April Rinne on superpowers for thriving, seeing opportunities, prioritizing humanity, and calendar brain

“In a world where the pace of change is increasing externally, all the forces that are hitting us, we need to learn how to internally regulate our pace, slow down our pace. This way, we can not only minimize burnout, anxiety, fatigue, and all the rest, but also make better decisions, reduce the number of foolish mistakes we make, and see the full picture and what really matters.”

– April Rinne

About April Rinne

April is a futurist, speaker, microfinance lawyer, investor, and advisor to well-known companies, financial institutions, and nonprofits around the world. She is the author of Flux: 8 Superpowers for Thriving In Constant Change,which has been translated into 7 languages with more coming soon. Her work has been featured in major publications worldwide, including Harvard Business Review, Wired, Fast Company and CNBC.

Websites:

fluxmindset.com
AprilRinne.com

LinkedIn: April Rinne
Facebook: April Rinne
Instagram: @aprilrinne
Twitter: @aprilrinne

What you will learn

• Embracing relentless change and uncertainty (03:15)
• Understanding mental scripts and navigating change (05:01)
• Complexities of change and the emotional responses it elicits (09:04)
• Optimism amidst uncertainty (12:38)
• Highlighting the need to internally regulate amidst rapid change (15:20)
• The interplay between exponential change and human capacity (17:26)
• Generative AI and shifting perspectives on progress (18:33)
• Harnessing a calendar mind to balance planning and spontaneity (20:59)
• Finding a harmonious balance between structure and creative exploration.(26:59)
• Importance of developing mental muscles for both individualistic and collectivist thinking (29:15)
• Importance of awareness and introspection when facing uncertainty (31:05)

Episode Resources

OpenAI, ChatGPT4

Book
“Flux: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change” by April Rinne

Transcript

Ross Dawson: April, it’s a true delight to have you on the show.

April Rinne: Thank you, Ross. I’m glad to be here.

Ross: There are many parallels between our work. For example, take the title of your best-selling book, Flux: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change. That’s a pretty strong echo of my work. As I understand it, the core of your work is helping leaders through rapid change and deep uncertainty. How do you do that? How do you work with people to make sense of a world that is very hard to make sense of?

April: Sure, in terms of how I do it, I do a lot of speaking and workshops. But zooming out to the crux, the essence of my work, it is very much in a world of ongoing, relentless change, which is different than one change, this sense of change after change after change, that challenge us a lot of what many people have been taught about how the world works, and our metrics, norms, expectations, and what we do or don’t control and all these types of things.  A lot of my work involves helping people, leaders, and organizations see where the world is heading and how we fit into it but unlearning and relearning a lot of these norms, what I call scripts, these mental models, feedback loops in our mind that aren’t helping us very much today but to get to be fit for t