Deborah Westphal - Convergence: Technology, Business, and the Human-Centric Future

Convergence shines a light on the urgent shift that must be made for organizations to thrive. The future belongs to those willing to continually question how we work, to challenge long-held beliefs or norms that have outlived their time, and to shift focus from problems to possibilities. To do this, we must invest in our teams and cultures, as much as we invest in technology, and create a human-centric workforce that is empowered to dream forward.

Lisa Bodell, CEO, FutureThink

As technology and human endeavor merge, new opportunities and responsibilities emerge for those enterprises that are cognizant of the convergences. Deborah Westphal brings a lifetime of experience to offer useful, compelling thinking about how to navigate and thrive in the future work environment.

Dr. Julie J.C.H. Ryan, CEO, Wyndrose Technical Group

In todays world, there is no shortage of business books about technology, machine learning and what the future will look like. Convergence is a book that adds a much-needed human element to our collective understanding and vision for the future. Through her observations and stories, Westphal provokes us to challenge our assumptions. There is no greater thinker than Westphal and she brings her exceptional clarity, insights about human behavior, and experience to this entire book. This is an essential read for anyone who cares about the future and our place in the world of business.

Elizabeth Ross, CMO, Bright Health

Deborah Westphal uses her own journey to show us how the business environment has evolved and more importantly, what it can become ifI say, if we stop for just a minute and think about the power of the human system; the system that is one of a kind and always changing.

Loretta Penn, President, PECC, LLC

Expansive, intriguing, and deeply human, Convergence continues the Toffler legacy. Westphal connects seemingly disparate facts to examine the vast opportunities and immense challenges facing a changing society. She offers her readers perspective and a path to create their future.

George Anderson, Partner and Leader of Board Effectiveness Services, Spencer Stuart

Convergence is a must read for todays organizations and businesses. Deborah Westphal brings her breadth of experiences and knowledge to remind us of the need for human-centric leadership of all organizations in these dynamic times. She provides a perspective for ensuring humans are at the center of the convergence of technological, societal, and organizational changes facing businesses. Alvin and Heidi Toffler would be extremely proud of her insights for the future.

General Lester Lyles, former Vice Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force

In Westphals debut book, she lays out clear links between human-centered policy, the proliferation of advancing technologies, and their impacts on society. She delivers a compelling analysis of how these trends are transforming business and a pragmatic assessment of what it all means for the world economy. Convergence is an extremely useful book that any business leader, policymaker, or ordinary citizen will find useful.

Maury W. Bradsher, Chairman & CEO, District Equity

Deborah Westphals clear ethical compass extends the visionary work of Alvin and Heidi Toffler into this 21st century. I trust that financiers and business executives will heed her wise advice.

Hazel Henderson, CEO, Ethical Markets Media and publisher of Green Transition Scoreboard

It is only once in a while that you find a book that helps you understand complexity in an easy, flawless way. Deborah is a master storyteller and has done an incredible service to current and future leaders by writing this much-needed book.

Ian Khan, CEO & Founder, Futuracy

Technology, Business, and the Human-Centric Future

Deborah Westphal

Foreword by Beth Comstock

Former Vice Chair of G.E.

The Unnamed Press
Los Angeles, CA

AN UNNAMED PRESS BOOK

Copyright 2021 Deborah Westphal

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. Permissions inquiries may be directed to info@unnamedpress.com. Published in North America by the Unnamed Press.

www.unnamedpress.com

Unnamed Press, and the colophon, are registered trademarks of Unnamed Media LLC.

ISBN: 978-1-951213-24-4

EISBN: 978-1-951213-26-8

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021933960

This book is a work of nonfiction.

Cover design by Robert Bieselin

Typeset by Jaya Nicely

Manufactured in the United States of America by Sheridan Books.

Distributed by Publishers Group West

First Edition

For Gregory and Michael

Im a big believer in future-focused thinking. Deb Westphal is too.

One of the greatest challenges of our time is that too many businesses think only of today. I worry that our traditional business schools limit their teaching to whats certain and provable. They offer great tools to assess business and build strategy while neglecting to teach a systematic approach for thinking about the future.

Maybe thats why, if you look across most industries, you see a discomfort with the concept of emergent leadership. Many leaders neglect or delegate the hard work of planning for the future. I get it. It can seem like guesswork. Our time horizons continue to shorten, so everything seems urgent. The future is coming at us fast and from every direction. Change is happening at the points where technologies, people, and things are converging.

When I wrote Imagine It Forward, I realized how helpful it would have been in my early career at General Electric to have understood how critical it is to think about the future. Over time, I learned that lesson through hard feedback.

What I learned is that good leadership is not just about knowing and executing business processes. Its about seeing around corners, asking good questions, challenging old knowledge, and being open to sharing ideas and vision. As Deb shows us throughout this book, with those things in mind, we can find great leaders everywhere. She makes a powerful case for why change is everyones job and shows that leaders arent out creating the future so much as they are approaching it with humility and inspiring others.

We know that tomorrow always comes. We have to build resilience in our organizations by doing the work to survive to see tomorrow. There isnt the time to decide if were going to look or imagine forward. We simply must, and quickly and constantly.

In the stories, examples, and observations throughout this book, Deb offers practical ways to recognize where to create change and what doing so means for your organization. We have to make time for trendspotting and looking out for what may seem weird. Thats where growth and possibility live.

I love that every chapter begins with a quote from Alvin Toffler, one of the foremost futurists of our time. He also was Debs mentor. Those quotes and the relationship she had with the Tofflers give even more reason to listen to the guidance she shares. Its easy to fall into thinking that the future is opaque and the idea of convergence is complex. But in an approachable, systematic way, Deb shows that convergence is fundamentally the idea of and: business