A book review by UDF member George Weeks – find out more on how to purchase The Future Embraced here.
A book review by UDF member George Weeks
The Future Embraced is more than a book. It is an accumulation of 50 years of work, 13 years in the making. It takes the tone of a mentor, reflecting the accumulated experiences of a life well lived.
Author Kobus Mentz is a Zimbabwe-born, Auckland-based urbanist, educator, thinker and former architect who has worked all over the world. Part memoir, part self-help manual, The Future Embraced is relevant to anyone who, when faced with professional development planning, has thought: “How the hell do I fit into this maze?”
Ostensibly, this question was simpler 50 years ago. Pick a profession. Obtain lifetime employment. Retire with a carriage clock in an environment of certainty. Bingo!
This pathway no longer exists and, even if it ever did, changes in climate, technology, economics and expectations have conspired to render it unrealistic. In a fast-changing world, your goal is to remain future relevant.
The directions of The Future Embraced are thus:
- Understand yourself.
- Understand where you fit into the world.
Four imperatives underpin the book: impactful, efficient, balanced and enriching.
The book is in three sections, comprising ten chapters. The first three chapters focus on future-relevant thinking and future-relevant challenges, linking to worldwide megatrends, in the familiar manner of “think-global, act-local”.
Urbanisation is a megatrend; the human population will be 70% urban by 2050. So what? Look at urban transport for example. Done well, everyone has freedom of the city. Done badly, spatial inequity becomes horribly ingrained; just compare Vienna with Johannesburg. The reader is encouraged to link global megatrends and data to local issues, thus underpinning their own underlying values.
Future-relevant skills
From chapter four we change gear into a self-help book that addresses future-relevant skills. One page into chapter 4 and we’re already exploring the circle of conformity – one can step in, or out. Should you consider strategic sacrifices eg. Is it worth dedicating time and money to do an extra qualification?
Chapter five moves on to those six foundational skills which are essential for ANY profession, the most specifically-significant of which may well be to understand with intent. Which of these foundational skills do you have? And which ones are lacking? Be honest. This chapter will help you to build your core skillset.
In chapter six, we turn to influencing other professionals. With a deep understanding of your own principles – and how they relate to many professions – you can turn ideas into actions.
Consistent input can change long-term trends. Chapter seven applies this to cross-disciplinarianism. Understand how the other professions in the room think. Empathise; don’t talk down. Think about how you’d like people to talk to you. Put the question before the answer – and take a solution-oriented approach. This is similar to the approach taken in Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono.
Chapter eight opens with the surprising statement that the world is becoming “more disconnected” – how can this be true? Ironically, global hyper-connectivity and specialisations lead to atomisation. The more we specialise – the further apart we grow. How do we address this? Through urban choreography: arrange the framework, direct the proceedings and deliver intellectual and creative leadership. The triple-tension model (p. 293) is easily understood, and is a good framework for real-life problem solving.
Chapter nine returns to an underlying theme of this book; the need for an intellectual basis for action – and combines it with the preceding chapter’s choreographic approach to discuss thought leadership.
The tenth and final chapter exhorts us to face – and embrace – the future. To do this, turn words into action; work with people with whom you share relationships and trust and principles and so forth. Take advice from mentors…and then pay it forward.
We conclude on page 392 with a recap of the ten chapters, which – to my eyes – reads like the structure of a decent professional development plan, before concluding with a final piece of advice – one that any city should enable: have fun.
A lot to unpick
This is a book to read carefully and properly. There’s also a lot to unpick here: 170 diagrams and almost 400 pages – far more than can be tackled in even a long-form review like this.
Like a good Christmas cake The Future Embraced is rich, deep and dense. Unlike a cake, it may help you shape your life. There’s a lot of transferable wisdom. Motivate yourself via conviction (i.e. positive factors), not fear, guilt or greed (negative) and invest your time and energy as a professional. Does professional development have the characteristics of compound interest? I think so.
Among the many recommendations, a couple stood out to me.
This book calls (p. 40) for “…courageous leaders who can ride above petty politics” and (implicitly) those supporting staff who can provide the confidence and conviction for a cross-party consensus. Quite so. Why split into left and right-wing factions when a more mature approach recognises the common factors of a successful city? The French have done this for years; Strasbourg’s left-wing mayor pedestrianised the city centre and built tramways in the 1990s; a right-wing mayor did the same in Bordeaux a decade later. Look for common ground. What do you agree on? And how can we progress from there?
Page 52 of The Future Embraced urges the reader to understand a problem before thinking about answers. This reminded me of Maria Konnikova’s wonderful poker-playing book: The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win. In both cases: Understand the data, be aware of, and in control of your emotions, take a long-term view and don’t panic.
For any urban intervention, we can ask: What does it enable? This question is explored, and to some extent answered, on page 88 which emphasises the importance of urban design that enables diversity of land uses. It returns to the central theme of being future ready. Just as a person can be future ready, so can a city. It’s unrealistic to expect to predict every last land use and prescribe it to the tiniest detail – a theme that forms the central premise of Order Without Design by Alain Berthaud.
A central theme is aspiration; too often this is a four-letter word, but utopias are [intro] “…useful aspirations to draw us forward and give us hope.” Without a vision, how will you know where you are going?
The imperative (p. 66) to enrich people’s lives is articulated explicitly, as is the need for fun (p. 90). If an urban vision is not seen as fundamentally pleasant, joyful and enjoyable, it will be very hard to build support from all the parties whose input it is necessary to make it happen.
Resilient cities can prevail and create opportunities in almost any set of circumstances. It’s the same for people.
We cannot predict the future simply by projecting the past. So, what are the core skills that will always be valuable under a wide range of scenarios? Success means making future-relevant decisions based on your own values and principles.
A fundamentally positive book
Refreshingly, this is a very human book. When writing about the future, it is tempting to descend to a (superficially-rational) technocratic approach, but The Future Embraced is anthropological. It sensibly recognises that, whatever the future entails, future relevance will depend on being able to work well with other humans.
There are direct references to well-known sustainability treatises, including Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Kelvin Campbell’s Massive Small and Small is Beautiful by E F Schumacher. Stewart Brand’s How Buildings Learn is implicit in the emphasis on firm principles that enable many outcomes.
The greatest strength of The Future Embraced is also the greatest challenge – the sheer volume of material: 400 pages, 170 diagrams and thousands of connections. This all needs to be shared, read, understood and digested. Is Kobus planning a 32-page colour illustrated version? An Usborne-style guide to future-readiness?
One way to tackle the volume of material would be to teach it as a university course, one chapter per week. A good lecturer could empower students to think strategically and positively about their futures, one bite at a time. By enabling discussion, this would also be consistent with another theme we find throughout the book – the vital importance of sharing and discussing ideas to support – or challenge – your principles.
Kobus Mentz has had a long and distinguished career. This book is not the hot-headed manifesto of an impatient young man; it is the wise reflection of someone who has the luxury of a long-term view. It contains good, solid advice. Be selective with your passion and focus on things that you can control. Find the section that resonates best with you and understand how it fits into the wider narrative.
For anyone who has ever sat down and thought: “how can I be useful?” Mentz’ book will help you think through the question and find a good answer. It does not confine itself to one particular location or profession, and this is its greatest strength. For anyone whose career does not fit neatly into a square box, this is particularly valuable.
Fundamentally this is a positive book. A person who is future ready has the courage, conviction and self-knowledge to succeed, not just for themselves, but for their wider environment. To conclude, think global and act local, and use this book to shape your professional approach – and even, more broadly, your outlook on life.
