3. Audit your information diet. Read voraciously and widely, and audit your information intake periodically. Move from passively “getting informed” to actively “being informed.” Pay greater attention to the external environment, and to events seemingly on the periphery. When you walk through an airport, ask questions of yourself. Scan the magazine racks for trends and cover story trends. Eavesdrop on the conversations around you. What’s the buzz? When you’re on social media, or sorting through junk mail, look for what’s new, what’s incongruous, exciting to you.
4. Connect the dots. Former Disney futurist Yvette Montero Salvatico uses the analogy of the night sky. As you look up into the night sky, Salvatico advises us to think of the stars as trends. As you look further, you begin to notice constellations as patterns: Ursa Major (the Big Dipper), Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, etc. To manage the future proactively, ponder how the trends interrelate, and focus on recognizing patterns. How you “connect the dots,” and make connections between bits of information requires that you hit “refresh” and maintain an open mind as you consume information. Challenge your own assumptions about where emerging trends are headed, and the implications broadly, and on how you and your organization might best respond.
5. Turn emerging trends into new solutions and adaptations. When Jeff Immelt was fired from his CEO position at General Electric, one criticism was that he “chased trends.” No question, trends can become “bright shiny objects” that some pursue without due diligence. But in today’s world, speed of observation of a trend or development (or threat) and translating that into responsive actions is the often the source of competitive advantage. Innovation means seizing the opportunities that change reveals, taking calculated risks, and translating hindsight, insight and foresight into strategic action. “The best way to predict the future is to invent the future.”
6. Every action you take today shapes the future tomorrow. We must be purposeful in realizing that our individual actions – and time perceptions – create the future. This “spot a change, create a response” mindset will become the touchstone of innovation for the vast majority of businesses, regardless of industry in this new decade. It will affect businesses and individuals over the coming decade.
7. Study companies that “didn’t see it coming,” and were blindsided. The grocery industry “didn’t see it coming” when Amazon jumped into its business with the purchase of Whole Foods, destroying 22 billion in market value overnight. Merced Property and Casualty, an insurance company in Northern California, didn’t see the impacts of climate change coming, when a raging wildfire wiped out 22,000 structures and the entire town of Paradise, California. Unable to pay millions in claims, Merced became insolvent as a result. Or the textbook publisher in Boston who was running a $200 million business unit, when over a three-year period, sales begin to plummet. He, along with thousands of others, were put out of work. Reverse engineer in order to learn from other’s experience, and endeavor to not only “see it coming” but to take responsive action.
8. Practice getting better at predicting. There’s an old Danish Proverb that says, “Predictions are hard, especially about the future.” But not always impossible. Example: I predict that in 10 years you’ll be ten years older. So will millions of other people your age. Demographic trends – ages and life stages — and certain other trends can not only be predicted but projected farther into the future with great accuracy as to what you need to do to be prepared, and to capitalize on trends. The aging of baby boomers means that within just a couple decades, older people are projected to outnumber children for the first time in U.S. history. By 2035, there will be 78 million people 65 years and older compared to 76 million under the age of 18.
9. Look back in order to look farther ahead. On a recent visit to Morocco, I and my fellow travelers learned that the oldest homo sapiens fossil remains are 300,000 years old. This is 100,000 years older than previously believed! Look back to look ahead. Contemplate the future as it appeared to people 30, 300 and 3000 years ago. Read history and biography and talk to wise persons in their 80s and 90s to see into the past more clearly. Looking back makes it easier to look ahead because you have a better sense of what are fads and what are more deep-seated trends. As Churchill put it, “the further backwards you can look, the farther forward you can see.”
10. Dream big. Think big. Contemplating where you want to go and how you intend to get there is time well spent. In fact, it is a hallmark of every successful individual. The power of prospection is what makes us able and willing to look into the future, consciously and unconsciously, and is a central distinguishing trait of us humanoids. Yet modern life crimps our “dream space” and ability to imagine. Set goals and embrace your boldest dreams.