In business, the qualities of black sheep are invaluable. Black sheep are the divergent thinkers who can shake up organisational complacency, envision new futures and help navigate through ambiguity. With supportive leadership, they can generate the creative tension that leads to orthogonal ideas and breakthrough thinking.
The trans-disciplinary, integrative, collective, systems thinking of cybernetics places an explicit emphasis on the environmental impact of technologies, along with the human impacts, making it a truly holistic approach with which to tackle today’s increasingly interconnected ‘wicked’ problems, and ‘poly-crises’.
Moving from a digital age of two-dimensional interaction to a virtual age of three-dimensional immersion will impact everything from employee learning, development, engagement and collaboration, to customer experience and community building, to the design of innovative products, services and business models
A key input for developing future foresight is maintaining a weather eye on the megatrends at play in the external environment. Megatrends are trajectories of change that typically unfold over years or decades and are likely to result in substantial and transformative impact on individuals, organisations and societies
It’s easy to forget that every large corporation was once a start-up. As they grew, so did the bureaucratic apparatus to manage their operations. Innovation thrives when the mission is inspiring, the business constraints are clear, and when curiosity, creativity and new thinking are encouraged across the organisation.
