Non Obvious Megatrends: How to See What Others Miss and Predict the Future (Non-Obvious Trends Series)

Elevating involves identifying the underlying themes that align a group of ideas to describe a single, bigger concept.

MASHUP WORDS. Mashups take two words or concepts and combine them in a meaningful way. Likeonomics is a mashup of likeability and economics. This technique can make a trend name memorable and uniquely yours, but it can feel forced and artificial if not done artfully. There is a reason I didn’t call my book Trustonomics. The best mashups are easy to

Studies indicate that instead of making us self-centered liars, social media may be giving us the one thing we need to shape our identities in a digital world: power over our stories.

What interests me most about this group of ideas? What implications of the stories might I have missed earlier? What is the broader theme that these stories have in common? How can I link stories from multiple industries into a single idea?

Naming is the art of describing a collection of ideas in an accessible and memorable way.

SEEK OUT COMMON WORDS. As you review your groups of ideas and stories, look for key words that can reveal the common themes among them. When I was collecting ideas related to entrepreneurship, for example, a word kept coming up that described the growing ecosystem of on-demand services for entrepreneurs: fast. This word helped me bring various piec

Is the name already in use or well understood? Is it relatively simple to say out loud in conversation? Does it make sense without too much explanation? Could you imagine it as the title of a book? Are the words in the name unique, not clichéd or generic? Does it describe a topic in an unexpected way?

FOCUS ON VARIETY. One of the biggest mistakes I have seen people make when curating trends is focusing on stories or examples in a single industry. If a trend is going to describe how business is done or how consumers behave, it should be supported by examples or cases in many industries. WATCH YOUR BIASES. Nothing will cloud your judgment more tha

social media offers more accountability