The Thought Leadership Nexus: Becoming a Decoder in Action
‘Trends are dead …. vibes are dead', 'trends kill originality!' 'Trends feed overconsumption'. These are all valid commentaries. But the language indicates this happened TO us. Trends become a nebulous magnetic field from beyond. The problem lies in the fact that if we continue to fixate on these semantics, they become a smoke screen, ultimately hindering our ability to acknowledge our responsibility as forecasters and strategists in the current mess.
We should aim to actively change the philosophical and creative principles, methods, tools and metrics with which WE approach trends and their success.
Fashion is serious business. As an industry, some figures estimate it is equal to the 7th largest GDP economy in the world. Let's get serious with fashion trends and our trending comments on trend forecasting. Foresight is serious business and a key skill as outlined by the UN’s quintet of change 2.0.
This means taking action towards change. While the stage of questioning trends has been necessary, if it lingers much longer without action, then the whole thing becomes an act of micro-scamming ourselves out of our credibility.
“Information is waste without action”
I’d like to add to that: Commentary is waste without action.
Let's not comment on the death of trends, and then persist in releasing seasonal and micro-fashion trend reports, thus fully participating in the madness and incoherence that has broken the fashion system in the first place. The whole thing lands nothing short of double standards.
To help partners own their power of influence and visualise it, I developed a simple tool called The Thought Leadership Nexus
I share with clients and showed at the Venice Sustainable Fashion forum. In the model below, you can see I highlighted the role of The Decoder, crucial in society and innovation.
The Decoder guides us through the noise and helps us feel safe enough to adopt new codes. The Berkana Institute describes a similar role as the 'Illuminators' in their Two Loops model.
It's key to note that as humans, brands, and institutions have turned into content and platforms, The Decoder role has become a coveted spot. It's also a natural inclination because the global human project is navigating change.
But here is the clencher: The Decoder falls flat on its face if it does not back up its insights with action towards retiring old systems.
Rachel Arthur, one of Hypercycle's contributors, (you can read her great Substack Owning it here) brought up in the report I authored in collaboration with Gung Ho the idea of Trend Emissions, inspired by the work around Advertised Emissions and Marketing's Brainprint. This made me wonder, could we create a collective and measurable sense of commitment in our niche industry of Fashion Foresight? The Sustainable Development Goals for Foresight. This may seem a bit farfetched.
But I think we are building a new world of future foresight, even if it's meeting resistance in industry, advertising, culture and commerce.
For shedding and rebuilding, we need new roles, tangible strategies and tools, possibly more than insights at this stage. There are great places and communities to reimagine our roles in foresight and our power, such as RADAR and the RSA 's Circle to the IFTF's Urgent Optimists to the independent and diverse voices out there. As part of my ongoing training, I’ve opted to become a Biomimicry practitioner next year.
To conclude, Rewilding is not a romantic idea. It plays a strategic rebalancing role. In certain parts of the world, rewilding as a conservation method has meant difficult periods of culling, as nature took back control and sought to restore its ecosystem and biodiversity. You can read more about this in Rewilding by Cain Blythe, and Paul Jepson.
What does Rewilding mean applied to foresight? The Rewilding Futures journey by definition cannot be tamed. But the goal is fixed (for now):
To action a new era for the practice of future foresight.
All in service
of the greater good
of the people and planet,
within a living systems perspective.
We all aim to support thriving culture, innovation, businesses and communities. Underpinning this, who do we work for, first and foremost?
By Geraldine Wharry
