About Donna Dupont: Donna Dupont, Founder and Chief Strategist of Purple Compass, is an award-winning designer and futurist with over 25 years of experience collaborating with leaders. She helps organizations build future literacy, navigate uncertainty, and drive impactful change. Combining systems thinking with strategic foresight, she empowers leaders to mitigate risks, enhance preparedness, and seize opportunities for innovation, transformation, and resilience. Recognized with seven government awards, Donna’s work spans critical areas like climate change, health security, and emergency management, with her futures research earning accolades from the Canadian Defence and Security Network and the Association of Professional Futurists. In this episode, Dean Newlund and Donna Dupont discuss: Short-term problem solving versus long-term foresight Weak signals and emerging issues before disruption hits Ambidextrous leadership balancing now and next Using disruption as fuel for innovation Mental models shaping how leaders respond to uncertainty Key Takeaways: Schedule recurring leadership conversations that explore five- to ten-year future scenarios alongside quarterly planning. Actively identify weak signals by asking teams what new patterns they are seeing that they have never seen before. Create ambidextrous structures that protect business as usual while allowing innovation to be tested safely. Build psychological safety so teams feel comfortable sharing unconventional ideas and intuitive hunches. "When you are working with a future-oriented mindset, you're usually starting not from a management mindset, but more of an innovator or visionary.” — Donna Dupont Connect with Donna Dupont: Website: https://www.purplecompass.ca/ Email: donna@purplecompass.ca LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/donna-dupont FutureMinds Coaching Collective (free/monthly) - https://www.purplecompass.ca/coaching/
About Donna Dupont:
Donna Dupont, Founder and Chief Strategist of Purple Compass, is an award-winning designer and futurist with over 25 years of experience collaborating with leaders. She helps organizations build future literacy, navigate uncertainty, and drive impactful change. Combining systems thinking with strategic foresight, she empowers leaders to mitigate risks, enhance preparedness, and seize opportunities for innovation, transformation, and resilience. Recognized with seven government awards, Donna’s work spans critical areas like climate change, health security, and emergency management, with her futures research earning accolades from the Canadian Defence and Security Network and the Association of Professional Futurists.
In this episode, Dean Newlund and Donna Dupont discuss:
Key Takeaways:
"When you are working with a future-oriented mindset, you're usually starting not from a management mindset, but more of an innovator or visionary.” — Donna Dupont
Connect with Donna Dupont:
Website: https://www.purplecompass.ca/
Email: donna@purplecompass.ca
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/donna-dupont
FutureMinds Coaching Collective (free/monthly) - https://www.purplecompass.ca/coaching/