How to sense a mega-trend

A client asked us: "How should we be sensing mega-trends in our industry, tech, and politics?“ 

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Here’s the thing about mega-trends: To be one, it has to hit all of the areas you listed: economy, tech, life, politics, etc.

It may be that the mistake that we make is they look to hard for trends in one or another of these categories, but not broadly. And when we do this we end up with mini-trends, or premature investment (e.g., John Deere’s turbine business).

Here’s what I suggest for sniffing out mega-trends.

Ear to the ground: There’s no trumping talking to people. Where I tend to learn the most interesting info on what’s popping is from conversations with people who work in different fields (e.g., an NGO strategist, investment banker, and art school professor).

Also, subscribe to publications across industries: finance, museums, and journalism are a few good ones. 

Non-obvious influentials: I seek out the blogs of people who are leading the conversation like designers and theorists (not business people – though I do peruse WSJ and WaPo daily).

Here are three: 
http://eskokilpi.blogging.fi/
http://emergentbydesign.com/
http://stoweboyd.com/

Watch some social media sources: Quora streams are a wealth if you follow the right people (aside: social media channels tend to suck for innovative ideas and emerging trends):  http://www.quora.com/

I would add – because I think it’s really important – that to fully comprehend a mega-trend, you have to write about it. Writing enables clarity of thought. This last part pretty much sums up why I write here – to collect and catalog what I think and read so I can access it later.

Image cred: Daily Mail