In our fast-paced modern world filled with global threats and opportunities, it is crucial that leaders and key decision-makers understand the differences between a black swan, a white elephant and a gray rhino. Can the zoologist-economist in you decipher the subtle particularities?
According to best-selling author Michele Wucker, who coined the term “gray rhino” in her 2016 book of the same name, the term refers to a highly probable, highly predicted, yet oft neglected threat, on scale with recent events including the global recession, a growing influx of natural disasters and rapidly rising income inequality. As Wucker writes, when facing a charging rhinoceros, the best (and most difficult) thing to do may be nothing at all; yet despite the warning signs, these obvious dangers are often ignored. Gray rhinos differ from others in the animal kingdom, distinctive from the obvious but seldom-discussed white elephant and the improbable and unforeseeable black swan.
In her easy-to-digest scholarly guide, The Gray Rhino: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore, the Guggenheim Fellow and former Milwaukeean explains how we often avoid some of the most obvious threats, from global crises including climate change and water shortages, to predictable surprises in our own lives. Wucker is also the author of Lockout: Why America Keeps Getting Immigration Wrong When Our Prosperity Depends on Getting It Right.
She will speak at University School of Milwaukee’s Speaker Series at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 5. This event is free, but registration is requested; visit usmk12.org/page/wucker.
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