PLAYLIST: Megatrends
The most impactful changemakers operate at the intersection of what moves them, their unique superpowers, and what the world needs. Where it comes to the latter, I have earned an international reputation for leveraging global trends to create positive transformation. So, through this 13-part series, we explore how to leverage global trends to identify opportunities for changemaking!
Note: See the mini-series on purpose for another of the 3 factors.
Part 1 | How can you know for sure that the world needs your idea?
The role of trends in changemaking
The most impactful changemakers operate at the intersection of what moves them, what the world needs, and their unique superpowers. In the mini-series on purpose, we explored what it means to find your purpose. Now, let’s look at one of the other two factors: identifying what the world needs.
Part 2 | Leveraging trends for your changemaking
Setting the stage for megatrends
My last post, The Role of Trends in Changemaking, shared my way, refined over 15-odd years, to leverage global trends in remaking the world for the better. By paying attention, not only can the astute gain insight into what the future may look like, but they can also create projects and ventures uniquely suited for it. Now, let’s take the next step.
Part 3 | Megatrend #1 Gluttony
Enough is enough! Or is it?
Even if “enough” retains its place in dictionaries, it has little authority over humanity’s insatiable appetite for more. Satisfaction is but a theoretical concept, and moderation is the luxury of the privileged.
Part 4 | Megatrend #2 Abstraction
This is what's clear: nothing
Long gone are the days when the most significant things were, well, things: tangible and clear. Today, what we do for a living is getting as abstract as our fears, aspirations, and communities.
Part 5 | Megartrend #3 Permeability
A spotlight on a cause of our vulnerability
Through a vicious cycle of technology and human ingenuity, the age of privacy has long ended. Every point is increasingly accessible, and nowhere is off limits or off the record.
Part 6 | Megatrend #4 Collective power
How to wield the power of one
Long gone are the days when those in charge could make decisions with relative impunity. Whether well- or ill-informed, everyday people wield enormous power to both drive and stop change as well as to keep others accountable.
Part 7 | Megatrend #5 Cacophony
Everything everywhere all at once
Neither fads nor fashions seem to run their course before the next thing emerges. Every point of evolution has caught up with the present and co-exists in a cacophony of options.
Part 8 | Megatrend #6 Obsolescence pandemic
Busted: a world past its use-by date
With so much in flux, nothing ever seems quite right anymore. Systems, business models, products, and even people themselves wash up irreparably lacking.
Part 9.1 | Megatrend #7 Nomading
Here today, gone tomorrow: 1 in 30 people are on the move
After thousands of years invested in staying put, humanity is once again on the move. Its resettlement — whether temporary or permanent — is dramatically altering our world on every level.
Part 10 | Megatrend #8 Angst
We're losing our sh**: Angst is Megatrend #8.
Having dedicated centuries to establishing one-directional progress and order, humanity finds itself consumed by chaos. With lives more abstract, complex, and unpredictable, we are increasingly overwhelmed and distressed, and our children are experiencing unbearable rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidality.
Part 11 | Megatrend #9 Thirst for meaning
WANTED: the meaning of it all
There is a gasping vacuum where a vital ingredient of cohesion and motivation should be: shared stories about the meaning of our lives and the path to a bright future ahead. The positive and edifying myths of before have largely been eroded, outdated, or discredited, and new ones seem feeble.
Part 12 | Megatrend #10 Reimagining
Everything is up for (re)negotiation: Megatrend #10
Reimagining is the last of 10 Megatrends! What started as a whiff of a countertrend when I first started tracking global trends has grown into a prolific reimagining of every facet of our lives. We’re questioning parenting, science, money, nation states, legal frameworks, separation of powers, global order, life, death, and happiness.
Part 13 | Opportunities created by the megatrends
Want to make the most difference? 10 opportunities ripe for changemaking
Tracking global trends — all big and dramatic — offers a keen observer a glimpse at something intimate: what the world is lacking. I see 10 opportunities ripe for your changemaking.