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Welcome to 2017. It is going to be an interesting year. We have not seen so much creativity, innovation and evolution before in history. Here are seven trends that step towards mainstream in 2017 and change the world and the way we do business.
7. Organizational structures will change
The hierarchical pyramid organizations stuffed with redundant roles described in libraries of role descriptions are end of life. We can no longer use these illusionary walls between people. We have to connect with each other on a deeper and more natural level to continue growth.
6. Work cultures will change
Organizational structures can only change if the people change. Culture change is the bigger picture that needs to happen in organizations to stay relevant in the coming years. Think about this from the perspective of all the new generations that flow into the global workforce. Millennials and the iGeneration add more diversity in the workplace, which requires a rethinking of the purpose of our companies.
5. Supporting organizations will continue to automate
If you are working in Finance, Human Resources or any other supporting role, you better stay in shape. Mental shape. Because these departments are fantastic for automation.
4. Social Collaboration
Continuously releasing the best products and services is no longer a task for one or a few people. You cannot run business in a linear way anymore. Ownership of responsibility is not relevant anymore. Shared responsibility and access to each other is what matters.
3. Virtual and Augmented Reality
Last year was the breakthrough year of Virtual and Augmented reality. Consumer ready product such as HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR were accessible for masses and mixed reality apps get more interesting by the day. As always new technology starts expensive and works badly. But over time the technology gets cheaper and works better. VR and AR is no different and will amaze more people quickly. Today VR is a big step for most people due to the social disconnect from the real world. It is a matter of time until more senses are involved in VR. Till then AR is getting more attention and will be bigger in 2017.
2. Blockchain
The Blockchain is a way to store information decentralized and distributed, where no one person holds ownership of the information. That doesn’t sound impressive at first, but its disruptive power is gigantic and will change our world profoundly.
1. Artificial Intelligence
Once upon a time, Siri was a funny voice in your phone we laughed at. But Siri and all her AI and machine learning friends have ambitions and grow up faster than humans. We humans and our deep learning machines will connect more intensely.
In my experience, the only way to encourage a team to be more innovative is to shift from a static, “best practices” mentality to a dynamic, “laboratory” mentality and to make each team member, not the manager, responsible for the results.
To accomplish this, managers can do four things:
Foster divergent thinking. Most people have an ingrained assumption that all problems have a single right answer, a mentality that most schools and workplaces reinforce. Don’t expect your staff to change that mental model overnight, or on their own. You’ve got to retrain them in how to think. I do this by employing a divergent thinking program. Divergent thinking is different from creative thinking. It’s not the ability to come up with an original idea, but the ability to come up with lots of different answers to the same question. Divergent thinking looks more like insatiable curiosity than like original ideas.
You can teach divergent thinking in a number of ways:
- Ask your team members to come up with 15 solutions to a problem the company is currently facing.
- Examine your company’s blueprints and ask your staff, from execs to interns, “How many ways could we rearrange our space to make our work more efficient?”
- Make 20 mockups for every design change.
- My personal favorite: If you are a manager, stop answering questions. Instead, respond with, “What do you think?” And then wait. After an answer is given ask, “What else?” And then wait. Repeat five to seven more times.
But the key to making divergence stick is to keep reintroducing it into the daily culture of your team.
Make everyone responsible for their own tests. The most important lesson I’ve learned about implementing a testing culture is that the test results live inside the tester.
Segregating the person who generates ideas from the person who tests those ideas negates the ability of the ideator to learn how to craft solutions that resonate with the consumer. All team members must be able to test their own ideas and see the results. This is experiential learning. And it’s how humans are hardwired to learn, iterate, and innovate. Empower your whole team with the support, structure, and time to do thoughtful, careful, creative testing, and you will see a culture of innovation flourish.
Normalize failure. No really, normalize it. How do you know whether your team is really embracing this new culture of testing? Set a baseline failure rate and success rate, and measure your team’s work by that baseline.
The more that managers can normalize failure rates to align the team’s perspective with the reality of actual achievement and to eliminate fear, the easier it will be to innovate.
Testing and data should not be used to create best practices. The more tests your team runs, the more ideas they should get for new tests. Data should be generative, not conclusive.
Static best practices are problematic in two ways. First, they will put your staff on autopilot, which dulls creativity. Second, they aren’t optimized for maximum success today. They continue to rely on what worked last week, last month, last year.
Don’t use what you learn to create rules; use what you learn to push your team into even more exciting experiments. When you adopt a practice of continuous experimentation and curiosity, innovation will follow.
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With the number of cultures melding in the workplace today and the growing reliance on worldwide teams, the chances of unknowingly offending someone is growing. That’s why even if your teams don’t travel internationally, chances are increasing that there is going to be more “culture crashing” in a workplace that can hurt productivity, collaboration and the bottom line, says Michael Landers, author of “Culture Crossing: Discover the key to Making Successful Connections in the New Global Era.” Landers explains that a “culture crash” is when you unknowingly offend someone else.
Landers says it can be intimidating to try and figure out every rule and nuance of different cultures – even those within the U.S. That’s why he says it’s easier to challenge your own assumptions about proper behavior, and then learn to look for signs on how to adapt quickly to avoid offending others. Such a tactic, he says, is critical if businesses want to remain competitive and not get caught up in cultural faux pas.
Landers says anyone in such a situation needs to do an ROI:
- Recognize your own cultural programming.
- Open your mind to whether it’s really a person’s intention to be rude. Are there other ways of perceiving or approaching the situation?
- Identify your response to optimize results. For example, think about whether this is just this person’s style, and no personal offense is intended.
Landers also suggests that teams don’t have to learn every preference of another culture, but instead learn to look for cues on how best to proceed. Such adjustments, he says, can lead to smoother collaborations and more profitable business outcomes.
Among his suggestions for how teams with different cultures can better work together:
- Determine whether it’s “me” or “we.” Many of those in Western cultures expect to get recognition when they come up with an idea and feel disrespected or cheated if someone else tries to take the credit. But in “we” cultures, the focus is on giving the team, or even your boss, credit for your work.
- Tune in to nuances. Those who are more “direct” communicators will strive verbally to express themselves clearly and expect the same from others. But an “indirect” communicator relies heavily on nonverbal cues like silent pauses and gestures to convey meanings, and assume others will do the same.
- Pay attention to nonverbal cues. One of the most troublesome cross-cultural questions is whether to look at someone directly. In some cultures, it can be a sign of respect and confidence. In others, it’s seen as disrespectful or threatening. Even the firmness of a handshake can be fraught with problems, depending on the culture. “I think one of the best things you can do is ‘mirroring’ the other person,” Landers says. “If the person doesn’t shake your hand firmly, then you shouldn’t go in for a strong grasp. Or, if the person looks directly in your eye and smiles, do the same.”
- Understand the concept of time. Different cultures view time differently.
- Consider the formality. Just as you use mirroring in face-to-face communications, Landers suggests you do the same in written messages. It’s best to always begin and end with formal salutations until your counterpart becomes more informal – then you can do the same. When eating or drinking, try to follow the lead of others when it comes to which utensils to use, how much to drink or even how little food to leave on your plate.
“To avoid a culture clash, you need to adjust your expectations and behaviors based on the values you uncover,” Landers says.
