Writing a \u2018future casting\u2019 piece in month two of the new year is a little bit of a cheat but the flurry of technology prediction articles has left me wanting. While some left me flummoxed (apparently, this is yet again, \u201cthe year of mobile\u201d) and rolling my eyes (a prediction saying that \u201cAI will start to explain itself this year\u201d, comes to mind), my general critique is that these predictions fail to acknowledge trends in human behaviour and culture, and how this impacts the innovation cycle. This report aims to fill that gap.<\/p>\n
Values and beliefs largely determine how we behave. Technology helps to shape behaviour by how it can and cannot be used as well as how it is and isn\u2019t used. When looked at in this way, an essential step in predicting trends is to look at what people believe, what they value and how they behave. As such, these are the top five shifts in beliefs, values and behaviour that I believe will shape the future of tech innovation across industries and sectors.<\/p>\n
It is undeniable. The fight for the health of the planet and its people is changing hearts and minds. We can see this happening in a number of ways. Firstly, through language. There\u00a0is a desire to not only measure \u2018objectives\u2019 but also \u2018outcomes\u2019. We\u2019re hearing the word \u2018impact\u2019 more often and witnessing in seismic proportions what that looks like on both sides of the spectrum; those who are promising to do a lot, and those you have made no promises to date. We see this in\u00a0Microsoft\u2019s ambitious plan to become carbon negative in 2030<\/a>. Conversely, we can see what happens when a company doesn\u2019t rise to the expectation of change.\u00a0In the case of Amazon<\/a>, hundreds of employees put their jobs at risk last month (January 2020) in an open and coordinated effort whereby they criticised the company\u2019s practices.<\/p>\n In order to make evidence-based, impactful decisions, 2020 looks set to be the year that organisations desire to get more out of their data. Tools that enable organisations to make sense of data so that they can better understand their impact on people, planet and profits will be key. This includes making definitions clear, surfacing meta data and visualising data in ways that are understandable and accessible despite technical ability.<\/p>\n Technologists are realising that the road to holistic, positive impact cannot be journeyed alone. Tothis end, we\u2019re seeing the rise of the digital humanities. These individuals work at the intersection of technology, social life and their domain expertise. They\u2019re crucial to efforts working on the successful democratisation, socialisation and operationalisation of technology and data. It\u2019s precisely because their approach\u00a0to innovation starts in their domain rather than with the technology that they are such an asset to technology teams. Without these individuals, foreseeing unintended consequences goes from being a difficult and challenging task to an overwhelming and crippling one that usually leads to one of two directions: inertia or reckless, ethical negligence.<\/p>\n Dr. Charlotte Webb has founded the\u00a0Feminist Internet<\/a>, the Leading Edge Forum and Girl Effect both have Digital Anthropologists on their team. GovLab have coined the term\u00a0Data Steward<\/a>\u00a0and created an entire network around this role, and Google made a splash in Wired last October announcing they\u2019ve hired a\u00a0Chief Decision Scientist<\/a>. Data Storytellers, those with good verbal and visual communication skills, who are able to help find the signal amongst the noise will likely find themselves in strong demand.<\/p>\n A key finding from LinkedIn\u2019s Emerging Jobs 2020<\/a>\u00a0report shows that as automation becomes more widespread, the demand for soft skills looks likely to increase. They call out communication, creativity and collaboration. This is corroborated in\u00a0NESTA\u2019s Future of Skills<\/a>\u00a0report which outlined a similar set. While there was a particularly strong emphasis on interpersonal skills including teaching, social perceptiveness and coordination, they also called out judgement and decision-making.\u00a0Freeformers, in partnership with University College London<\/a>, identify 12 attributes that are similar to the above including imagination, integrity and empathy.<\/p>\n To understand the importance of soft skills within an organisation, one has to know about VUCA; volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. This catch-all acronym describes the unprecedented scale and scope of change we\u2019re living through. Building a workforce that is open to change and experimentation is essential. This is not to say that experts and specialists are not important. They are important and must be nurtured. But it is to say that any organisational digital literacy training or career development should extend beyond technical skills to include training in essential soft skills.<\/p>\n Soft skills take time and attention to successfully develop. This trend will influence how we come to define \u201cdigital literacy\u201d and \u201cdigital leadership\u201d as well as how we educate and professionally develop the next generation to be digital-literate, risk-tolerant and thrive under VUCA-like conditions.<\/p>\n Last year it felt like we had a series of small wins starting with the creation of senior tech ethics roles and the formation of dedicated teams. Now, titles like Chief Ethical Officer, Data Ethics Officer or Technical Ethics Advisor are starting to become more prevalent. Data Scientists and Engineers are having to fill out ethics canvases before starting projects (in many ways inspired by the Business Canvas) and internal ethics committees are being formalised. There also seems to be widespread agreement that data and engineering teams require a set of multidisciplinary brains, and innovative\u00a0new processes and methods that support systems thinking<\/a>\u00a0and sociotechnical design are gaining traction. Humankind has proved time and again that it is capable of taking, and landing, some giant leaps. The kind that allowed us to land on the moon, discover antibiotics and connect the world using global communication tools.<\/p>\n We have to capitalise on the urgency we find ourselves in and unearth the political will we need to propel us forward. COP26 in Glasgow will be a good indicator of just how brave governments are feeling. Reducing financial and gender inequalities, re-engineering global food markets, quitting our oil addiction and\u00a0reforming tax systems<\/a>, may be some of the most wicked problems we\u2019ve ever been tasked with solving. These challenges will compel us to re-evaluate our relationship with\u00a0creativity and its association with uncertainty<\/a>, and ultimately risk. They will require us to better understand, and quickly,\u00a0why so many interventions that work well in experimental or research settings often fail to scale up<\/a>. Lastly, this will also mean a redesign and rethink of engagement strategies that activate widespread public participation, collaboration and education around fast-changing and difficult-to-understand topics.<\/p>\n Technology has given birth to new business models, influenced political systems and proven it has the ability to restructure social relations. And it will do this again. Only this time we won\u2019t be so quick to look to these innovators, think they\u2019re brilliant and put them in charge. As we enter an age of reformations and redefinitions, reshaping and remixing, there is a deafening call for leadership. It\u2019s likely that the next digital mavens won\u2019t come from the technology industry but rather from the spaces that intersect with it.<\/p>\n Given the current social, political and economic backdrop, pointing an organisation down the road toward innovation that ends in technology feels like anaemic advice. Regardless of your definition of digital transformation, it is less something that happens and more something that emerges at the intersection of technology, creative endeavour and human action. May 2020 give you the gift of kaleidoscopic vision.<\/p>\n This is an excerpt taken from \u2018Lessons in Innovation from Tech\u2019s Cultural Frontier. Tech trends paint a picture of innovation being all about technology. it\u2019s not<\/a>.\u2019<\/p>\n Originally sourced from here.<\/a><\/p>\n2. The rise of the digital humanities<\/h4>\n
3. Soft skills will be the heart of tech enablement<\/h4>\n
4. Ethics moves from theory to practice-ish<\/h4>\n
\nA lot more still needs to happen though. A willing and able community of individuals have been hired and given the remit and resources to \u2018do ethics\u2019. The next few years will determine if the powers that be will let them.<\/p>\n5.\u00a0A New Spirit of Action<\/h4>\n
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\u00a0\u201cThe status quo is a catastrophic risk to all of humanity. What we can\u2019t afford to do is ignore alternatives.\u201d<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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