November 2025

Navigating the Undercurrents of Radical Change

Insights from Jonathan Brill’s Rogue Waves, Chapter Two:

“Ten Undercurrents Will Cause the Next Rogue Wave”

By Tony Pichler

In his book Rogue Waves: Future-Proof Your Business to Survive and Profit from Radical Change, futurist Jonathan Brill, the 2025 Envision Greater Green Bay’s World Futures Day keynote speaker, warns that the world’s greatest disruptions rarely come from nowhere. Instead, they rise from deep “undercurrents”—powerful, unseen forces in the social, economic, and technological seas that shape everything above them. Just as ocean undercurrents dictate the motion of surface waves, these human and technological forces steer the tides of civilization.


Brill reminds us that no matter how fast you think the future is moving, it’s moving faster. To stay ahead, leaders must recognize that every macrotrend—the sweeping changes we see in markets or culture—is the sum of thousands of smaller, individual events. Within those events lie both risk and remarkable opportunity. The key is learning to recognize the patterns before they crest into full-blown waves.


The Ten Undercurrents of Change


Brill identifies ten major undercurrents shaping our future. Understanding where they intersect is the first step toward building resilient strategy: Continue to the Ten Undercurrents of Change.



The Future Isn’t What It Used to Be
Kelly Nutty

Exploring Possibility, Curiosity, and the Practice of Strategic Foresight

By Kelly Nutty


As a lifelong lover of literature, one of my favorite quotes is “I dwell is Possibility,” the first line of a poem by Emily Dickinson with the same name 1 . The poem is an exploration and celebration of poetry, itself. It revels poetry as expansive and imaginative, full of wonder and possibility. It’s an ode to creativity, unbound from conformity. And lately, I’ve realized it’s also an accidental ode to strategic foresight. Emily may have been talking about poetry, but she was also describing the very mindset foresight requires: a willingness to imagine what could be, not just what is. Emily Dickinson would have made a fine futurist.


I’m drawn to this particular poem above all of Emily Dickinson’s works perhaps because it shares so much emotion so quickly and directly. Since I became of fan of this poem, and of Emily herself, decades ago, I have expanded its meaning past poetry and into my own being. I do dwell in possibility. My brain works on overtime (whether good, bad, or neutral), thinking, scenario planning, and walking down possible paths in my mind. I’ve cultivated an innate curiosity for all things that is one of the greatest reasons for my personal joy. Just like Emily’s ode to poetry, I share that my life is expansive and imaginative, full of wonder and possibility. It is, thankfully, safe from conformity.


The Importance of Being Curious 2


I am a huge advocate for being curious. For someone like me, whose mind is always on, being curious has given my mind an opportunity to focus on positivity, solve challenges, and open up new possibilities in my life. Continue reading here.



Save The Date

World Futures Day 2026

Friday, February 27, 8 a.m. - Noon

Oneida Hotel Conference Center


Garry Golden is a professionally trained futurist who writes, speaks and consults about the driving forces that will shape society and business in the 21st century. His uncanny sense of what will hit-and what won't-can be seen in FutureThink's research and heard in his international keynotes and corporate change leadership seminars.


Garry attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and received his Futures Studies degree from the University of Houston and serves as Adjunct Lecturer on the Future of Energy and Environment for the University of Houston. He has served as the principal trainer for Envision's Foresight Workshops for nearly ten years.



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Keynote Presenter

Garry Golden

Foresight You Can Use

Explore the special annual report that USAFacts, a private, independent organization, created for Congress. Their presentation of clear nonpartisan data in this 100-page report was shared in September with lawmakers. The America in Facts report, free to download, contains information about government spending and revenues, immigration and the border, wages, population, poverty rates and lots of visuals.

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