What large trends do you think really matter now? Are you looking at them in a way that will allow for understanding or are you responding to a seemingly chaotic environment? This post will point you to a great resource that will help you see more about what really matters.
When I use the phrase What Really Matters? I am writing here and thinking of something I learned by seeing social trends through the lens of social mood. All social trends eventually correct and many correct out of existence. Rather than beginning by asking which ones will go away forever, I suggest you begin by organizing the challenge in more thorough framework.
When distinct societies eventually correct longer periods of social expansion, the natural tendency is for groups within to begin focusing on the issues that matter most. This is a natural, necessary group process designed to organize the larger group for more expansion down the road. And since not every social trend expands and corrects in tandem, the divergences are very instructive when seen through social mood. Social corrections, as seen through mood, are one of two basic patterns that affect how and what we create when gathered into groups and markets. (see #2 below for specific examples)
One of the main reasons I began writing this blog (years ago) is because, as seen from this broad perspective, we've entered a long stretch of socially corrective episodes. Massive social change is part of this and is likely to last much of the decade. Is your enterprise geared to adapt to a changed mindset and marketplace? What are the right strategies in your market to survive the socially corrective patterns that are emerging?
No one is going to offer you perfect answers to these questions. If they claim to, question them. In the meantime you can arm yourself with organizing knowledge. You can apply this to markets and large groups that matter most to your enterprise or your life.
Begin the year by learning something entirely new. Teach yourself a great gift. You will not forget to use it. Of all the information sources I have cultivated, this one stands alone.
Very few places offer so much high quality content for free.
Here are a few basic links that run deep with ideas. Check out the links within the links. I am a reader and subscriber of this work. This post is not an ad.
I witnessed a few different industries I had watched for a long time begin to change forever and needed to find a better way to organize what I was seeing in the context of what had already happened and was continuing. I am certain this can do the same for you if applied the same way. (warning: this isn't about short punchy ideas and answers...this is solid insight that must be earnestly applied in each case.)
So, WRM in the markets and large groups you care about? Think these questions after you have had a chance to read these links....and think about them for a while.
2. What are some different expressions produced by social mood expressed in various group settings?
2a....An old post here that tries to reiterate the very basic point how we share our (forward looking) mood in all social interactions but how aggregate social mood is unique to each society. Right now, we see hopeful parallels in some mideastern countries but divergences can & will appear quickly across borders based on changing mood and the stability of the societal charter. Authoritarian regimes based on assumed power can crumble very quickly when respected systems are not firmly established. Our founding fathers really were visionary 222 years ago. After these largest chunks of ideas are organized for perspective, we can carefully move into the challenges of individual markets: I created these two very general slides years ago (to use for myself) after reading Pioneering Studies in Socionomics.
3. How will some big picture cultural issues evolve as social mood changes?
3a. So how might this control issue change? Mood re-shapes most critical issues at pivotal times.
All markets see the effects of changing mood incrementally but it does not happen in lockstep. Different trends expand and contract based on the larger rhythms they follow and while social mood shapes it all, it does not control it. Look closer at the markets that matter to you and look also at the markets connected to those. For instance, technology is a quintessential forward looking business that is also, at times, myopic. That is not a criticism. 'They' are constantly reaching out on the edge creating and social corrections in societies just do not offer as supportive an environment of that mindset as do broad periods of social expansion. Incredibly disruptive new tools come about sometimes but remember this: social corrections typically witness swift adjustments and outright changes in perspective. Technology businesses adapt to shared social values. They follow the collective "us" along one or more steps behind, not ahead of shared values. In this context, looking back to look forward can help us collectively focus on the getting right the things that matter most. Use socionomics as a way to see markets and large groups as a whole that are subject to mood. Just by doing that much you might be able to glimpse ahead of the mass adopting laggards to sense which parts will endure and what (if any) is more likely to be ephemeral. The material at the socionomics institute site may provide you with ideas for leading and lagging indicators in the markets that matter most to you. Don't just scan it. Study it over time and see more about what really matters to you.
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