Partnerships and Organizational Learning

So fast-forward now to right now.

We are here to examine a whole new set of trends on the assumption that they represent a new kind of

paradigm shift, a paradigm shift on the order of that one from 35 years ago.

Well, what do the trends that we’re thinking about this week, what do they mean?

Do they mean something as coherent as the trends form the 1970’s? I think they do.

Think for example about three of the things that this conference is concerned with: sustainability and

green living, aging demographics, safety and security.

They all have something very powerfully in common.

And they have the same thing in common that the trends in the 1970’s had, only in a different direction.

The trends from the 1970’s were about a resistance to authority, throwing off those old shackles.

These new trends are all about an appeal to authority, a totally different attitude towards institutions

than existed in the past.

What does an aging demographic want from the marketplace? It wants help; it wants assistance. It

wants the world to be customized in a way that makes up and diminishes their limitations. Right?

They don’t want independence; no, they’re not independent anymore.

They don’t want autonomy; no, they’re not autonomous anymore.

What they want is a partnership with the companies and brands they interact with that understands

them, that administers to their needs.

Think about the second one; think about sustainability and green living. What’s that about?

Well, that whole notion, as it has arisen in the last couple years, is about consumers saying “I am willing

to make a series of choices in my own life that privilege the planet over my own particular concerns, my

own self-interested concerns.”

But, that’s not enough, “I can’t do it by myself. I need the companies and brands I interact with to do the

same thing.” Right?

Because they are the ones who are really going to make an impact on the world.