The ability to change is the starting point to creating new opportunities for the future. Think about your potential and connect the dots to adapt and your breakthrough might be closer than you think. We have been distracted by COVID, but through it we experienced change, disruption, adaption and technology, and it created an opportunity where we must apply tactics to move forward. Jeremy Gutsche from Trend Hunter shares his basic building blocks in innovating through the chaos. 

The five parts in the chaos framework that enable you to find new opportunities in chaos include:

• Ability to change
• Culture of innovation
• Opportunity hunting
• Adaptive innovation
• Infectious messaging

The starting point

There are so many paths to take, but you need a starting point to know which path to follow. For all you know, the next opportunity might be close within your grasp. Maybe it is a bigger role, a new product, a new service idea or a different way of doing things. All of us have an opportunity to choose another path of opportunity where we can move on from crisis and make up lost time.

Did you know that some of the biggest companies were founded during a recession or times of uncertainty when people decided what was important to them in life?

It is all about changing things in a time of need, and chaos creates opportunity because it is a time to change the rules to new systems to navigate the storm. Humans are path-dependent, but during times of crisis, the consumer constantly needs change. When the chaos and crisis have ended, it is the period for new opportunities.

The 7 traps of path dependency:

1. Subtlety of disruption
2. Neurological shortcuts
3. Traps of success
4. Optionality
5. Linear thinking
6. Discomfort
7. Ease of inaction

Megatrends continue and may lead to new opportunities. Simplicity matters in chaos and experience causes super-charged opportunities to counter the times when people were locked up as we were during the pandemic. This time created an increased awareness of the importance of everything eco.

How to adapt to change:

We are more dependent on past decisions that we realise, and we stick to the standard, which makes it very difficult to break the habit. The way out of this habit is to unblock so that you are able to think more disruptively and find new ideas.

How can you counteract the traps of success?

• Be curious
• Be insatiable
• Be willing to destroy
• Ask outsiders for opinions
• Simulate starting from scratch

It is important to start making choices that will allow you to open up to give access to more options in the future. Think about the choices that will create more options rather than focussing on making more money.

New mental pathways

A new neural pathway is created when you figure something out for its actual potential, and with practice, it becomes easier. Put in the work to get out of your routine and look at things from different perspectives. In this way new opportunities will arise. Consider different workshops to help you. When you can look at your problems from different perspectives, you are able come closer to your ideas. Now that you’ve retrained your brain to look at problems from different perspectives, you can break the path. New ideas are subtle and awkward to begin with, but it is important to break the path, encourage disruptive thinking and embrace diversity while maintaining balance.

How to increase optionality

• Escape your routine
• Give permission
• Fuel audacity
• Force collisions
• Ignite passion
• Push limits
• Be different

The pandemic showed us that the world is changing at an exponential pace and intervals are becoming shorter which accelerates change. Therefore, we must figure out how to adapt much sooner and we must break the habit of linear thinking even if it causes discomfort.

Be in the know! Don’t get left behind!

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