Today’s insights are brought to you by my colleague and futurist, Graeme Codrington.
There are five main sources of disruption in our world today, and if you keep your eyes on each of them, you’ll do a much better job of anticipating change and preparing for the future. For over twenty years, our team at TomorrowToday Global has been honing the tools and skills required to scan the horizon and identify these disruptive forces. The fact that most of our clients are repeat clients, who come back to us again and again for our insights, is proof that we know what we’re doing.
Right now, there’s more volatility and uncertainty than ever, but our TIDES Model of Disruptive Change remains a valuable tool to help make sense of what’s happening around us. We invite you to use it as you look at the future.
This video, taken from Graeme Codrington’s weekly ThrowForward Thursday series, explains what the TIDES of change are, and how we use the model to make sense of tomorrow’s world today:
If you don’t have 15 minutes to watch the video, the quick summary is this:
- Technology is driving changes in the world, but you need to look beyond the innovative tech itself to how people will use it, and what futurists call 2nd and 3rd order effects.
- For our team, Institutional change is probably the most important of the disruptive forces to focus on right now, as we attempt to identify changes in rules, norms, industry standards, and best practices, and most importantly seek out examples of where limiting orthodoxies are being overturned. This is happening everywhere – and it is easy to see if you’re looking beyond the surface and trying to see systemic change.
- Demographics is often seen as a slow-moving force, but right now, key shifts that have been underway for decades are making massive changes to how we live.
- The environment and natural resources are obvious inclusions in our model, but our focus is less on the concerns (as significant as they are), and more on the opportunities arising in dealing with an “angry planet”.
- The final force we focus on is shifting societal values. Many futuristic models ignore this aspect. We believe it is vital to consider how people will respond to disruption, what they embrace and amplify, and what they push back against and reject. The power of social media these days allows “for and against” to not just have their say, but also pit themselves against each other and create cultural wars in addition to all the other noise in the system. This cannot be ignored.
Every strategy, every plan, and every goal for 2023 will be improved by starting with a better, clearer, and more considered view of the future. Let our team at TomorrowToday Global help your team see the future and prepare for tomorrow’s world today. Contact us or just reply to this email to set up a time to chat with me about how we could help you.
Author of today’s tip, Graeme Codrington, is an internationally recognized futurist, specializing in the future of work. He helps organizations understand the forces that will shape our lives in the next ten years, and how we can respond in order to confidently stay ahead of change.
For the past two decades, Graeme has worked with some of the world’s most recognized brands, travelling to over 80 countries in total, and speaking to around 100,000 people every year. He is the author of 5 best-selling books, and on faculty at 5 top global business schools.