The most common question I get asked is from people wanting to know what a Futurologist does. I have never really given a detailed response and I wanted to take this opportunity to try and answer this question in the context of being a Partner at the John Lewis Partnership.
My role is not to predict the future, I don’t believe it is possible for a person to predict a future(s). Instead my mission is to make reality more malleable for the business by thinking critically and creatively about alternative possible futures. I lead a team of cross functional designers and together we focus on creating tangible outputs that help us communicate and encourage new ways of thinking about the future. The future is not only a place where you get to by weaving through time, it is here all around us in the shape of very weak signals. So If we can illuminate these pockets of the future (signals) in the here and now we can question narrow assumptions and expectations, provoking debate and discussion as a consequence. This approach provides us with a unique starting point, away from a natural historical linear approach we see in many businesses today. It provides us with a starting point where we create new consumer needs and with them new opportunities for growth. We can do this because of our capability to notice idiosyncratic signals within possible future scenarios and visualise opportunities, and implications for the John Lewis Partnership.
As futurologist I want to create an identity with the type of handwriting that looks at complex topics and translates them into humanised stories, enabling anyone from any background to understand and generate their own point of view on the topic. These stories take many different forms, mostly physical and created in a way to show colleagues what the art of the possible is in very short spaces of time. I would say that this approach is very close to Design Fiction. Julian Bleecker author of DESIGN FICTION which was a short essay on design, science, fact and fiction, wrote that design fiction is
“a way of probing, sketching and exploring ideas. Through this practice, one bridges imagination and materialisation by modelling, crafting things, telling stories through objects which are now effectively conversation pieces in a very real sense.”
Throughout my career I have continued to create a network spanning different industries and many different countries. This has helped me create a personal brand that is important in the role that I do and is reassuring to know that I can tap into this extensive, cross functional network at any time for advice, support and at times the critical friend.
Reflecting on my role as Futurologist (I do this a lot!) the most important part is not the future, its people and the impact I have on people. I have a responsibility to help others. Whether this is to help them learn about a specific topic or theme or to critique ideas and propositions. I am very fortunate to have a forum where I can help and inspire others by sharing stories about my background, my journey through life. I truly believe that by acting in this way I can encourage more people to talk so that they too can inspire others.
Lastly, here are three reflections from me as we begin the decade:
1- Finding a place for waste — or rather, a way to make it a new virgin material — is urgent. Many emerging companies now create high end materials from waste sources — plastic, glass and textiles. But also biodegradable materials that create no waste. Information from sensors and open data are forecasted to help us learn more about how products are made and used. ‘Remanufacturing’ could bring products at the end of their lifespan back to their original specification, creating a loop mechanism between disposal and production.
2- The merging of physical and virtual realities creating a world where everything exists in both the physical and virtual world. This has also been described as the spatial web. I believe that this technology has the potential to influence how products are manufactured and used. Take digital fashion as an example, a growing theme where garments are only created for the digital space. While the perception of factories is evolving from smoky chimneys to smart connected places, new opportunities to transform manufacturing (and manufactured goods) for the better are on the rise. Digital manufacturing is disrupting traditional fabrication methods: in particular, they make on-demand production and customisation a reality. The steps of design, testing, production, and sales are shuffled — consumers can be more involved in the process.
3- We are seeing a significant paradigm shift in retail and we can no longer talk about its evolution. It is a new universe with rapidly changing human expectations that far exceed traditional strategies and methodologies. Instead we are seeing retail being redefined as a type of theatre with multi sensory, immersive, spaces that tell stories and satisfy our human need for adventure and experiences. The need is no longer to shop but to connect and in these theatrical spaces consumption is emotive, creative and about human connectivity. Once upon a time frictionless was the objective, but I now believe that in an evolving world where we are surrounded by science and algorithms we have a responsibility to encourage human connectivity that by design will require friction and interaction.
