This is what's clear: nothing

Megatrends | Part 4 | Abstraction

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.

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On the Megatrends series

I have earned an international reputation for leveraging global trends to create positive transformation.  Having (1) introduced this concept and (2) set the stage through earlier posts, I now invite you on a 360-degree tour of today’s change landscape! 

See if you might read/listen actively.  Consider these questions:

1. How does this trend manifest in your world?  Society at large?  Your family, community, or team(s)?  Your investors or donors?  The people your purpose calls you to serve?  

2. Importantly, how does it play out in you? In your own motivations or struggles?

3. What shifts in what is possible, acceptable, or both underpin this trend?

4. Who — brands, politicians, non-profits — ride this trend? Do they succeed or fail? Why?

5. What does this trend make possible that was impossible before?

Having launched our tour with Gluttony, we continue with Abstraction.

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Almost nobody understands what I do for a living as a professional changemaker.  Sidebar: my About page sheds some light.

We’ve come a long way from the Smiths being in the horseshoe and swords business.  What most of us do can no longer be explained by discrete, tangible trades. 

Most of us are oblivious to how our friends and family really spend their day as they do their innovation consulting, branding, kinesiology, value engineering, change management, energy modeling, natural language processing, or AI ethics.  This has abstracted the very definition of success, spawning countless theories on measuring relationships, emotional intelligence, resilience, creativity, collaboration, and so forth. 

Image credit: Gisela Merkuur. Licensed under CC.