I attended a conference last year, where a Futurist spoke about trends that businesses should anticipate over the next 10+ years. Many of these trends can either pose unique challenges to current operations or be the forefront of entirely new opportunities.
An example is the move to mobile computing.
If you go back in time, there was the Palm Pilot, which had its own language and weird strokes you had to learn, and cell phones were used only to make calls. Now “smart” phones allow the user to:
- Connect to the Internet
- See a weather report
- Receive driving directions
- Control diet and exercise
- Map your sleep cycles, etc.
Some technology, such as dedicated GPS devices, have become obsolete overnight because of the speed at which technology moves. That’s probably because by the time you or I hear about a great new technology, it is actually “old news.” In reality, it is the teenage set – who are free, unconstrained and always right – that already know everything about it. Having a 13-year-old daughter, I know this is true. Those of us who are older may still be using a notepad and pencil because doing it on an iPad “just doesn’t feel right,” whereas many young people probably can’t write in cursive – but they can write software programs. Young people are the next big thing. Literally! In a book I’m reading called FutureThink – How to Think Clearly in a Time of Change, written by Edie Weiner and Arnold Brown, the tag line is “16 proven mental paths to insight and foresight.” The book starts with the question: “If you were an alien that had come to earth to observe, what would you see that is different from your perception of how the world works?” The authors thought aliens would observe that:
- The world is run by automobiles owned by humans.
- The humans drive them so they can be together in a parking lot.
- The humans work to make sure the automobiles are happy.
In our view, we drive cars to work and serve our families. It’s about switching our perception of how the world works. The book goes on to say that when someone is an expert in something, there’s a limit to that expertise. When someone has too much information to see clearly, it’s called educated incapacity. As you become more experienced, learning curves become harder to surpass. You know so much about a subject that you cannot see the future clearly. The baggage of human knowledge can make people incapable of change. How could Future Spotting and switching your perceptions assist you in growing your business? Be sure to watch for future blog posts on how to incorporate Future Spotting into your strategy.
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