Culture change is a critical part of innovation. Key shifts in the way we relate to the concept of the individual and community are shaping everything from business to government. Examples of this kind of cultural innovation include the Occupy movement, which reframed the individual’s relationship to increasing government regulation.
Social media is changing our cultures by providing a tool for people to update each other and spread new ideas globally in a matter of clicks. Most of us have experienced big shifts in our day to day life because of the transparency of social media. Globalization, meanwhile, is creating so-called ‘hyperdiverse’ cities, where the compelling draw of urbanization brings a rich soup of innovative potential together—but also forces intense questions about class, privilege and sustainability.
Meanwhile, digital natives—the children and young adults who grew up with pervasive access to knowledge and global communication tools—challenge our fundamental conceptions of what it is to be human. Do we have to be connected to the web? How will we keep up with (and make a good future for) our children?
Emotional intelligence is a real, and really important, factor at play in any business which employs and serves human beings. Leaders are learning how to leverage the impact that emotional intelligence—sometimes called “soft skills”—has in business, from individual careers to organizational culture. Articles on the subject are no longer relegated to fringe publications or social sciences, in fact mainstream business journals like Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and FastCompany have been talking about it for several years. The thriving conscious capitalism movement, the emergence of B Corps , and sold-out conferences like Wisdom 2.0 are all further evidence that more and more professionals and companies are taking the human element of business very seriously. This means that not only is the industrial age model of treating people like machines an outdated one, but companies who aren’t engaged with their employees and customers on a human level are at a competitive disadvantage in an increasingly networked world.