A “Little” Peak into the Future

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: Microtrends (Book)

Competency: strategic planning, change management

Who benefits: planners, researchers, entrepreneurs, HRD professionals

Consultant Usage: self-development; otherwise limited, except for recommendation to clients

What’s it about? January is almost over.  For some of us it is the month we do our personal planning and goal setting.  For even fewer of us, we take a long-range look at our personal or professional lives. 

So let me end my postings for the month with a recommendation for some interesting reading about the future.

Who has been your favorite futurist?  Alvin Toffler (Future Shock– the 70s), John Naisbitt (Megatrends – the 80s); Faith Popcorn (The Popcorn Report– the 90s); or maybe Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point – 2000s).   I liked them all, and they are all still pumping out books.

But I just came across a new face, at least new to me.  Mark Penn has written a book called Microtrends: The small forces behind tomorrow’s big changes.

Penn is the author of the term “soccer mom” and it serves as an example of his style.  He defines his book as “based on the ideas that the most powerful forces in our society are the emerging, counterintuitive trends that are shaping tomorrow right before us.”

Penn is a numbers guy, a statistician, and you will find lots of graphs and charts.  But he doesn’t bore you with numbers; he entertains you with them.

If you are involved in planning for the future or coaching or teaching others who are, give this book a look.  If you are not so involved, you still might read it for enjoyment.  Where else can you find:

–old people who could retire but millions keep on working because they want to (I was about to dispute that then I realized…hey, I am one of them!  But the guy has the stats to back up the claim.)
–3.4 million Americans commute 90 minutes or more a day; 4.2 million Americans stay home in their PJs and work in the home office.  Now if those aren’t polar opposite trends….
–Women are taking over the “wordy professions”: journalism, law, marketing, and communications

Even more importantly, he gives some future analysis of what these trends might mean to business; government; to you, me and our neighbors.  Good stuff to chew on even if you should disagree with him. 

A little about his style.  He writes with a certain degree of whimsy.  I love it; but he risks offending the sensitive.  Here are just a few of the provocative chapter headings:

–Office Romancers
–Ardent Amazons
–Pro-Semites
–Christian Zionists
–Newly Released Ex-Cons

Love him or hate him, it is hard to put this book down.   

[tags]micro trends, mini trends, futurist, soccer moms, life styles, work life, race and religion, work-life balance, bill bradley, william bradley,  bradley[/tags]

Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.