Fredag Tert, former chief innovation evangelist at Google, discusses his insights into building a future-ready mindset. He was inspired by observing people's anxiety surrounding the uncertainty of the future. He had a personal experience during the California wildfires, which highlighted the power of controlling one's response to uncontrollable events. He and his family focused on optimism, openness, and curiosity, leading them to a more nature-aligned lifestyle after the experience.
Tert's goal is to equip people with a framework to construct the future they envision, share stories of individuals who have created remarkable futures, and provide actionable practices for creating a desired future. He believes in empowering people to shape their future, emphasizing that it's not something that passively happens, but actively created.
During his 12.5 years at Google, Tert's role centered on cultivating a culture of creativity and innovation. He emphasized training people in curiosity, empathy, and experimentation, providing them with the necessary tools and mindset to innovate. He also worked on initiatives that brought Google's values of creativity, ambition, and bold thinking to life. He believes that activating values through rituals is crucial for shaping organizational cultures.
He introduces the "Penguin Award," a ritual implemented at Google to reward risk-taking. The award encourages employees to embrace experimentation and bold action. This award is inspired by the image of penguins on an ice shelf, where one courageous penguin jumps into the water first, facing potential danger. Tert stresses that such risk-taking is essential for organizational survival, as a colony of penguins that doesn't take risks will eventually disappear, analogous to an organization that stagnates.
Tert believes that everyone has the potential to be that "courageous penguin" and that courage can be cultivated. He advises against waiting for perfection and encourages people to take the plunge and see what happens. He recommends breaking out of autopilot and engaging in new experiences, as this activates the mind and opens pathways to innovation.
Through his work with thousands of Googlers, Tert identified a "future-ready mind state" composed of six dimensions: radical optimism, unreserved openness, compulsive curiosity, perpetual experimentation, empathy (for others and for one's future self), and one's personal "superpower" (Dimension X). Radical optimism means not only seeing the potential in a glass half full, but seeing the potential to add even more. He emphasizes that these dimensions are interconnected and equally important. While everyone possesses these qualities to varying degrees, some, like curiosity, may become dormant over time. He urges people to actively train themselves in these dimensions to see more opportunities and take control of their future.
Drawing from his experience with diverse organizations, including the UN, NASA, the NBA, and startups, Tert notes how organizations' focus shifts over time. Startups excel at using curiosity to explore new possibilities, but as they mature, the focus shifts to scaling. He stresses the importance of reducing friction in idea-to-prototype development. He mentions Google's "Garage," a space that enabled Googlers to experiment with ideas, resulting in projects like Project Loon and early iterations of Google Glass.
Tert recognizes common pitfalls that hinder proactive future-shaping. These include anxiety about the future, passively waiting for the future to happen, believing the future is owned by others, and denying the future by clinging to the past.
To counteract these pitfalls, Tert offers three practical recommendations: First, practice imagining your future self, visualizing your life a year from now and focusing on your desired feelings. Second, cultivate optimism by writing down three things you're grateful for each evening for 21 days to reprogram your mind.