Insights of a 90-Year Old Futurist

Every now and then, an experience opens your mind so that nothing looks or feels the same again. This is true of my meeting with Myra Harpham, 90-year old futurist, feminist, scientist, activist, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. Myra was the co-director of the Commission for the Future (CFF), New Zealand’s first and only central government futuring organisation, which operated from 1976 till 1982 and had the broad mandate to explore future possibilities for New Zealand’s society and economy. I was lucky enough to visit Myra and her husband Perce in their retirement village near Wellington and share lunch and conversations over two afternoons. What I learnt has shifted my perspective profoundly. 

Myra and I in her home June 2021

Learning for the Future

Myra is clearly brilliant academically, but it was another aspect of her intelligence that inspired me most - an ability to see beneath the surface level of events and personalities to identify the ideas, beliefs and values that shape people’s thoughts and actions. This is one of the core skills that Myra and her team developed at the Commission for the Future and it lies at the heart of her approach to futuring. 

Just before the Commission closed down in 1982, Myra and her colleague Terry McCarthy produced a “Futures Kit” to teach the fundamental skills of futuring. In it, they laid out an argument for why these skills are key to our survival. They pointed out that we live in a turbulent, unpredictable and constantly changing world. Forty years on, as we experience pandemics and more and more extreme weather events, that is even more obvious. And yet our education system was designed to prepare us for a stable world. 

The Futures Kit offers exercises and examples that challenge us to identify the lens through which we view the world - to make conscious the unexamined ideas, beliefs and assumptions that shape our thinking. The kit points out that conflicts are often caused by a clash of values and encourages us to become aware of our own values. It provides tools to expand our thinking using the imagination. 

This is all quite easy to talk about but these skills are rare and can take a lifetime to develop. Being ninety years old, Myra has witnessed the foundational beliefs of society shift as eras come and go. She has dedicated her life to learning these skills, which has given her deep insight. 

An Insatiable Appetite For Learning

Myra grew up in a little Scottish town called Wishaw, near Glasgow where she remembers spending her school holidays pouring over Arthur Mee’s Children's Encyclopædias. At school she chose Latin and applied mathematics as options in the senior school, often finding herself the only girl in the class.  She was shy and found this situation awkward, but her curiosity led her on.  Her mother told her she could be anything she wanted to be. And her father engaged her in lively conversations about current events and newspaper articles, which taught her to see the deeper issues beneath the headlines. 

When she was sixteen Myra’s family moved to Christchurch. She studied Chemistry at Canterbury University, completing a two year honours degree. It was unusual in the 1940s for women to go to university and virtually unheard of to do physical science but these were some of the most enjoyable years of her life. One of the highlights of her university days was a series of seminars, organised by the Chemistry Department to broaden the honour’s students’ education. They invited lecturers from all over the university to talk to the students and answer questions. 

“They introduced us to their disciplines, new discoveries and their implications for society at large,” Myra recalled. “I particularly remember discussions about ethics, morality and philosophy. These seminars and the discussions after have had a lasting effect on me.”

Soon after the seminars, Myra was sitting in the sun reading a book recommended by one of the visiting professors about “the human predicament”. Suddenly its meaning was clear to her. She became aware of her position, as a single human amongst others living on a planet in a vast universe. She saw the challenge of being human with a new sense of clarity. The insight brought her tremendous relief. The “problem” of God and religion, which previously troubled her, disappeared. 

“Spiritual experiences,” she realised, “are to be found here on earth and the universe of which we are part.”

The insight has stayed with her for life, helping her find meaning and providing a foundation for decisions and actions. 

Myra made the point several times that these kinds of insights are only possible when you open up your view to a range of different perspectives. This broad approach is a key aspect to futuring. 

Feminism and Family Life

After graduating Myra was employed as the only scientist at a printing firm in Christchurch and then as a researcher at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in Wellington, the elite government scientific institute of the time. When Myra married Perce in 1957, she gave up her job to join him in England where he was offered a secondment. Their first child was born there. Their next in Australia where Perce had another secondment. And their third in the Hutt Valley, where the family eventually settled. 

“The thing was in those days, as a woman, you were expected to marry and have children,” Perce reflected. “One of the things I’ve often wondered about is whether I dragged her back... She has sacrificed a lot.”

Although Myra was an incredibly conscientious mother, she found the role challenging. 

“I became aware of what domesticity was like,” she said, “I didn’t like it. I didn’t like cooking or housework. I didn’t like looking after children. I thought it was the worst possible thing that could happen.”

Sometimes, when the children were grown up a bit, Myra would go on strike.

“I would say to Perce I’m sick of cooking,” she recalled. “... I’d go on strike for one night at a time occasionally. And then it got to a whole week. I was waiting each day to feel that I could cook and each day the message came back - no you don’t want to cook.”

By Saturday afternoon the situation was serious. They had eight visitors due for dinner and no food in the house.  It was late afternoon when Perce rang around the guests to relocate to a nearby restaurant. It was very unusual to eat out back then and unheard of that your hostess was not willing to prepare a meal.

During the sixties the second wave of feminism was on the rise and Myra found kindred spirits and consolation in the feminist movement. She read all the books she could. She worked for the National Council of Women, the Federation of Graduate Women and the Women’s Electoral Lobby. She contributed to every major social issue of the time including campaigns to legalise abortion and to create more skilled part-time jobs for working mothers. She threw herself into every project she took on.

“Those were the very heady days of second wave feminism,” Myra said. “We all worked so hard.”

During the sixties and early seventies Myra also worked as a part-time teacher of Physics and Chemistry at Heretaunga College in Upper Hutt. She became a highly respected teacher and discovered a talent for organising both people and ideas. 

In 1978 she was offered a job as a researcher for the Commission for the Future. The way she got the job was an act of futuring in itself. It was hard for working mothers to find serious part-time positions so Myra and her friend, who had complementary skills, hatched a plan to apply for full-time jobs together. They offered themselves as a team to the Commission for the Future, giving a list of advantages. They explained that this was very ‘futures-oriented’ thinking and if a commission wouldn’t consider it then there’s something wrong from the beginning. In the end her friend found another job. But the Commission hired Myra anyway in a part-time role, which suited her perfectly. 

I asked Myra what she has been up against in her life. “The quick answer is men,” she replied. “But how can I say that when I’ve got the most wonderful husband - absolutely wonderful and two equally wonderful sons.”

As she said that, I looked over at Perce who was quietly preparing lunch in the kitchen.

The Commission for the Future

Myra’s work at the Commission was the highlight of her career. 

“Every day was exciting,” Myra recalled. “If you have the opportunity to work collaboratively with a multidisciplinary group and you have the time and money to do it properly, it is continuously exciting. We were growing all the time and we all felt that we were changed forever.”

The Commission had considerable success probing the future. For example they foresaw the development of personal computers, mobile phones, digital TV and the computer networking, which foreshadowed the world-wide-web. They also conducted seminal research into the values of New Zealanders.

Myra’s senior colleague (Nick Zepke) had the brilliant idea of including a philosopher in their small team, Maxine Dixon.

“That was a most enlightening experience,” Myra said. “Maxine was the fly on the wall in all our discussions. She would reflect on what she saw and heard, point out when we were in conflict and ask what we were going to do about it.”

The experience of working in a multidisciplinary team taught Myra a huge amount about herself.

“A lot of it was quite negative!” she said, laughing, “You find out that you have biases. And you stick to them and you argue for them. But eventually, because you’re in a collaborative group, you have to reach some kind of consensus. That was very exhilarating, but it was also a great learning experience, that there are other ways of perceiving things and you can come to understand them.” 

This was one of the most transformative lessons of Myra’s life. 

In 1982 the political appetite changed and the Commission for the Future was shut down. At the time Myra was co-director. It was a huge blow. She continued to produce Future Watch, the Commission’s journal, collaborating with Jennifer Coote and Tricia Walbridge. She was also sought after as an expert on committees and councils and as a public speaker. But she never found a workplace as exciting and fulfilling as the Commission.

I asked Myra what her impression has been of futuring in New Zealand since the Commission shut down. Although she said she has been very much on the outside, her sense is that initiatives have lacked breadth and depth. 

“There’s been quite a lot of scenario-type work,” Myra said. “A department, or an organisation, would decide to probe the future and put together a scenario team. But they wouldn’t go wide enough to get a fully diverse group of people... When I’d read these papers carefully it wasn’t really futures work at all. They didn’t use any of the skills.”

Rogernomics - A Dark Age Descends

Shortly after the Commission for the Future was dissolved, Myra witnessed a rapid and dramatic shift in the philosophy and beliefs of the New Zealand government. The neoliberal reforms introduced in the 1980s by finance minister Roger Douglas and his Labour government came to be known as “Rogernomics”. They have shaped New Zealand’s society, economy and culture ever since. Founded on the theories of Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics, the reforms were based on a belief that humans are essentially individualistic and competitive. The concepts of community and society were rejected. They believed that the market, left to itself, would meet everyone’s needs and that it was foolish and wrong to restrict it. Within a few years Roger Douglas and his team dismantled the foundation of government and rebuilt it in this model. Public assets were sold off, the public service was stripped down and a corporate business model applied to education, health and government departments. They didn’t consult or get consent. They just went for it. 

It is ironic and somewhat tragic that two years before the introduction of Rogernomics, the Commission for the future had published a study showing that the values underlying Rogernomics were the least popular with New Zealanders. 

For Myra, and many others, the 1980s were an extremely challenging time to live through:

“I would have been in my 50s, approaching 60, at the time,” she said. “Day after day there would be these new rules and new ways of thinking and doing things. I think people need time to get used to an idea. But there was no time.”

When Myra described this period of time, it sounded like a dark age descending and she agreed that it felt like that - like a takeover of the country. 

A Light Bulb Moment: My Life Under Rogernomics

When I was talking to Myra I had a Eureka moment - I have lived almost my whole life under the influence of Rogernomics! I was born in 1983. I had heard about “Rogernomics” before but hadn’t realised the scale of its impact; how the ideas have crept into every sphere of life and come to define our society and culture. Myra explained, for example, how economics lecturers at Victoria University stopped presenting a broad view on the history of economics. Schools became more competitive and the focus of education narrowed. Government departments were forced to compete with each other so they stopped sharing skills and working together. We began referring to “clients” of the health and education systems and corporate language came to dominate public life. 

I watched a series of documentaries recommended by Myra on the effect of Rogernomics on education, the labour market and the country as a whole. These were mind-opening and upsetting. I was struck by a sense of loss. Prior to Rogernomics our education system was egalitarian and human-focused. The aim was not just to make education accessible to all, but to teach in a way that enabled every child to discover their full potential. There was a focus on arts and Måori crafts to engage students and the system was well known around the world for its successes. Much of this was lost with Rogernomics. The reforms brought an end to countless community and cultural initiatives. In the long run they have led to widespread poverty, inequality and erosion of community. 

For me, learning about Rogernomics has identified the root cause of a subtle feeling of restriction or narrowness that I have lived with my whole life. Being with Myra gave me a sense of what it might be like to live without that restriction. As she spoke about the feminist movement and her work at the Commission for the Future I felt inspired by the optimism, broad view and raw energy of that time. It also gave me a sense of hope - if the underlying ideas have changed once, they can change again. 

Help to Navigate Current Challenges

Nowadays we are more in need of the skills and broad approach of futuring than ever before. The challenges we face are large and complex: from the mental health crisis to biodiversity, pandemics, climate change, poverty and many more. All these challenges require collaboration across departments and disciplines. We are beginning to realise that our system, shaped by Rogernomics, is too narrow and insufficient for the task.  In 2020, a new Public Service Act was released in New Zealand that calls for more teamwork across government and requires Chief Executives of all government agencies to present regular briefings on future trends, risks and opportunities. But for thirty years government departments have had no training in futuring or collaboration. It wouldn’t be surprising if they were floundering to work out how to do it. I believe that the work of the Commission for the Future provides an excellent foundation and introduction to the skills and philosophies of futuring. New Zealand is not new to this. We have done it before. Many of the Commission’s reports and resources are still available online and the experts are still out there. 

Meeting with Myra was a wonderful experience that will change my life forever. I feel extremely grateful for her wisdom and perspective and inspired by the way she continued to live her values and work so hard, despite the major set-backs. It motivates me to be part of a new effort to establish collaboration and futures thinking in Aotearoa so that she can witness its reemergence. 

Resources

These are some of the Commission for the Future’s works that I have found fascinating and valuable: 

• The Futures Kit - a resource for teaching the fundamental skills of futuring
• Contexts for Development: Clarifying Values – a different type of scenario development in which each of the four scenarios/contexts is based on a set of values commonly found among New Zealanders at the time.

These videos directed by Alistair Barry about the effects of Rogernomics on New Zealand were recommended by Myra:

• Someone Else’s Country - about the introduction of Rogernomics
• A Civilised Society - about education reforms
• In a Land of Plenty - about changes to NZ’s labour market