How does one make sense of a world that is changing just so fast?

Perhaps the question uppermost in the minds of both business owners and senior executives is how they are supposed to keep track of all that is changing in their environment? This is the question I actually get asked most often in my talks with business owners.

With so much changing in the environment, how does one begin to understand and makes sense of this constant change?

And this is really not so simple any more. With our very full work and personal schedules, when everything is changing so fast, how can one even strive to be on top of literally everything?

And this is a genuine challenge.

While larger organizations may have a strategy function that systematically tracks environment trends, small or even medium sized businesses do not have this luxury.

Gone are the days when you could rely on simply casually listening in to changing conversations to make sense of the world. This is particularly true if you are a senior leader or business owner.

The world is changing much faster than the conversation around it, and there is far too much at stake to leave to chance.

So are there any systematic ways to keep track of the changing environment?

It turns out there are at least two great tools:

1. Environment Scanning by Strategyzer

Like all models by Strategyzer, this one is pretty easy to understand.

What I like most is that you can visually map and track 4 critical and yet different types of environmental factors that matter.

I also like the fact that on the same visual chart you can map both the market place and the larger industry forces.

Now many, or even most organizations do discuss these two categories fairly regularly. Industry associations, market information from the sales team or even other sources of competitor intelligence like speaking to common suppliers, or other partners provide glimpses of market information and industry data on a daily basis.

For the longest time, organizations have engaged with the other two categories: macro-economic trends and other key trends (social, cultural or tech), rather sporadically.

Perhaps this was because change was gradual and slow or it may have been because there were simply no familiar and easy to use tools to map these. As a result many organizations have found themselves playing catch-up, whenever there was change in the larger environment.

So by allowing us to plot critical trends in very diverse areas and then viewing it all together, in one place, this simple model does us a great service.

Read more from its original source here.

https://blog.strategyzer.com/posts/2015/10/14/how-to-scan-through-your-environments-disruptive-threats-and-opportunities or here.

2. Trends Matrix from 101 Design Methods.

Another great tool comes from the wonderful compendium of design methods--101 Design Methods by Prof. Vijay Kumar of IITD.

The first section of the book gives many different tools that can be used by any business to map out their environment. Of these, I particularly like the Trends Matrix to map trends in 5 key categories: Technology, Business, People, Culture & Policy.

Each very critical to understanding the larger environment you operate in. And each a universe of its own.

You then look at how trends in each of these 5 critical categories influence an aspect of your business. There is also the option of using these more generally to understand how these are changing over time--what used to be, what is, and what lies ahead. The matrix then records each trend in a short sentence.

What I really like about this approach is that it allows you to see 5 key trends on a single page, and then take a step back to see what this may mean for the future of the business.

A visual representation is a great way to understand patterns and draw insights from what is otherwise large amounts of unconnected data.

Some of the other tools in the book provide suggestions for how do you understand these trends in the first place. There are some great suggestions like speaking to trend experts, regularly scanning popular media, mapping keywords etc.

This is the original source:

An overview is available here.

Both these tools are actually easy to use, and more importantly are specially useful for beginning to develop the illusive qualities of "big picture thinking"; "future vision" or even simply the beginnings of "innovation leadership".

Going back to the question we began with--how do we make sense of world that is changing just so fast?

Perhaps the answer lies with combining some hard-nosed investigation tools, with simplifying visual tools that allow you to "see" the big picture.

Of course, once all this is done, it is still up to your talent as a leader to be able to "connect the dots" and think of "future possibilities"...but hopefully this is a great place to start from.

(Dr. Shalini Lal works with clients to embed Innovation as an organisational competence. She has a PhD from UCLA, and an MBA from IIM-A, and has worked in this field for over twenty years. Write to her at [email protected])