Transform Now or Be Left Behind in 2 Years

In this interview, Frederik Pferdt reveals how Google built a culture of risk-taking through rituals like the Penguin Award, why most people relate to the future in one of four unhelpful ways, and what six trainable mind-state dimensions separate those who shape the future from those who wait for it. He also shares three daily habits that anyone can start today to rewire their relationship with the future.

Hello, my name is Frederik Pferdt and I'm the first and former chief innovation evangelist at Google. I'm also the author of a book, What's Next Is Now: How to Live Future Ready. Everybody is interested in their future. What we mostly see is that people think about the future as something abstract. But I believe that predictions don't really help when we think about the future.

So I want to help people to have a clearer picture about the future by actually imagining it, not just imagining the future, but imagining their future. Because the future is not something that just happens to you. It's something that you make happen. And for most people, it's coming down to that question: how can I create a better future for myself? And I want to give people the mind state to really shape the future they want to see.

I've been the chief innovation evangelist at Google for about 12 and a half years. My role: I was responsible for shaping the culture of creativity and innovation at Google. Trying to train people in things like curiosity and empathy and experimentation. Giving them the right methods and tools, and also the mind state to really invent a better future. And secondly, shaping the culture, trying to create initiatives that really bring the values to life that Google stands for. Values around creativity, having an ambition around the future, and trying to think 10x and really bold and big about the future.

When you want to create a culture, what I really see is that most cultures in organizations have specific values. Values like creativity or productivity or community. What I try to do is activate those values through rituals. One of the rituals that I included in our culture at Google was what I call the Penguin Award, because the Penguin Award really rewarded people for taking risks.

When you take risks, you're really trying to try many things out. You're thinking not just bold, but acting bold as well. Encouraging risk-taking through a ritual with the Penguin Award was something fascinating, because for me, penguins really stand for taking risks.

Imagine penguins on an ice shelf: there's always one courageous penguin that jumps first into the water. The rest of the colony stands back and observes whether that little penguin comes back up with food, or became food. There's a 50% chance.

So what I wanted to signal is that when people really jump into the cold water, meaning they're trying something new, experimenting, taking a risk, that should be rewarded with the Penguin Award. Because when no one jumps from that ice shelf, no one takes a risk in an organization. The colony of penguins will disappear, and so will the organization. I think it's really important that we build cultures through rituals in every organization. I think everybody's able to do that.

Yes, I think everybody can be that courageous penguin that jumps first into the water. Courage is something that we all have. But usually our mind doesn't like to take risks. What we can do is, instead of waiting for the perfect moment or for perfection, just go for it. Just give it a try and see what happens. Usually, what we find is that when you take that risk, when you're open to trying something new, you feel rewarded. That creates a very comforting effect as well.

So what I'm practicing myself is trying not to do things twice, not to fall into that autopilot that our mind loves to go onto, because that autopilot saves energy for our mind. As soon as we get off autopilot and engage in something new, take a risk, or try something new, it might be talking to a stranger or trying out a new idea. Our minds need to be activated. That energy is great because then we see that we're getting off autopilot, we're actually trying something new, and that might lead to an innovation as well.

During my time at Google, I've been able to work with tens of thousands of Googlers and really try to figure out how people not just imagine a better future, but how they innovate, how they use their creativity to create something better. In my first couple of weeks I traveled to many offices, connected with many Googlers around the world to understand how people innovate. 

What I found is that it's usually not a place that makes the difference. It's also not a specific framework, and it's also not the resources they have access to. What I found is really in their mind state, what I call a future ready mind state. And that mind state, for me, has five dimensions.

First, it's about radical optimism. Thinking not just that the glass is half full, but seeing the potential to fill the glass even further. It's about unreserved openness. Being open to many ideas, being open to perspectives, and also being open to changing your own perspective, which is really critical because openness is a supercharger for your personal growth.

The third one is about compulsive curiosity, asking those big "what if" questions that allow you to really think big. And then it's about perpetual experimentation, these tiny quick experiments that allow you to learn quickly, because the path to the future is paved with experiments. And then it's about empathy. Not just empathy for other people, but also empathy for your future self. Trying to understand your future needs is really critical.

And then the last dimension is dimension X. It's your personal superpower that allows you to use whatever your superpower is to create incredible innovations, to create something new, and to tap into your creativity as well. So these six dimensions for me really define what I call a future-ready mind. And with a future-ready mind, you can see more opportunities, take control of your future, and shape the future that you want to see.

I think it's the combination of those dimensions. It's not that radical optimism is more important than openness or empathy. I think they're all incredibly important. And the good news is that we all have a certain amount of those qualities in ourselves. We're all, to a certain degree, open. We're all, to a certain degree, optimistic. We all like to experiment from time to time. But what I also see is that when we take curiosity, for example, our curiosity when we grow up actually goes dormant. That's what studies actually show.

So I want to bring those dimensions back into your life by training yourself in curiosity, in openness, in experimentation, and in optimism. And if you train yourself in these things, I guarantee you're going to see more opportunities for yourself and you're going to take control of the future you want to see. I've been able to work with many organizations, ranging from the UN to NASA to the NBA to the German Soccer Association, and many more, including startups.

What I've seen is that startups really use their curiosity to explore something new. They're the best at asking good questions and trying to reimagine what is possible. When organizations grow older, curiosity is usually replaced with scaling or other priorities. So two things I've tried when it comes to training people in innovation and creativity: first, to help them train specific things like empathy, expansive thinking, or experimentation. And second, building environments where people could reduce the friction from having an idea to building a first prototype.

The garage that I founded was one of those places where Googlers came together to try out ideas, to push the boundaries, and to learn quickly what works and what doesn't. So it's really a space around experimentation. We had projects like Project Loon, which created stratospheric balloons to provide internet around the world. Antennas and some of the balloon parts were actually prototyped in the garage. And Google Glass was also launched out of the garage, a project where we invited people to test out this service, prototype it, and experiment with it.

For me, it was really critical that we take an approach to innovation based on experimentation and empathy and expansive thinking. Those three elements allow you to not just imagine ideas, but really build ideas that are meaningful to people, based on radical new ideas, and tried out so we can learn what works and what doesn't.

Innovation doesn't happen by itself. It's something where you have to train people, and also create a culture and an environment where innovation can actually happen. Those two elements are very critical: providing the right training for people so they can train their mind on how to innovate, how to imagine, and how to think expansively. And at the same time, finding a culture where this is actually possible, with initiatives like the Penguin Award, which allows people to take more risks.

So combining those two things where you train people in innovation and build a culture around innovation is really critical, and that was the main focus of my work. What I see is that when it comes to the future and innovation, our mind sometimes creates four strategies that are not really helpful, though they're a very human thing that evolves when we think about the future. 

The first thing is that we have anxiety about the future. Sometimes we think about the future as not desirable, as something that just happens to us, not in our control, and that creates anxiety.

The second thing is that sometimes we think we can just wait until the future happens. So we wait until something in our lives happens, and then we start to act. The third thing is that sometimes we think the future is owned by others: our partners, our managers, our leaders, the government, or politicians, or whatever it is that are owning the future and creating the future.

And I think that's not true. The fourth one is that sometimes we just want to deny the future. We want to bring back the past. We want to say that past times have been better. So having that anxiety, waiting for the future, thinking that others own the future, and denying the future are four things that are not helpful. Because I think everybody has the opportunity to shape their own future and have control over their own future.

There are three things I want to share. The first one is trying to really imagine your future and make that a practice every day. Maybe the first 60 seconds in the morning, or the first three minutes in the morning, trying to close your eyes for a moment and imagining your future self. Trying to see a clearer picture of where you're going to be in the future, a year from now, for example. Who are you going to be surrounded by, and what are you doing?

And then a critical element is how do you feel in that future, and what do you want to feel as well? It's a very important practice that everybody can do every morning, or throughout the day, to really build that muscle of imagination, your future self. The second thing I recommend is you want to turn into a more optimistic person. There are some interesting studies that show that if you write down three things in the evening, on your phone or on a piece of paper, the three things that you're grateful for throughout the day, things that went well, the positives in your day.

That could be small things. Note down three things every day. After 21 days, your mind actually changes and looks for the more positive things in your life as well. And I think that's a very easy practice that everybody can do.