What is Envision Greater Green Bay all about?

Welcoming our new Executive Director

What Happened in Houston?

What does it look like when a community begins to redefine its future—boldly, creatively, and together?

Last month Envision past presidents Dave Wegge, left, and Randy Lawton attended the 50th anniversary celebration of the Strategic Foresight Program at the University of Houston. They joined nearly 200 attendees at approximately 40 different conference sessions.



Randy and Dave were among 35 presenters to this audience of professional and academic futurists who, like Envision, follow the U of Houston model of foresight. We found great support for our work!

“We are not alone,” Dave said on his return. "Many others face the same challenges as we do in our efforts to get people and organizations thinking long-term by using strategic foresight.”

Marketing capability will be very important for Envision to enter its next stage of development, he said. We should be creating more PR around the fact that Greater Green Bay is the only community applying strategic foresight at a community level, under the leadership of Envision.

We were confirmed in our perception that foresight is best used as a tool for every element of an organization—HR, finance, operations, wherever—rather than being reserved as its own special function, he said. “It’s not an event, it’s part of your culture—or it should be.”



“We also gained some great practical ideas about where AI can be most valuable in the foresight process, and how project management skills could really assist our signals teams,” he said. “Likewise, we came away with a few good ideas for speakers both for World Futures Day, and speakers who could address more specific topical areas that fit with the work of our Signals Teams.”

Book Review Men Without Work by Nicholas Eberstadt

Envision Board Member Jim Golembeski reviews and offers thoughts about the Wisconsin corrections system.

Our ENVISION Upward Mobility Signals Team recognizes that unemployment is a serious barrier to financial success. We have also identified a continuing worker shortage as a key driver in the coming decade for our region.

So, I read Nicholas Eberstadt’s book, Men Without Work, a 2016 study of the American workforce, in which he concludes:

America is now home to an immense army of jobless men no longer even looking for work—more than seven million alone between the ages of twenty-five and fifty-five, the traditional prime of working life.

His recent edition provides a post-pandemic introduction as well. In it, he notes that COVID relief financial support programs might have unwittingly worsened the situation, particularly for older workers and the least wealthy portion of the workforce by providing temporary financial support. Those programs, however, have ended.

A quick look this morning (May, 2025) at Job Center of Wisconsin, the state’s job board system, showed over 2,100 job orders for just Brown County. A job order may represent more than one opening as well. An aging workforce, low birth rate, and out-migration from the state are all putting pressure on our labor supply. Our manufacturers report attracting and retaining skilled workers as their biggest challenge. My colleague, Dennis Winters, State Labor Economist, projects that Wisconsin will have a labor shortage of over 122,000 workers by 2031.

My friend, Paul Rauscher, retired owner of a local manufacturing business, has frequently tried to convince me that a large number of people in our community have voluntarily opted out of the workforce. They are either unwilling or unable to get and keep full-time employment. He likes to say, “Put their name on the back of their jersey and get them in the game!” He and I have both been working with The Joseph Project to do just that. But we have not had much success in finding these workforce dropouts.

Eberstadt’s book provides a wealth of data continue reading here

Foresight You Can Use

Imagine having a heart-to-heart conversation with your future self. 



Future You is an online tool that allows you to engage in a conversation with a simulation of your future self. After completing a survey that prompts a deep reflection on your personality, important moments in your life, and your hopes for the future, advanced AI creates a future version of yourself with whom you can chat and ask questions. The tool was created by a team of university researchers and it aims to elicit more empathy for our “future you.”

• Learn more about our Strategic Foresight Training and Consulting.

• Learn about our Signals Teams

• Read our current and legacy publications



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