Future Focused.
PART 01 — The Question
A few weeks ago I was invited to give a talk as part of TEDxYouth at The Nueva School, located just outside of San Francisco, CA. The theme of the event focused on “Connections.” If you’re not familiar with The Nueva School, take some time to look it up. The institute is unique in its conception, with a curriculum nested in inquiry-based interdisciplinary studies and design thinking.The following piece is an adaptation of my talk, it’s the first installment in a 3-part series.
In recent years putting together talks and presentations has proven to be an enjoyable undertaking, where previously it presented a source of major anxiety (i.e. my primary frame of reference being my days in architecture school, severely sleep-deprived and hoping to coherently defend a project while attempting to mask a caffeine-infused twitch). Each new opportunity is now a chance to focus in on one of the many inquiries floating around in my mind and engage with other human beings – a way to open a dialogue and challenge my own thinking. The question for this particular talk came out of a small teaching engagement I had last year as a guest instructor for a group of incredibly bright and curious high school students.
The lesson featured a brief introduction to strategic foresight. The students had all been developing mobile apps. The foresight lesson aimed to help the students identify global drivers, and then determine the implications of those drivers on their service offerings, i.e. What will the future world look like? And how would your app serve the changing needs and expectations of your target audience? My first question to these students was: Who is your offering for? Silence…
For a moment there I could finally empathize with Ferris Bueller’s economics teacher, played by the monotonous-toned Ben Stein. As grand as that vision was, the sobering reality was that these students, through no fault of their own, have grown up during a time when we expect products and services to be curated for the individual. The assumption being, we don’t need to think about the individual target audiences because the thing they interact with has been designed to seamlessly align to their needs and expectations. It’s built-in. And what’s more, one student finally shared that he wasn’t really concerned about a target audience as part of his design process because he was hoping to be acquired by a larger more established organization. He was essentially building to sell, rather than building to solve. There was a disconnect.
Perhaps a little aside is needed here. Having been a resident of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, and in the five years of recovery that followed, I learned first-hand (through my architecture education) how good design can drive change in profound ways. Most importantly however was the insight that design was about people. This is the lens through which I view the world. My admittedly biased belief about Design is that making lacks meaning if there is no end-user in mind. So, back to TEDx…
In the weeks leading up to the TEDxYouth event there were two big questions swirling around in my mind: (1) How has our relationship to technology changed over the last few decades? (2) Has the future forgotten people?
During this time, I found myself gravitating back to one of my favorite childhood books, The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. The story begins:
“Once there was a tree…and she loved a little boy. And every day the boy would come and he would gather her leaves and make them into crowns and play king of the forest…But time went by and the boy grew older and the tree was often left alone. Then one day the boy came to the tree and the tree said, “Come…and climb up my trunk and swing from my branches and eat apples and play in my shade and be happy.” “I am too big to climb and play” the boy responded” “I want to buy things and have fun. I want some money.” “I’m sorry,” said the tree, “I have only leaves and apples. Take my apples, Boy, and sell them in the city. Then you will have money and you will be happy.” And so the boy climbed up the tree and gathered her apples and carried them away…And the tree was happy…”
And the story goes on, as the boy finds love, and gets married and has a family, and one day he comes back and he needs a house and so the tree offers her branches to build a house, and when the boy grows older and wants to leave his life behind, the tree suggests that the boy build a boat from her trunk and sail away, and finally when the boy comes back as a crippled old man, and just needs a place to sit and some room to be at peace, the tree offers the only thing it has left — its stump.
Over time we see that the boy’s relationship to the tree evolves. The tree responds to his changing needs and expectations. Now, I’m going to leave that to marinate for a moment, and take a step back.
Looking at this story, it makes me think about matters such as our relationship to change and our evolving needs. Why? Well primarily because I’m a nerd (and love it), but also because my work is to engage people in meaningful conversations about change. Perhaps more commonly framed as “future studies.” Currently my focus is exploring the Future of Work at the intersection of human behavior, technology, and the built environment. Looking at these three major factors, I seek out ways in which organizations — large and small — can drive Innovation through design. Whether it’s thinking about how the design of a workplace impacts our brain’s well-being. Or how we might better share the spaces in which we think and work. Or what it really means to be a truly global organization that understands the local culture of the cities and countries they’re in as they grow.
At the heart of all of this? You guessed it. People.
Now getting back to “The Giving Tree.” I love using this example to illustrate what our relationship to technology should be. And I emphasize should be because I don’t think we’re at that point yet. The boy has a need, he needs shelter, or money, or access to mobility; and the Tree responds to this call in a very thoughtful way. It makes his life easier and helps him progress in the manner in which he desires. It’s there when he needs it but it doesn’t impose on his life for the most part.
When it comes to our present context however I’ve been noticing a shift in the Technology narrative, one that I believe we all need to be paying closer attention to…
Continue on to Part 02 and then Part 03 to read up on the stories we tell about the Technology around us. I would also love to hear your thoughts. Much gratitude to the wonderful TEDx student organizers at The Nueva School for inviting me to speak! Thank you Clemantine Wamariya, Karen Mok, and Jamie Black for helping to bring some level of coherence to the chaos that is my mind.
