The Great Wave is Coming

Welcome to the new decade! However severe the crises we are facing, there is new optimism and energy. We can do this. Or can we?

2020 is a tipping point for humanity, and a now-or-never opportunity: for more beautiful work, post-techlash tech, movements that go places, and a new communion between humans, business, and nature. Something big is underway, a massive shift that will change everything: The Great Wave is coming.

What are you going to do? Surrender, resist, ride, or become a part of it? At the very least, you can be in good company when it breaks.

“The Great Wave” is the theme of the House of Beautiful Business 2020 from Saturday, October 31 through Tuesday, November 3, 2020 in Lisbon, which I will co-curate and co-host again. The House is an invite-only gathering for leaders and changemakers who share a common quest: to shape a more beautiful vision for the future of business, technology, and humanity, built on emotions, ethics, and aesthetics instead of efficiency, extraction, and exponentialism. It will bring together 500 “Residents” from business, technology, science, the social sector, the humanities, and the arts, and feature more than 50 speakers and performers, immersive experiences, workshops, field trips, experiments, dinners, art installations, music, dance, silent parties, the US presidential election (on November 3), swimming (some of it even synchronized), and much more. Take a look at the 2019 Residents, program, and photos to get a sense of what the House (a “not-a-conference business conference,” as one of our Residents called it) is like.

By the way, your pass for the House is not just the key to the annual gathering, but now also to a year-long membership, House Residency, that provides you with special programming and access to the House community throughout the year. In addition to House20, House Residency invites you to stay connected with fellow Residents, receive exclusive content (including articles, reports, and books), apply practical insights to your organization and life, attend and host private events, and collaborate on projects, all of which will be supported by the House team. For example, we just hosted our first online Living Room Lecture, featuring Martin Reeves, chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, and Léa Steinacker, chief strategy officer of ada, with a "Debrief from Davos" (along the same lines, watch Martin discuss with BCG CEO Rich Lesser the key-takeaways from this year's World Economic Forum Annual Meeting). Next week, on February 5, we'll have Ed Gillespie join us, the author of Only Planet and advisor to Extinction Rebelllion, who will share insights on "how to rebel slowly."

In the meantime, here are a few articles that might help you prepare for The Great Wave:

A love letter to the ocean, written by my colleague Monika Jiang.

The business of business is nature: Investing in nature is worth $23 trillion — and the future of life.

Drowning in data, experience, identity, and meaning overload? Try “Communication Minimalism”: From Bond Touch to Silent Book Clubs, a new trend offers us richer opportunities of non-verbal connection: touch without touching, hearts without bodies, and communicating without saying a word.

Is work really the tragedy of our age? In this poignant piece for Quillette, Elena Shalneva writes: "As we leave childhood and the need to earn a living becomes increasingly urgent, our dreams start getting trimmed and trampled and squashed, until there comes a day when we no longer remember them. We begin by seeking the sublime. We end up resigned to the ordinary."

You are always in transition: use the liminal space to shape a "new you" for this year and the decade ahead.

Explore the possibility of a "New We" by listening to this episode of the Masters of Business Arts podcast with Katherine Maher, CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, and Mathieu Lefevre, co-founder and CEO of More in Common.

Attend one of the 16 Chambers of Beautiful Business that will take place around the globe this year, from Barcelona to Copenhagen, Rabat, Sao Paulo, San Francisco, and Toronto.

Read the Book of Beautiful Business, an anthology of more than 40 voices and their theories, practices, rants, essays, and stories about the why, what, how, and when of beautiful business.

Waving goodbye for now! :)

 Tim

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To join the House of Beautiful Business 2020 (“The Great Wave”) from October 31 to November 3 in Lisbon, please apply for House Residency here.