Do you know how to dance with complexity?

During the first week of August, all of us birds got out of our garage in Valby, Copenhagen, for three nights of sleeping in tents and dancing with complexity in Southern Funen, Denmark. So why Southern Funen? And why dancing? Well, after having the garage closed for a well-deserved summer break, we participated in the annual Implement Summer University.

A Google image search of future visions reveals a striking homogeneity. The predominant images of the future depict towering, organic-shaped buildings, flying vehicles, and elevated roads. Cities are spacious, and the Earth's surface is predominantly covered by lush greenery. The air is fresh and unpolluted, everything appears clean and tidy, but they also feel strangely alienating. These architectural visions are just one example of a larger problem in strategic thinking – where are the humans, their complex social lives, and their seemingly irrational behaviour?

I knew I was in for a treat when at 9am Rasmus Bagger passionately exclaimed, to a room of more than a thousand corporate executives, that emotions matter. In the realm of modern-day leadership, a profound shift is underway. For too long, our focus on efficiency and productivity has led us astray, disconnecting us from our core human values. We've witnessed the rise of leaders defined by technical & financial capabilities or exclusive circles. However, at this year's Presidents Summit, I found hope in the resurgence of soft power. This new narrative propels emotional intelligence, motivation, mindfulness, human intelligence, and intuition to the forefront. However, the summit's ideas often revolved around quick fixes and formulas promising instant results. But authentic leadership grounded in humanity requires more than just acknowledgment; it necessitates responsibility for the products we offer, our colleagues, and the planet we inhabit. Embracing this responsibility is what will enable us to forge a future of positive change.

On Wednesday we hosted our #19 IIAB Talk - this time on Future Craft, asking our speakers, our audience, how we might create a space for businesses and organisations to ensure agency and relevancy in the future by understanding both mega trends that will bring change all around us and fundamental human needs and experiences that will be much more stable.

Approaching the wonderful time of Christmas and soon entering a brand-new year, we start feeling somewhat enchanted. You could say that we are surrounded by a sense of a magic...

Last week we hosted our 18th IIAB Talk — this time on how we question the future through design.

Autumn is approaching and the IIAB office is back to buzzing with business after a great summer. As we gathered again and shared holiday memories, we realised that more of us had been interrailing; by accident, rather than intend. Strikes and shortage of staff led to cancellations and the rebooking of flights across countries — forcing travellers to rethink their routes.

A colleague once told me that the psychology of progression can be understood as leaving the comfort zone and plunging into the depths of the development zone. Here everything is open for discussion, in flux, in a space of possibility. Exploration in this environment is where innovation is found.

Literature has the power to do what we see as our vision at IIAB: It can change conversations.

In the past two years, the COVID pandemic has caused a shift in the distribution between in-person research and digital, remote research. Mobile ethnography, which has been part of our toolkit for a decade, has become the primary tool for engaging with humans in a time of social distance. This increased use during the pandemic has led to new learnings which counter the assumption that data acquired digitally is distorted due to peoples’ tendency to artificially stage themselves on digital platforms, like Instagram or Facebook.

A positive corona-test isolated me and my family during the Christmas break. The digital company of Paul, John, George and Ringo got us through it, and while watching 9 hours of “The Fab Four” at work, I reflected upon the nature of creative work processes. I might be the very last person to understand the genius work of The Beatles. Admitted! But when I look into the new year ahead of me, full of exciting professional collaborations, within and beyond the much talented IS IT A BIRD-team, a source of inspiration will be The Beatles. Here’s why:

For well over 1.5 years we have lived in a low-touch economy. This global deprivation of opportunities for intimacy might just trigger a new kind of luxury: human bonding. Companies that master how to design for intimate customer experiences are likely winners of tomorrow. We offer four principles.