Non-Obvious (2019)[1]
Since 2011, Rohit Bhargava has curated and annually published an online “Non-Obvious Trend Report” that continues to describe our world in new and interesting ways (http://www.rohitbhargava.com/trends). Simply sharing his annual reports was not enough so Bhargava decided to write a series of annual e-books to describe how he collects non-obvious trends, or “unique curated observations about the accelerating present.” I published a media review of Bhargava’s 2015 e-book in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies[2] in 2016 and I think it’s high time to report an update, after reading his 2019 edition which is just now available in paperback.
Each edition is divided into three parts.
The first part, entitled the “Art of Curating Trends,” includes important information about the power of thinking, the art of curating trends, the five essential habits of trend curators and a step-by-step description of Bhargava’s personal approach to curating trends, using his Haystack Method. According to Bhargava, curators add meaning to isolated beautiful things. According to Bhargava, trend curation can be learned and practiced, using the following five essential habits:
(1) Being curious – always ask why, take yourself out of your day-to-day world to explore the unfamiliar.
(2) Being observant – see what others miss, put away your phone and pay attention.
(3) Being fickle – learn to be nimble, capture ideas to be analyzed later, learn to move on.
(4) Being thoughtful – take time to think, reflect, embrace the pause, share ideas in a considered way.
(5) Being elegant – craft beautiful ideas, bring together disparate concepts in a simple and understandable way, much like poetry which takes words away, leaving only simplicity, beauty and meaning.
In describing his Haystack Method, Bhargava notes that trend curators don’t seek needles in the haystack. Instead, they gather a myriad of stories and ideas (the hay) and then use them to identify a trend (the needle) that gives meaning to them all collectively. The Method has five components:
(1) Gather: Save interesting ideas, start a folder, use an app to save important thoughts.
(2) Aggregate: Curate into clusters, take individual ideas and disconnected thoughts and group together, often based on bigger ideas or questions. Span boundaries, stay away from demographics and industry categories.
(3) Elevate: Identify broader or underlying themes below the surface.
(4) Name: Create elegant descriptions using understandable, memorable words, combine words, use alliteration, give it a twist.
The second part of this year’s edition provides a complete copy of Bhargava’s Non-Obvious Trend Report for 2019 which lists and describes the 15 new trends – divided into five categories - that are expected to shape business and behavior this year. The five trend categories, in addition to the 14 new trends, are listed below to peak your interest:
- Culture and Consumer Behavior Trends
- Strategic Spectacle
- Muddled Masculinity
- Side Quirks
- Marketing and Social Media Trends
- Artificial Influence
- RetroTrust
- B2Beyond Marketing
- Media and Education Trends
- Fad Fatigue
- Extreme Uncluttering
- Deliberate Downgrading
- Technology and Design Trends
- Enterprise Empathy
- Innovation Envy
- Robot Renaissance
- Economics and Entrepreneur Trends
- Good Speed
- Overwealthy
- Passive Loyalty
The third part of this book provides many different tips on making trends actionable. Guides for four different types of workshops are included. Bhargava also discusses the method of “intersection thinking” which overlaps seemingly disconnected ideas in order to generate new solutions, directions and strategies. He also suggests five book on trends worth reading and he also offers a useful discussion on the notion of “anti-trends.”
Lastly, the book has several appendices, including the Non-Obvious Trend Reports for years, 2011-2018.
As before, I believe this 2019 edition is once again an important tool for any individual interested in “discovery”, that process which “consists of seeing what everybody else has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.” Whether around the board room table, in the executive suite or in the trenches, individuals will more effectively activate and revitalize their organization’s culture, partnerships and priorities if they are nimble in detecting the many emerging new ideas, inventions, innovations, and discoveries that will continue to shape our world, now and in the future.
[1] Bhargava, R. (2019). Non-Obvious: How to Predict Trends and Win the Future. www.ideapresspublishing.com, Idea Press Publishing, Inc.
[2] Ziel, Susan E. (2016) "Media Review: Non-Obvious: How to Think Different, Curate Ideas and Predict the Future," Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies: Vol. 3: Iss. 3, Article 8. Available at: http://pubs.lib.umn.edu/ijps/vol3/iss3/8.
