We need to be more systematic and strategic when it comes to understanding the future!
The book by Amy Webb
The Signals are Talking is a great way to get yourself introduced to strategic foresight ( a capability we are adding to our work at Aim For Behavior)
As Amy points out "you need to learn how to think in two ways at once - both monitoring what's happening in the present and thinking through how the present relates to the future"
Understanding the future (not predicting it) means we need to understand how trends align with the drivers of behaviour.
As an example, most of the technology we use daily is now full of AI, even this post asks me to start writing with AI.
We need to remind ourselves that any trend that appears, needs to fill a human need.
I think many times organizations and people get excited by what's trendy and forget the importance of human behaviour, of the system, and of the norms to get adoption for what they are creating from these new and emerging technologies.
Remember to meet human needs you need to account for creating solutions that provide:
- Autonomy: Freedom to make choices -Competence: Mastery of tasks and feeling you are progressing -Relatedness: Feeling connected to others -Safety: Wellbeing -Purpose:Contribution to something greater than oneself
Make sure that whatever it is you are creating, be it a product or an experience takes into account these needs - if they are not there then motivation will decrease.
I'll be sharing more on foresight and behavioral science soon...