikipedia
• Read/Watch the following in sufficient depth that you can participate in informed discussion
  • The Power Of Creativity And Ideas
    • MIT’s Media Lab
    • How Art, Technology & Design Inform Creative Leaders, John Maeda
    • Where Tomorrow’s Technology Is Born
    • Inside MIT’s “Future Factory”
    • Meet The Sixth Sense Interaction
    • The Thrilling Potential Of Sixth Sense Technology

• Discuss Creativity & Ideas
• Review current events
• Thinking Outside The Box

• P1: Preliminary Evaluation Due Saturday No Later Than 6:48p EDT

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Week 5, Classes 8 & 9 | The Importance of Storytelling

• Illustrate trend trajectory and timing
• Explain the importance of storytelling

• Familiarize yourself with the following so that you can use these sources throughout the course
  • Scenario Planning, Wikipedia
• Read/Watch the following in sufficient depth that you can participate in informed discussion
  • Signals Are Talking, Chapters 7 & 8
  • Future-Back Thinking, Frank Diana
  • The Clues To A Great Story, Andrew Stanton
  • Innovation Needs Future-Minded Leaders, Mark Johnson
  • How To Excel In Future-Back Thinking, Johanna Nalau

• Scenario Planning
• Monitoring Trends

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Week 6, Classes 10 & 11 | Scenarios for All Sorts of Stuff

• Explain the significance of scenario planning
• Identify key lenses, critical issues, key drivers, primary motivators and develop implications
• Analyze trend likelihood and impact

• Familiarize yourself with the following so that you can use these sources throughout the course
  • Scenario Planning in Uncertain Times: An Introduction, MacEachen Institute
  • FTI: Scenario Templates and Approaches
• Read/Watch the following in sufficient depth that you can participate in informed discussion
  • Signals Are Talking, Chapters 9 & 10

• Scenario Planning
• Understand “If This, Then That”

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Week 7, Class 12 | Disruptive Innovation & Jobs To Be Done

• Explain disruptive innovation
• Distinguish the three types of innovation
• Interpret JTBD
• Distinguish functional, social, and emotional jobs to be done

• Range, Introduction, Chapters 1, 2 & 3

• Read/Watch the following in sufficient depth that you can participate in informed discussion
  • What is Disruptive Innovation?
  • Disruptive Innovation Explained, Clayton Christiansen
  • Disruptive Innovation, Robert Perrons
  • The Art of Innovation, Guy Kawasaki
  • Airbnb and the Unintended Consequences of ‘Disruption’, Derek Thompson

• Disruptive Innovation
• Review current events

• Read/Watch the following in sufficient depth that you can participate in informed discussion
  • What Is Jobs-to-be-Done?
  • Jobs-To-Be-Done Theory and Methodology
  • Jobs-To-Be-Done Framework
  • Jobs-To-Be-Done Examples and Rules
  • Applying JTBD Theory
  • The Outcome Driven Innovation Process

• Applying JBTD
• Review current events

• P2.1: Interim Report Due Saturday No Later Than 6:48p EDT

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Week 8, Classes 13 & 14 | The Future of Work

• Describe the implications presented by FoW
• Explain the impact of accelerators on FoW
• Analyze the work force implications of FoW

• Range, Chapters 4, 5 & 6

• Read/Watch the following in sufficient depth that you can participate in informed discussion
  • The Future Of The Office And Changing Work For The Better, Frank Diana
  • Robots And The Future Of Work, Frank Diana
  • Maybe the Gig Economy Never Was What It Used to Be
  • Machine Learning Will Redesign, Not Replace, Work
  • Workforce Of The Future – 2030, PWC
  • 3 Myths About the Future of Work, Daniel Susskind
  • How We’ll Earn Money In A Future Without Jobs, Martin Ford
  • The Future of Work — 3 Mega-Trends, Graham Brown-Martin
  • Harnessing Automation For A Future That Works, McKinsey & Company
  • Humanity Is More Important Than Money — It’s Time For Capitalism To Get An Upgrade, Andrew Yang
  • Why We Should Value ‘Invisible Labor, Yonatan Zunger
  • Technological Unemployment and UBI, Michael K. Spencer
  • Capitalism Has a Problem. Is Free Money the Answer?, Peter S. Goodman
  • Is Your Job Safe?, The Economist
  • Amazon
    • Is Amazon Unstoppable?
    • Jeff Bezos’s Master Plan

• Future of work
• Benefits of being a generalist
• Review current events

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Week 9, Classes 15 & 16 | DT&L Project Updates

• Explain status of DT&L Projects

• Range, Chapters 7, 8 & 9

• All P2.1 Interim Reports

• Each team will lead a DT&L Project status discussion (20 mins)
• Review current events

• P2.2: Interim Report Due Saturday No Later Than 6:48p EDT

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Week 10, Class 17, Digital Transformation (Dx) & The Future | Class 18, Aggregation Theory & Antitrust

• Explain digital transformation
• Distinguish between disruptive innovation and Dx
• Explain the stages of Dx

• Range, Chapters 10, 11, 12 & Conclusion

• Familiarize yourself with the following so that you can use these sources throughout the course
  • Digital Transformation, Wikipedia
  • History of the Internet,  Wikipedia
• Read/Watch the following in sufficient depth that you can participate in informed discussion
  • Introducing the Digital Transformation Initiative, World Economic Forum
  • The Six Stages of Digital Transformation Maturity, Brian Solis
  • What Will a Future Without Secrets Look Like?, Alessandro Acquisti
  • A Roadmap for a Digital Transformation, McKinsey
  • Five Moves To Make During A Digital Transformation, McKinsey
  • The Seven Decisions That Matter In A Digital Transformation: A CEO’s Guide To Reinvention, McKinsey
  • Anatomy of Failure: Mobile Flops from RIM, Microsoft, and Nokia, Galen Gruman

• Dx
• Review current events

• Explain Aggregation Theory
• Summarize the implications of aggregation in a knowledge economy
• Explain the difference between an economy of scarcity and one of abundance
• Evaluate whether antitrust law is appropriate for the challenges presented by a knowledge economy

• Read/Watch the following in sufficient depth that you can participate in informed discussion
  • An Introduction to Aggregation Theory, Anuj Abrol
  • Facebook As Aggregator Not Platform, Ben Thompson
  • Aggregation Theory, Stratechery
  • How ‘Aggregation Theory’ is Fueling a Multi-Trillion Dollar Technology Revolution, Tikue Anazodo
  • Aggregation Theory: The Most Powerful Economics Theory You Didn’t Learn at University, David Lifely
  • Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox, 126 Yale Law Journal 3 (2017)
  • The Antitrust Case Against Facebook, 16 Berkeley Business Law Journal 3 (2018)
  • Why Google Dominates Advertising Markets, 24 Stan. Tech. L. Rev. P55 (2020)

• Aggregation Theory
• Review current events