Jody Turner is a globetrotting independent Trend Strategist. Via her company Culture of Future, Turner offers trend reports, trend studies, consulting work, keynote speeches, and workshops. Her clients have included Virgin Atlantic, Adidas, Gap, and Starbucks. Turner has also made various media appearances- most recently on The Dr. Phil Show. On the side, Turner maintains a Fast Company blog, as well as a Twitter feed. Jody is currently trying her hand at teaching trends this fall through for Off The Grid- an MBA program in India.
Though in the midst of several fascinating projects, Turner was kind enough to answer some interview questions- check out her answers below:
CE: After you graduated with degrees in Design, Curation, and Archaeology, what got you started with trend analysis?
JT: The most important thing to look at today is how everything you have done in your life prepares you for what you are doing now or will be doing in the future. Sometimes we think we are planning our lives and at other times we think we are meandering through it. In both cases I believe we are intuitively gaining skills that will be useful, as we get closer to our internal passion drive and our external roles of contribution. At least that is what I have experienced.
We might call this way of learning (that includes both academic and experiential) the multi-focused person or the Renaissance person if we were kind. Within business and design culture (per IDEO) we would call this the T Squared professional – The one who is good at many things across the board but has one true, deeper skill to drive it all forward. These days I am seeing people with 2 or more skills deeply developed, particularly as we shift roles in the falling and rebuilding economy. This will be a norm going forward. Academia is just now catching on to this by including elements of self-designed programming. This becomes more important in a shifting economy as does time off from school to explore and develop relevant skills sets.
I attended Evergreen State College a college grooming for self-innovation and entrepreneurship – We did not know that then, only now can we define the school as such. We developed our curriculum closely with teachers and had deep one-to-one guidance throughout our education. This is unique in the U.S.
While putting myself through school I worked in the archaeology lab, spent a year on a dig in England, surveyed for the Forest Service for 9 months in the US, worked helping curate at a well-known photo gallery in Seattle and worked in education and marketing at The Portland Art Museum. Out of school I took creative roles in advertising and ultimately became a graphic designer… Highlights in graphic design include a year in NYC, branding design for Nike Inc and a year driving the retail art (murals/photos) for Starbucks globally.
All contributed to the skills needed as a trend strategist – (1) To cull and curate WHAT MATTERS most to individual and society that is future leaning and influencing, (2) To understand and place within a current to future social-anthropological-archaeological CONTEXT and to (3) Communicate clearly needed action and OPPORTUNITY SPACE within our visually driven culture.
You have created a very successful one-woman company. What made you decide to go solo?
I go in and out of working with companies because it is important to know what goes on inside the walls as well as outside of the walls. There are many places in-between and the role of such an intrapreneur (or one who works inside and outside) becomes more important as our economy becomes ever more pliable.
My main role today is to bring the dynamic and changing world to the people who are designing our futures, with a point of view that will bring in the new era. Today it is particularly exciting because people (citizens/consumers/constituents) are more engaged in this process and are co-sharing the influence of directions going forward. I find this dialogue a particularly hopeful scenario for our futures and makes for a rich cultural society.
What are the benefits and drawbacks of doing trend work independently?
Working with teams is my natural mode and it is essential at the right time. Trend culling involves engaging human ethnography but curating content and contextual strategy building requires personal space.
I call Kathy Baylor (my brainiac VP of research who has a brilliant mind for cultural knowledge) and we tag team beautifully. I am a designy social innovator from the west coast that travels a great deal and she is an east coast African American Asian – (at least she spend time regularly in Tokyo) and together we form a wide-range perspective on the world. My focus on innovation and deeper meaning perspectives with her wide ranging cultural pop knowledge creates the product the companies need. We also draw upon a wide range of influencers that we continually converse with regarding the future.
We would both agree that space is needed to process the mountainous information we absorb and track. Bringing this coalesced research to the table of cross-disciplined thinkers can only expand the content and value of the deliverable.
It is important to acknowledge the brilliance of those inside of companies as you deliver. While outside consultants are given more kudos and power (they inhabit the outside world companies are innovating to) those inside know a great deal about the company, particular demographics and generally have brilliance not yet utilized. Feeding the internal worker is an important part of this job and will help influence toward a more humane future.
How do you attract such amazing clients? Networking? Word-of-mouth? Reputation?
Patience. Over the years I have worked with some of the best thinkers, innovators and designers and they have moved on to do their own thing here and there. We reconnect and stay in touch and help grow this new world we are creating. Authentic transparency is important… people need to know you are not only doing what needs to be done but that you have an ethics about doing it… and a desire for something more, something better. This is where Kathy and I sit on the trend paradigm along with others.
While we have Googleability and Bingability through our various activities that are important to maintain daily (conference engagements, journalism interviews, blog articles and teaching stints) we are a part of a community of trenders who compete but also share. I certainly have felt some behaviors that remind me of the old world corporate domains, but I would say many function within the open-sourced attitude for growth.
Giving away is important; if you give to journalists you are simply seeding your ideas around the world. When you speak them whether in project or lecture they will be more familiar and more easily accepted. As the world catches up you shine direction on the next steps we are heading in.
Giving away needs to be done intelligently, you cannot give away too much as you will be exhausted and taken advantage of. The world is filled with cats to bring along with string: You must share authentically who you are with what you have to offer but leave some for later. Make sure you hear what they have to offer… the future is an invitation and a dialogue!
It seems that you do a great deal of travel for your work. What percentage of the time would you say you spend on the road?
Carbon offset is important in my field! I travel to speak and share the ideas we have gathered to different companies and countries. I only travel upon invitation – Last year it was Mumbai and Istanbul and prior to that Stockholm and Copenhagen. This year it is Finland and New Dehli…
Your home base is in the California Bay Area- what made you choose that particular location?
While I enjoy so many places in the world for their future-leaning aspects I currently am enjoying the west coast. I believe the future of business rests in a few realms that the west coast covers: LA with entertainment, SF with technology and social innovation and Portland with the future of food culture there and creative low carbon living.
What are your favorite trend research methods and resources?
It is important to know what you are focused on so that when the mass of information comes your way from the people who inspire you to the research available en masse today, you will recognize immediately what is yours to move forward. I continually develop my senses to hear what makes sense as I research, an inner voice that lets me know makes sense to me in my life, my friends lives and the lives of those I do not know.
Currently I love:
- As a consistent given Trendwatching.com just in the way they include everyone and offer brilliance up for free. We need them to keep us going, they give us cred in the business world.
- EcoPop.com just for the incredible and invaluable information they provide and how fun they make it to embrace future change
- In the lower right hand corner of my site feel free to download info I have gathered. Also the Slideshare link at the top will lead you to my free presentations. www.cultureoffuture.com.
Have you noticed any particularly interesting trends lately?
The tough shifts in the economy are painful. As we shift and figure it out it is so uncomfortable but spaces are opening up and emerging. A new era is upon us, can we make good? If so, how?
-Making sense of what is happening for others is important as a trender. Sense that gives you something tractionable to do in order to solve the issues we face. Here is the story I have created:
For years we have been living in a kaleidoscopic culture, each for his own in the ME Culture… then it shifted to a juxtaposed culture with crashing mash ups galore or what is sometimes called the WE Culture.
Now we seem to be heading toward something like an inclusion culture with pockets of pure, closed culture within it. In this way everyone can find a place as we reinvent.
This is possibly the result of youth being less judgmental. In this instance inclusive means you do what you have to do and we will do what we have to do without tying to stop you or expending energy in this way. Theirs is a focus on their action item in a major turn toward social innovation and luckily brand is catching on.
-Hipster to Helpster: http://www.nypress.com/article-20847-meet-the-helpsters.html
Social innovation is taking brand by storm:
Good Magazine aligns with Pepsi and Starbucks
http://www.good.is/post/good-and-pepsi-partnership-enters-the-next-phase/
http://www.good.is/post/the-reinvention-of-starbucks
-Another important way to focus on what is coming on is what is called tracking weak signals (see article from Future Forum UK on this, they are an interesting future scenario group:http://www.forumforthefuture.org.uk/greenfutures/articles/weak_signals_track_changing_horizon)
I am drawn toward things that are not yet massive influencers and are somewhat hard to grasp (weak signals) as they are not yet defined. For example, I am attending a Transmedia Storytelling Hollywood day put on by UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television… Everyone asks me what this is and I have an idea but will be learning more. This is my job, to understand and communicate in a useful way what seems important but is not yet understood. http://legacy.tft.ucla.edu/transmedia/index.cfm?action=schedule#contact
Thank you!
Jody Turner, CultureofFuture.com
As you can see, Jody Turner is truly in the midst of all things innovative. I find her insights on the cultural shift (from “ME” to “WE”) that we are experiencing to be very interesting, and I strongly encourage you to check out the additional links she shares!
With regard to the trend spotting profession, we can learn a lot from Jody’s background. Though there is currently no formal education for trend analysis or forecasting, Jody developed excellent skills by taking on a broad range of roles and working with a great number of really innovative, diverse people. Hence getting out in the world, trying new things, and making new connections appears to be a good strategy for aspiring trend spotters.
To learn more about Jody Turner, her work, and her findings, visit CultureofFuture.com. To read about the MBA program in India through which Jody will be teaching this fall, visit http://offthegrid.in/whyjoin.htm.
