Happy Sunday Zeitguide!
So, in my Culture Class this week, I taught a new concept that I’ve been thinking about.
It’s called Mindful Innovation. (Video Clip of the Culture Class Segment Below).
As we illuminated iin our 2020 Zeitguide Cultural Almanac, THE WORLD’S ON FIRE, and the only possible cure is to REBOOT HUMANITY.
Perhaps one way to do that is to be more mindful of our actions, especially as we continue to innovate.
Innovation has become the antidote to disruption. “Innovate or Die” has become the modern-day ethos.
But perhaps, instead, we are innovating and dying.
We are now seeing how the digital innovation that we thought would move culture and business forward and make things easier for the customer has actually been making life, humanity, and society worse.
Now we need to be thinking about the cultural impact our mindless race to chase the next new thing could have.
For instance, when we are developing facial recognition capabilities, we need to be thinking about all the ways they will impact society. Yes, facetech will enable seamlessness and even safety, but it also could (and in some cases already) result in targeted persecution.
When we are thinking of creating that new wearable tech, are we thinking about the possibilities of being hacked and thus losing our customer’s trust? Or worse…an election?
Are we thinking about how the platforms we are using and creating result in fake news, fake results, fake products, and deep fakes?
What about addiction? Mental Illness?
Even when we think we are creating something that could make the world a better place, it may be doing the reverse. For instance, we thought e-commerce would keep cars off the roads and reduce carbon monoxide output since we no longer needed to race to the malls. However, now look at how many cardboard boxes and plastic are being used, wasted and shipped all over the world.
Lab-grown meat may reduce the carbon footprint from the cattle industry, but are we measuring how much energy it will actually take to make it? According to this piece, lab-grown meat could actually be worse for the climate than beef.
Many of us are also getting excited about the new alternative meats like Beyond Meat or Impossible Burger, but do we know how unhealthy it is to eat them?
And there are many other examples of things we were excited about that are going south.
Perhaps whenever we get excited about launching something new that could stand out in the marketplace or even be an innovative solution to the problems we currently have, we need to also look into the future and imagine all the possible effects these innovations could have on society.
Hopefully, they will be positive for all of us. But there’s also a chance of the opposite occurring.
Innovate MINDFULLY.
We can no longer “fail-fast;” instead, we need to succeed-slowly.
Come join my CULTURE CLASS; each week you can join me and leaders from all industries on ZOOM Video, and in less than 60-minutes I will teach you about all the latest cultural developments that matter to you as both a leader and citizen of the world.
Keep Learning. Stay Relevant. Be Curious.
Originally published on The Sunday Zeitguide.
If you would like to learn more, visit ZEITGUIDE here.
Follow us here and subscribe here for all the latest news on how you can keep Thriving.
Stay up to date or catch-up on all our podcasts with Arianna Huffington here.