The Day Tomorrow Said No, The Discovery That Forever Changed The Future And How We Work, by Bill Jensen, Authors Place Press 2020

           You have lived through a global dumpster-fire.

           A perfect storm of destructive and disruptive forces that few could have ever imagined. 

           And definitive proof that our education,, business, and economic systems were designed to leave far too many people behind.

           As well as...

           No better proof that our human spirit is indefatigable, indestructible, and infinitely resilient.  The sublime beauty of our humanity has emerged from the chaos.  Communities, ingenuity, and love sprouted everywhere.  

The covid-19 ICU numbers may be dropping, but unemployment and structural dislocations abound.  We "feel" that economics are now more sharply outlining class differences - pre-pandemic we knew who we were, and roughly where we sat on the success ladder.  We might even have known by how much our incomes would grow, and if we could ever retire, or even pay off our student loans.

But now, thanks to an accident in some lab or outdoor market in Wuhan,  those dreams and realities have fogged up and we really don't even have a measurable time line.  As author Bill Jensen says, "tomorrow said No!"  As a humanist Jensen looks at the questions we never could ask in Managerial Accounting - how many of us will actually be employed in the Future, and what happens to the rest of us?.  His answers come in the form of a parable, a beautifully illustrated story whose main characters are Today, Tomorrow and Little One.  

Its an interesting approach to a review of some pretty ugly statistics:

1.  Only one in ten employees can achieve their dreams in their current jobs

2.  Our future is uneven - fantastic but unfairly and unevenly distributed (just look at the vaccine rollout!)

3.  "up to half of all jobs will vanish.  Gone Forever"  (per Oxford University OECD study - 47% of jobs disappear because of automation) 

4.  "Two thirds of the youngest Team Future teammates - the ones now in elementary school - will work in jobs that don't yet exist."  

All of this makes for uncertainty as well as personal pain and societal conflict.  But we knew that already.  What takes this book beyond the obvious is how Jensen unfolds his parable with Believers, Breakers and Builders, and the amazingly beautiful and well-executed illustrations by Yuko Fukushima (https://hi.yuko.im) and Mihato  (383838ta@gmail.com).  Lovely, expertly drafted, and relevant - would like to see more of their work.  

Patricia E. Moody

FORTUNE magazine  "Pioneering Woman in Mfg" 

IndustryWeek IdeaXchange Xpert

A Mill Girl at Blue Heron Journal, on-line resource for business thought-leaders and decision-makers,  patriciaemoody@gmail.com