"The key to tomorrow is finding your pace in an accelerating world!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
I'm down in Arizona for an event tomorrow for a room full of executives from the utility and energy sector, and I've got a wonderful new slide deck chock full of trends impacting the industry I'll have a lot to cover in the days ahead.
That said, what' pretty clear is that this industry - like many - is struggling to adapt to the overwhelming pace of change. It's a slow industry in a fast world. I acknowledge that early on in my keynote, with this slide.
The biggest issue is that they are faced with unprecedented demand to bring new power to the market because of the juggernaut of AI data centers, but the industry is slowed by regulation, massive complexity to bring new power to market, system inertia, and more. On top of that, they are faced with extreme volatility and uncertainty because of political challenges and the 'culture wars,.' all in the face of new technologies and methodologies that continue to accelerate. (Think wind, solar, batteries, microgrids.)
Like I said, it's a slow industry in a fast world.
Part of what I realized, building the deck, was that I can't just talk about speed - I need to talk about pace. It's about finding the right trends to follow, the right disruption to chase, the right innovations to integrate. It's not about moving quickly willy-nilly to try to scramble to solve big problems, but moving with deliberate intent to master those problems - if that makes any sense. It means understanding the long arc of the trends, and committing to them i the long term despite short-term volatility.
That's why the key to tomorrow is finding your pace in an accelerating world!
You are probably caught in the same situation.
Think about it. The world won't slow down for you. Technology keeps advancing. Markets keep shifting. Competitors keep innovating. The pressure to move faster, transform quicker, and adapt constantly is relentless. But here's what thirty years of studying disruption has taught me: the winners aren't the ones moving fastest, they're the ones who've mastered their own sustainable pace.
Moving too fast without purpose can lead to great damage. I've watched brilliant leaders burn out chasing every trend. I've seen profitable companies destroy themselves with unnecessary transformation. I've observed talented people lose their creative edge because they confuse constant motion with meaningful progress.
The real challenge isn't keeping up with acceleration—it's determining which races to run, which hills to climb, and which trends to let pass by while you focus on what actually matters. It's about picking which trends really matter and sticking to them.
Speed without strategy is just expensive chaos. Action without reflection produces motion, not progress. Showing up everywhere means being fully present nowhere.
Your competitive advantage isn't doing everything faster—it's knowing exactly where speed matters and where patience wins.
Because the future belongs to those who can run the full race, not just the first mile.
Futurist Jim Carroll tries to pace his enthusiasm for fast change.