My 2020 Vision: Purpose
This year I’ve decided to name a central theme for my prediction: PURPOSE.
In no small part due to the thought-leadership of Simon Sinek, the concept of being purpose-led has slowly but steadily resonated with brands, individuals and the consulting industry to name a few. But as the noise from digital transformation gained traction over the last decade, this ‘soft-and-fluffy’ idea fell somewhat into the background. Thankfully it was not totally forgotten and is now subject to a resurgence.
In recent years, both of the consulting giants I’ve worked at have put a large amount of stock on purpose. Big consulting isn’t always associated with taking such a stance and I can verify that it isn’t an organisation-wide culture either. Not only does it exist at such firms, but this growing community is constantly challenging the status-quo of what consulting can and should do.
At EY, we had a dedicated purpose-led consultancy practice, which was a joint venture with Simon Sinek in New York. In 2017–2018, I led the strategy and experience for what has become Amaala — the Red Sea Riviera on the coast of Saudi Arabia. Amongst my many collaborators on this mega-project was the actual Sinek team, who helped us develop a meaningful ‘Why’ of a new ultra-luxury proposition and cement that purpose into the infinite lifespan of the new destination. It’s still one of the pieces of work I’m most proud of. It’s now 10 years since Simon first published ‘Start with why’ and I’m excited to see that his next book, ‘The infinite game’ is now available. It contains a lot of great concepts that we learned for Amaala.
Now at Accenture Interactive, we have a global journey to redefine what it means to be an Experience Agency and as such, we focus our work on the ‘intersection of purpose and innovation’. This positioning is clear and focused and speaks to our passions to deliver meaningful experiences through creativity and technology. So once again, I find myself working on purpose, with purpose — but what is different is that in 2020, I predict this will become as important to others as it is to me.
I hope you enjoy reading my perspective on the year ahead. You can also see my 2019 predictions and retrospective here, should you want to share your thoughts on whether I was right or wrong.
2020 Predictions
2020 #01: Digital is a dirty word
It was inevitable, but I think we’ve finally reached the point where everybody is bored of ‘digital transformation’ and it’s time to move on. The reality is, most organisations (and the people in them) don’t want to transform. Whilst the pro-disruption mantra will highlight that’s exactly why they NEED to transform, the well-known fact that transformation programs fail more than not, has rung the death-knell loud enough for this approach to be relegated.
The idea that a brand/organisation/government can go into a digital chrysalis and come out transformed for the better is simply a false analogy. Just how a post-metamorphosis butterfly has a very short life expectancy, the beneficial outcome of a digital transformation is often short-lived. Although it can be attractive and create that all-important wow-moment, it bears little relevance, connection and sustainability to its immediate ecology and as a result is a glamourous ending, rather than a beautiful beginning. The pains of this approach have either been felt enough to avoid doing again, or the lessons from others are being heard loudly enough to avoid the chrysalis state altogether. So as we have done since time began, we will choose to evolve instead of mutate.
The tone of the boardroom is shifting rapidly from transformation and change to preservation and conserve. But don’t mistake this as a step backwards, or a lack of commitment to innovation. Instead, I believe it’s due to a growing belief in people and organisations shifting towards their own purpose and building on that, rather than trying to become something else. It’s a subtle but very important pivot to the attitude and approach being taken by many and as a result, we will see a decline in wholesale, directional change strategy that is advised by others and an increase in incremental evolution through self-discovery that focuses on net value rather than gross impact.
As digital transformation as we know it continues to implode, the elements that have endured and become the new norm, prove this is the trend people are putting faith in:
Agile working continues to be the preferred construct to adopt for change; smaller, shorter, incremental and iterative change rather than single-track strategy and target-state vision.
Design Thinking continues to be adopted en-masse, focusing more on informed, empathic and collaborative problem solving over monolithic technology solutions.
Both have become synonymous with working in ‘sprints’ and having a roadmap for a marathon is now archaic.
The dirty side of digital isn’t limited to transformation either. Cybersecurity is no longer a synonym for safe-surfing, but has become the next frontier of global warfare; driven by it’s prolific and effective use in espionage, terrorism and of course politics (election and candidate influence beyond mere media manipulation is just one example). As a result, cyber technologists have found themselves in a more serious situation than they perhaps anticipated. Both the attack and defense side of this industry is having to up their game at an exponential rate. The rise of the threat at a geopolitical level is fuelling a rethink on the ground as to how much we place faith in connectivity, communication and our ability to sustain our way of life. Personal and national resilience has become a serious matter and work is being done to decouple from the grid should the need arise — and we are finding a surprising feeling of peace that comes with that rebalancing. Digital lifestyles will still grow sure, but with a heightened sense of caution, reduced amount of dependency and an appreciation of alternatives.
This rise of ethical awareness and public concern has pushed back HARD on digital innovations. Biometric identification, blockchains and big data are just a few spaces that have opened up powerful debates on whether we should do things just because we can. The use of digital has shown us how scarily easy it is to falsify reality and create fake news. So rather than these being ‘enablers’, they are becoming prohibitors — with brands and governments having to take a stance and publically demonstrate their commitment to limit how much people are disrupted by the advent of digital technology.
2020 #02: Disruption, but not as we know it.
Following on from my previous point, the real-world, as opposed to our self-created digital one will be the heaviest influence on our lives and work in 2020. We began January with a few flashpoints that have given us a jolting start to the year that will remain a theme for the year ahead. First, there was the devastating bush fires in Australia, followed swiftly by the news that the US has taken military action against Iran. Depending on when you read this article, things will no doubt have changed further — with Brexit, US elections, G20 in Saudi Arabia, Expo 2020 in Dubai and the Tokyo Olympics just a few of the big stories yet to play out under the cloud of our literally burning planet.
Right now, a focus on customer experience, brand narrative and share of wallet seem like the least of our problems and I think that will remain the case in the coming months. Not that we will all suddenly stop caring for consumers, storytelling or bottom line — but that our consciousness of world events will have a significant influence on the work to be done to create meaningful experiences for the world we live in.
The voice of the youth will become an actual force to be reckoned with too, rather than just a theory. The poster-child and Time person of the year has been both lauded and ridicule, but so are her grey-haired equivalents. It’s just that she is but one and they are en masse so we notice her noise more. But when you look at the youth populations in flash zones (remember the Arab Spring?), the lost generation from the last economic crash, Brexit divided Europeans who have a new identity crisis — the list goes on! This global cohort will not stand silent in the world and we will see many more challenge the status quo with their ideas, actions and innovations. But I also predict they will do this with engagement and an open mind and not just to attack the establishment.
2020 #03: Design dilution
This one is dual-sided. On the one hand, design as both a craft and an idea will continue to come under pressure from organisations struggling to realise it’s potential and scale (under) investment (see prediction #1 from last year).
On the other hand, (savvy) design practitioners are already working hard and smart to instigate their next era of value creation — defending the integrity of the industry at the same time, after coming under fire from those who have bastardised it in recent times.
I’m increasingly finding myself in conversations that say ‘we need to get back to the craft’. This isn’t just with juniors sick of doing Powerpoints either, but leadership in design, digital and innovation roles across sectors. There is a realisation that now Design Thinking has become commonplace (rightly or wrongly), the quality of the applied design work needs to be focused on more, if theory is to become reality. There is a widening gap between those who have focused only in their customer-journey thinking and those who have invested in execution and go-to-market too. These organisations are pulling away fast and taking customers with them through a design-led dialogue that is less about identity and pattern standards and more through adapting to channel tonality, emotions like humor and irony (Millenials still rule), iconic aesthetics and use of materials/space. These latter attributes are still far from the capability of the DT-empowered board room and lacking in the market talent pool. Agencies play a role and those who are capable of demonstrating a tailored creative and story are blowing away the previously credentials-led approach to winning work.
Conversely, non-design managers are in full attack on design. There is an ever thick glass ceiling for design careers in most organisations and as a result, an increasing cohort of designers who are confused on the direction and momentum of their career paths.
The good news is that I do see some fantastic mentoring going on, but there is a lot of people who don’t have the right access or visibility on where they can get this. Personally, I do what I can through my community activity (such as SDN, Global Jams and 1:1 mentoring), but it has limited scale without further commitment to scale it. I predict we’ll see some internal academy activity start to take shape and that will give designers both meaningful work to activate as well as a sandbox in which to reframe their destiny. I think this will continue to marinade over 2020 and we’ll see the emergence of more confident designers in the market who are able to both lead and create in a way that only the designerati* have done so before.
*More on this in future blogs/projects/venutures ;)
Fjord Trends
I must of course give a shout out to Fjord Trends 2020 by Accenture Interactive. This feature from our global studios has become one of the leading insights to understand and track and for good reason. This year the report is better than ever and three of the seven trends really resonated with me personally:
01. Many faces of growth (Purpose-led)
04. Liquid people
07. Life-centred design
2019 Retrospective
I’ve been sharing my annual predictions for a while now, as well as reflecting on previous years to see whether I was right.
How accurate were my 2019 predictions? Judge for yourself and I’d love to hear your opinions on whether they were correct, ahead of their time or just plain wrong.
2019 #01: Saturated Design Thinking
2019 #02: Democratisation of Toolchains
2019 #03: Design Ambassadors 2.0
2019 #04: Desultancy
2019 #05: Dark Mode
