Daily Inspiration: “The more the future changes, the more it stays the same!”

“The more the future changes, the more it stays the same!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

Many people think that the global economy is on pause – sort of in a momentary state, waiting for leaders and CEO’s to press play. The fact is, in some cases it’s gone from 33 1/3 to 78 in but a heartbeat.

I don’t think we’ve ever seen a faster rate of change with entire industries or companies, driven by necessity and the survival instinct. Trends that used to take years or decades to unfold are now taking but months. The healthcare sector debated the concept of telemedicine since the dawn of the computer chip – it’s not actively involved in it. Distance education was, for a long time, a plaything sideshow for many educators – something to be debated but not pursued. Pick-and-pack and curtsied pickup grocery business models were seen as a small scale project to try out – its now the dominant feature of many retail sales.

The fact is, if you were caught napping, you are missing the seismic changes occurring all around us at blazing speed.

Yet the path in many other industries is not as clear as these many well-used examples. What will happen in the trucking industry? What’s the future of farming in the eventual post-pandemic era?

The other day, I was approached by a potential client looking for a virtual talk for their leadership team on ‘what comes next, and what should we do about it?’ They needed a session description to run it up the executive ladder. This is what I wrote:

Our World in 2030: The Post-Pandemic Trends That Will Redefine Your Future

Years from now, we will look back and realize that many industries, technologies, concepts and ideas accelerated throughout the crisis, as the opportunity they provided, proved to be critical.

Today, whether you agree or not, it’s clear that the global economy changed.

What has it changed to?

No one is certain, but what we can be sure of is that many industries will be fundamentally different; the future doesn’t stop. In fact, economic volatility often provides massive opportunities for disruptive thinking.

Business models will continue to evolve at a faster pace; new revenue opportunities will continue to emerge; customer expectations will continue ramp up in terms of quality and service; we’ll see the ongoing emergence of new competitors; product life-cycles will continue to shorten as innovation speeds up; a lot of science will happen; new inventions will be discovered; and a lot of transformative change will occur in markets and industries as really innovative people continue to shake up the fundamentals.

Big disruption occurs in periods of big uncertainty. What will you do today to align to those realties?

Seriously. What will YOU do?