The Future Has Arrived
We are now living in an age where we’re all more constrained than ever… and at the same time we’re less constrained than ever.
So to Transform 2020 over the past three weeks we’ve digitally brought together diverse groups across industry and geographical boundaries to explore new pathways forward. As well as being energised about the inspiring opportunities being created from disruptive challenges, we’ve also been able to observe and facilitate a diverse range of strategic conversations.
Which leads me to highlight a noticeable repeating pattern that’s likely to be holding your thinking and organisation back. A critical understanding most organisations have yet to fully comprehend.
The future is no longer about digital transformation.
From online ordering to contact apps, it feels like many are still planning on stepping back a decade or two to enable them to now move forward. After all we’ve been ordering books online for more than a quarter-of-a-century and mobile apping for over a decade.
Now don’t get me wrong – digital is now more critical than ever.
Ultimately it’s why in the past few years organisations have realised that the role of the CDO is now just as critical to their future as the CFO. That digital is just as complex and important as finances. (As are so many other functions of organisations including our people!)
However the third industrial revolution – the digital age – began over 50 years ago. Yes 50. So we’ve now all passed the tipping-point in a century long shift. And at the mid-point of this evolutionary S-curve of one age, the next S-curve is now clearly at play.
But this time instead of gradually stepping forward into a new age – a biological force has disrupted us all forward into the Fourth Industrial Age. Fortunately we’re very clearly just at the beginning of this new age – as in the future we won’t vaguely be referring to it as the currently nondescript “Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
So how do you adapt your way of working to be Futuready for something that’s already arrived… but can’t yet be clearly seen?
If you haven’t spent twelve minutes of your life watching what in Futurist terms is now a nostalgic old film, I’d begin by prioritising viewing and then thinking deeply about the World Economic Forum’s 2016 introduction to the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Then as your team and organisation figure out how best to adapt, listen more closely to the conversations around you. Are the conversations about the use of digital anchored back in the recent past with words like data, online, users, privacy, apps?
Or are you all now stepping forward into the fourth-dimension of the future we’re all now in? Mindflexing by thinking in terms of flows between digital and physical spaces, considering the biological responses and impacts at each point. For example effective contact tracing – whether it’s tracing biological harm or a much needed product or service – can’t be developed by considering any one of the dimensions to be more critical than others.
Just as an effective video meeting doesn’t happen by thinking in a 2D digital space – creating screen-fatigue by constraining people to their chairs, staring in just one direction in the same room for hours. While asking them for a “fresh perspective” by “thinking outside-of-the-box.” (Hint: Even in digital meetings you can facilitate people stepping away from their screens for breakouts and deeper thinking).
The world is no longer prepared to wait. It’s time we all transformed our digital habits of the very recent past. By 4D-thinking beyond the constraints of the present.
Because the future is no longer off in the distance.
It’s here now.
Need to step into the revolutionary?
To schedule a call with Futurist Dave Wild to explore our facilitation approach please contact our Business Manager at andrea@dave-wild.com