What happens when fear stops being something to avoid and becomes something you learn from?
I sit down with futurist designer and Purple Compass founder Donna Dupont for a thoughtful conversation about strategic foresight, resilience, change, and the patterns that shape our future. Donna shares how her experiences in healthcare, public policy, and emergency management during the SARS crisis pushed her toward futures thinking and helping organizations prepare for uncertainty before disruption strikes. Together, we explore why people resist change, how fear can either limit or guide us, and why curiosity may be one of the most important skills we can develop. You will hear insights on business continuity, leadership, personal growth, future thinking, and how intentional choices can help all of us create a more unstoppable future.
Highlights:
05:02 - Discover how working through the SARS crisis revealed the hidden gaps between healthcare systems and emergency response.
12:26 - Learn why asking “what if” can build resilience without falling into fear-driven thinking.
17:11 - Explore how curiosity and wider perspectives help people navigate rapid change and uncertainty.
26:09 - Understand why people resist change even while living in a world that is constantly shifting.
38:26 - Hear what futurists actually do and why strategic foresight is about patterns, not predictions.
58:35 - Discover how intentional choices can interrupt old patterns and help shape a different future.
About the Guest:
Donna Dupont, is an award-winning designer, futurist, and the Founder of Purple Compass. With over 25 years of experience collaborating with leaders in healthcare, public safety, defense, and security, she helps organizations develop future literacy skills to navigate uncertainty and lead change in today’s complex world. Donna integrates theory and practice to enhance anticipatory and adaptive capabilities, strategic intelligence, and agility, driving impactful future policy and strategic planning.
A former healthcare professional, provincial policy advisor, and emergency manager, Donna is deeply passionate about applying foresight to strengthen decision-making, mitigate future risks, and enhance preparedness and adaptive capacity. Her work empowers organizations to seize opportunities for innovation, transformation, and resilience.
Donna’s unique approach combines systems thinking and strategic foresight, leveraging both quantitative and qualitative insights to identify patterns and anticipate change over time. Her extensive portfolio includes advancing insights on climate-risk, international development, environmental and civil security, health and human security, and national defense.
Recognized for her exceptional achievements, Donna has received seven government awards for excellence in policy, strategy, and partner relations. Her acclaimed futures research, Anticipation in Emergency Management (2020), earned awards from the Canadian Defence and Security Network and the Association of Professional Futurists. Donna holds a Master of Design in Strategic Foresight & Innovation from OCAD University.
Ways to connect with Donna:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/donna-dupont/
About the Host:
Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.
Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT\&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children’s Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association’s 2012 Hero Dog Awards.
https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/
https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/
accessiBe Links
https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe
https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/
https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/
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