‘’Stewardship is about holding the future in trust; leaders choosing transparency, allocating resources not just for this quarter’s numbers but for the next generation’s flourishing. It is the art of holding the tension between performance and care, knowing that the journey is as important as the destination.’’

Dr Roze Phillips is a medical doctor turned business executive, African futurist, and CEO of Abundance at Work, a futures-oriented human capital consultancy, re-imagining organisational culture for dignity and regenerative growth. A former corporate executive, she blends systems thinking, foresight, and humanity to help leaders unlock performance with care. Roze teaches Futures Thinking and Business Ethics at GIBS Business School, is a Non-Executive Director at Netcare Limited and Spear REIT, a sought-after speaker and CapeTalk radio contributor, inspiring others to embrace the future with courage and generosity, and to build organisations where people and possibility thrive. More of Roze’s work at abundanceatwork.co.za

You are many things—medical doctor, business executive, academic, African futurist. How do you define ‘futurist,’ and how does that stand out among your many identities?

A futurist, for me, is not a prophet with a crystal ball. It’s someone who insists on staying awake to the currents shaping tomorrow and helping others see them too. As a doctor, I learned to listen for the faintest heart murmur before it became a crisis. As a futurist, I do the same: I look and listen for weak signals, cultural shifts, and technological disruptions before they become defining moments. These are the clues from the future that help us create the futures we want and deserve. What sets my approach apart is that my futurism is deeply African and deeply human and quintessentially Ubuntu. It’s about imagining futures that restore dignity and expand possibility, not just drive profit. Being a futurist isn’t just another label for me; it’s the lens that helps all my other identities make sense together.

You make the point that current leaders have a role of guardianship in creating a better future. How might this “guardian” role show up more robustly in leadership behaviour?

I think of this less as guardianship and more as stewardship. Guardians protect, stewards enable. Stewardship is about holding the future in trust, not to defend it from change, but to make it possible for others to thrive. In practice, stewardship looks like leaders choosing transparency, allocating resources not just for this quarter’s numbers but for the next generation’s flourishing. It is the art of holding the tension between performance and care, knowing that the journey is as important as the destination.

Whilst there’s concern that AI could replace jobs or even humans, your work includes combining intelligent machines and human ingenuity. What are you learning through this approach that might surprise us?

The biggest surprise is that when we pair AI with human ingenuity, we don’t just get faster outcomes, we get to ask better questions. We don’t just do things better, we can do better things. The risk is allowing AI to narrow our thinking to what is probable. The opportunity is to let AI free us to focus on what is possible, maybe even seemingly impossible. AI is brilliant at pattern recognition, but humans are masters at meaning-making. And at the intersection of the two is where exponential growth lives. That is where we unlock both the digital and the social dividend.

Your organisation, Abundance at Work, works toward changing business and personal narratives. How would you describe the ideal anatomy of the organisation or workplace of the future?

The workplace of the future will not be a place but a living network. Less about cubicles, more about connected ecosystems: digital, physical, and emotional. I think of it in biological terms. It will have:
– A heart — a clear, shared purpose,
– A brain — data and intelligence for better decisions,
– A nervous system — fast feedback loops so it can sense and respond,
– A gut — courage to make bold, values-driven choices.

When these parts work together, work becomes a space of dignity and possibility, not just efficiency and productivity.

To experience “abundance at work,” people would need agency. How might employees gain more leverage with leaders, given power dynamics and limited psychological safety?

Agency is the antidote to workplace helplessness or even indifference.  Leaders need to create spaces where employees can safely challenge, contribute ideas, and see them acted upon. This means building transparent decision-making processes, co-creating success metrics, and deliberately investing in psychological safety. It’s a mindset shift from “my boss owns my future” to “I am a co-creator of this future.”

Considering the overwhelm many experience at work, when the same challenges persist leader after leader, what do you think the issue might be and how could it be addressed?

If an organisation’s problems survive multiple leaders, it’s no longer a leadership problem; it’s a system problem. You can’t coach or inspire your way out of flawed design. The work involves redesigning the system itself, including incentives, workflows, who we choose to lead the future, and even the organisational myths that perpetuate dysfunction. This is why I am so passionate about advancing Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging in the workplace. Unless we change the lenses through which an organisation sees the world, we will continue to perpetuate the past. Leaders need to be brave enough to pick up the scalpel, not just the stethoscope, diagnose the root cause and intervene where it matters.

Business ethics seem to have fallen below the radar. What new narratives are critical for organisational conduct and regenerative practices that promote shared prosperity?

Ethics must move from compliance checklists into the cultural DNA of organisations. Regenerative business asks: how do we leave more value than we take for employees, customers, communities, current and future generations and the planet? This is not charity, it’s strategy. Organisations that invest in trust, human dignity, and restoring ecosystems will not just “do good”, they will become magnets for the best talent, the most loyal customers, and long-term investors. Doing good is good business.

You’ve mentored start-ups in Silicon Valley, long considered the gold standard for entrepreneurship. What difference did your mentorship make, and what made that possible?

My mentorship was less about providing answers and more about providing context. I asked questions they weren’t asking. Not “How fast can you scale?” but “What impact will you leave?” Two years in a row, the teams I coached placed second out of 3,000 vetted entries. These teams were solving some of Africa’s most intractable problems, namely advancing digital education, agriculture, and food security. Getting the world to pay attention and invest was no small accomplishment. I thought we helped put African solutions to global challenges on the map, and that remains one of my proudest contributions. The difference came from the cultural exchange. I brought an African sensibility about community and resilience that challenged their “move fast and break things” ethos, and they reminded me of the power of audacious ambition and collective imagination.

Pioneering new standards in human potential seems to be a theme in your work. How do you raise the lid on your own potential given your workload and impact?

I do worry that I will wear out soon. However, I continually stretch my own potential by staying curious and deliberately placing myself in situations where I can learn. I seek out younger voices, artists, and technologists to broaden my perspective. I have an insatiable appetite for knowledge. And I honour my own practices of reflection, renewal, and rest as acts of leadership. There is a saying: “Life is an occasion. Rise to it.” And I like to add: “And lift as you rise.” That is the invitation I give myself every day.

If we rolled back the clock 20 years, what would younger Roze be most proud of about who you are now?

I’d probably have to roll back 30 years to be fair. Younger Roze was a doctor then, beginning to suspect that I am, because we are, and true leadership could heal systems, not just bodies. She would be proud that I never abandoned that intuition. She’d be proud that I entered boardrooms not designed for me, used my voice to reimagine civic and corporate scripts, honoured my roots and made space for others to rise. Most of all, she’d be proud that I still believe listening is the most radical act of leadership in our time, and that I’ve built a life and a company around that belief. She did not care if her life mattered. She cared if her contribution to life mattered. I continue to honour her undying faith in the goodness of humanity and I hope that future Roze does the same.