The Future is Now

And if that is the case, what's next? Extrapolating insights from what we can forecast about the future comes from experience. I never envisioned myself in research, but if I ever did make such move, I would work as strategist at a "think and do" tank. Two of my strongest characteristics are connecting and contextualizing. 

What you see here is an image of the 2008 Map of the Decade by the Institute of the Future. You may download your copy here. As the center itself explains:

The view this year is distinctly biological. Even in arenas more social than biological, new biological identities—and new understandings of biological connectedness—draw people into unexpected affiliations. We turn to face the decade with a naturalist’s eye: we’re looking for the intricate connections that form the webs of our evolving life as if our futures depend on it. Ah, but they do. They do.

There are five main stories that weave their ways with people, practices and tools -

1. diasporas - the new emerging economies
2. civil society - the evolution of civic infrastructure
3. food - the flashpoint
4. ecosystems - management in the context of life
5. amplified individuals - the extended human reality

If you wish to take an in depth look at the trends, download the paper on perspectives and the summary of signals. I am particularly interested in the fifth story around superhero organizations. We have been taking about personal brands. IFTF says:

as digital natives enter the workplace with superhero skills like ping quotient, mobbability, influency, and protovation, they will create supercharged organizations that see themselves as beta systems, constantly reinventing themselves through rapid prototyping.

It's worth reading the whole report. We may finally begin to simulate the future from the bottom up - that's where the changes begin and propagate, at the edges, in biology and in organizations. If your work involves any kind of planning, you might want to take a close look at the signals. I'm digging the cooperation radar, emergensight, and the longboarding - how about you?

I came across the Future Exploration Network because coincidences have it that their tagline closely resembles mine - we're both connecting ideas and people. Here, talk can change our lives, there, we're going to the edge of the future. They created a visualization of trends for 2009 that also resembles a biological system. It's a multi-tentacled hydra.

They list eleven trends - Global connectivity; Anxiety; Volatility; Uncertainty; Debt; Power shift; Eastwards; Ageing; GRIN technologies; Digitalisation; Climate change; and Sustainability weaved into eight sectors - Society; Technology; Economy; Environment; Politics; Business; Family; and Media.

If you're interested in the business of blogging and the future of social networks, you may find some interesting thoughts on What's Next current report.

Why do we care about the future? Isn't what happens now more important? 

My take on this is twofold:

1) by being attuned with what happens now, we can more accurately infer the consequences or results that await us in the future. If you've been online for a couple of years, you can already predict what people will be interested in, what will be popular and what will get you on top of the charts. Sure, it still takes work to do the work, but the foresight to insight is here.

2) shifting our focus to some of the current stories actually gives them more power. What is important to you gains greater attention and thus momentum and has a greater chance of happening. By allocating more resources and energy to something, we help it along to reality. This power of intention is why it's so important to remain positive and supportive.

Future of Agency

The future of the agency business to me is where we have true agents, people who are in action and instrumental to the operations of that business - more than just mere services authorized to act for others. This is an issue of clarity and confidence in quality.

If I were an agency today, I would seek those who have consistently demonstrated a hunger for learning, experimenting and doing throughout their career, putting their skin in the game and being fanatical about results. This was my prediction last December. Have we gotten there?

This is a good start. For some of these changes to take hold, the whole compensation model needs to be revisited, along with the role of media - new, old, any flavor you'd like. I'm seeing an interesting future for those who have already been putting skin in the game, even though they are few and far between.

Anomaly suggested there is a different way. According to this article by CNNMoney.com -  "They never even mentioned ads. They were telling us how we could make more money." Instead of just ad campaigns, Anomaly is selling an all-in-one package of services for advertising, product design, strategic consulting, and technology licensing.

Brooklyn Brothers was also because because they wanted to be an antidote to advertising in general and to large agencies in particular. [hat tip for both Alan Wolk]

My friend Michael Leis at Trellist also works with profit sharing. I'm sure there are more agencies that are beginning to use new models. Add yours in the comments, if that is the case and I will update this part of the post.

Future of the Company

The future of companies is where the interesting conversations begin - with the co-creation of value with their customers. There is action here as well. It's more than mere picking the color of your leather seats. However, there might need to be distributed quantity or collaborative alignment for quality to emerge.

That is happening also thanks to the increased use of social media by companies, as represented by their brands. Jesse Liebman pulled together a list of the ten brands to watch in social media for 2009.   [hat tip to Karl Long]

If you were still to doubt the power of one person with a genuine interest in making a difference, look no further than Scott Monty. We were just talking about putting skin in the game, and Scott does just that on behalf of his employer, Ford. I'm a long time passionate Toyota driver (one of the reasons why Scott DeYager is welcome to connect), another company on Jesse's list. Yet, after reading Scott's messages, especially those at his own blog, I am starting to take notice of Ford's work.

If I were you, Scott from Toyota, I would invite people like Matthew May as guest bloggers. He is the author of Elegant Solutions,Toyota's Formula for Mastering Innovation. Have you written posts about Prius being the official taxis in Vancouver Canada? Where are the stories at your blog?

If you're going to post a series of news items, how about making them come alive? My first Toyota Camry was a stick shift. I was driving about 118 miles each way on the New Jersey turnpike three times a week. Drove like a charm and the mileage was amazing. It was the only new car I ever owned. Let's put some people on that open road. Maybe as you spend more time on Twitter, you will start getting ideas to bring back to the team writing the blog.

I'm also a big fan of Nokia, have been for years, especially of their European models.

_________

These are some of my ideas. What are yours? What do you see in the future now? You probably noticed some new names in the report. Mash ups of existing words that take new meaning and bridge us into what's next.

Comments

[Brian DR1665]

This is one very exciting post to read!

It's already apparent that social media is fast becoming more than a buzzword in business. With numerous forms of print media folding (pun!), there will be an even greater surge of hungry minds scouring the web for information and, given the nature of those who share the highest quality information on the web, these new minds will soon understand social media, furthering the movement.

I love the idea of the supercharged organization operating in a continual state of beta. We've been hearing suits preach the benefits of organizations being "lean" for years, but this is the difference between "skinny" and "triathlon competitor." Organizations today get "lean" by working on individual areas independently. These new beta organizations will continue to give individual areas the attention they need, but always with the foresight to consider how each area affects the whole. Basically, organizations stand to become more like organisms.

Being a car guy, I've recently grown more impressed with Ford (tying in to the brands to watch). I've seen GM set up a propaganda website where one side of the face was preaching just how strong a business they are, while the other side pointed out that there was nothing they could do about their current financial situation; a tradditional, 1-way PR piece. Meanwhile, Ford is out there engaging in social media, being transparent, passing on taxpayer-funded welfare, and joining the likes of Toyota in the world of Web2.0.

Cliché time: It's always darkest before the dawn. Economically, the world is pretty dark right now, but maybe that's a good thing...

[Scott Monty]

Hey, I know you love Toyota Valeria, but why are they getting all of the free advice? ;-)

This is another of your high-caliber and thoughtful posts that I really enjoy and learn from. Thank you for continuing to do what you do.

Scott Monty
Global Digital Communications
Ford Motor Company

[Michael Leis]

Thanks Valeria -- another incredible post. I've thought for a long time that brands need to program for channels instead of just looking for ways to advertise in them.

Brands like Tweetdeck, Slide, RockYou... these are the brand models of the future. By facilitating experiences, brands end up owning a network more valuable than any ad network buy.

If CPG, or in this case, auto brands, ever embraced the customer experience to this degree it would be explosive.

Some brands are dabbling in this space, but those who want to survive will have to accept that wherever people interact with the brand is a product.

Thanks again!

Michael

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Brian - as customers we respond to "supercharged organization operating in a continual state of beta" much better than to top-down, message control entities. How does an action connect with the whole? I think that is the future of development.

@Scott - I realized that you were both "Scott" when I reread the post this morning. In my mind you were/are very different from each other. Thank you for the kind words.

@Michael - that is why I like talking with you "brands need to program for channels"! Yes, we are the media.

[Jesse Liebman]

What a moving piece. Just incredibly forceful and following.

The future is now.

Get on board or you might miss the train!