The Art of Signal Scanning: Uncovering Tomorrow's Trends Today

Source: Anete Lusina on Pexels

Join us in this special behind-the-scenes episode on how we find signals. We share how to cultivate a mindset that sees the extraordinary in the ordinary, from daily habits to real-world observations. Discover our diverse approaches to signal scanning, including AI tools, historical contexts, and observing local changes. Learn how travel, art, and even grocery shopping can reveal insights. We also discuss the importance of collaboration in interpreting signals and navigating our complex world. Join us in our weekly practice and discover how you can cultivate the mindset to see potential futures hiding in plain sight.

Related Resources:

• Signal Shift Podcast Episode: “A Wake-Up Call on Chocolate.” Horizon Shift Lab. 27 Jun 2024, https://www.horizonshiftlab.com/post/a-wake-up-call-on-chocolate

Episode Transcript:

Lana: Welcome to Signal Shift, by Horizon Shift Lab. We're your hosts, Lana Price, Raakhee Natha, and Sue Chi. Each episode, we explore the latest signals in technology, culture, and society, uncovering insights that will impact our daily lives in the future. Join us as we shift perspectives, explore possibilities, and delve into real changes in our world. Curious to learn more? Go to horizonshiftlab.com.

Hello, everyone. This week, we have a special episode of Signal Shift, which is a behind-the-scenes look on how we search for signals. We've never really discussed this with each other before, so I'm curious and excited to see how each of us approaches this.

So just for a little bit of background, Signal Shift is our weekly practice. We actually started doing this just for fun, meeting every week to share signals, for about a year before we started recording the podcast. And so we decided, since we were doing this anyway, we could just record our conversations and edit them as podcast episodes, and we started adding a weekly theme. 

So every week, each of us is scanning the horizon, looking for these weak signals. It's an emergent phenomenon, something that's happening on the fringes, maybe just in one locale. It's a disruption, an innovation, something that might seem bizarre now, but could be part of a new normal in the future. 

We do believe that anyone can do it. It's pretty much like signal scanning is a mindset shift. We don't share our signals in advance, and we've never shared how we find signals, and so we're excited to get into it today.

So I thought we could open with maybe a preview of next week, which next week's topic is ergonomics. And so I wanted to turn to you both, Raakhee and Sue. How do you approach finding the signals? And I guess if you wanted to use this as an example, how would you prepare for finding the signals on the future of ergonomics?

[2:22]

Sue: Well, this is Sue. You're right. We've never really shared our practice with each other. 

Before I start looking for anything, I'll just take the word or the theme and see what that conjures up for me. So ergonomics, immediately I'm thinking about my keyboard and just my whole position at a desk, right? And then I try to think, is there another type of ergonomics that might be a little bit different? So then I think about how I'm sitting in a plane, for example, and all the different iterations that could bring. And so I look at that and then I start to think, oh, is there one particular path or question that I'm starting to think about that's more interesting than the others? And then I'll start going into, depending on which AI program I have, Google searching, looking around the observed world to see all the different ways I can think of ergonomics. So I'll start there. That's kind of how it starts.

Lana: I love it. This is so, this is really fun. And just to say, I'm always impressed every week at how different some of our signals are. And so this is really insightful to see and to hear about your approach. So thanks, Sue. Raakhee, how about you?

Raakhee: It's so interesting. There's so many different ways to go down this. And I think a part of it is that also it changes. I think some weeks, it is definitely taking the theme and looking into it and saying what comes up. I will say that, I think Lana, exactly like you mentioned, part of what we do is that we always look for signals. So sometimes, once a theme is even mentioned, it sparks, maybe even, curiously, would have been an unconnected signal suddenly. And you're like, oh, wait, I think that's applicable here. And it's always fun when that happens. 

So I think we're always looking for signals and we have a database where we actually collect those. So we do take that even more seriously than one may even realize outside of these meetings. So yeah, signal hunting is always happening with us. So I think it really, I think the weeks can be different. And each week sparks something different. 

But one thing that's also interestingly useful, which I think sometimes we may not realize, but it's a part of signals is--when a theme comes up, like ergonomics, it's always, or anything, it's always interesting to sometimes look at the history. The past can be a very interesting space to give you pointers of the future. And it can be really personal, Sue, like you kind of highlighted there. And when I think of ergonomics, I think about when did I first learn what this word means, what context was it in, what are we talking about it? And sometimes I kind of, I like to look at what has happened since then to now in that space. And then see where that takes me. So that's one way.

Lana: Oh, I love that. Yeah, I mean, I was gonna talk about the daily practice as well. And I do that too, where I'm always looking, but then when I know what the theme is, it helps my radar to look for certain things specifically. And to look back, to look forward, right? That idea that you brought up of understanding the history and maybe getting that context and some clues from there can also help inform the trends to look for. 

And I guess, I don't wanna put you on the spot, Raakhee, but ergonomics was your suggestion. So also wondering if you wanted to give a little bit of insight on how you even picked a topic, which is like, I thought so creative. I'm curious about that too.

Raakhee: Yeah, and I think we all have our passion areas from food to community living. And you will see that show up in, I think the signals we share sometimes outside of just in general interest in many things, we certainly have passion areas. And for me, I think anything that's architecture and interior design and just design of spaces is absolutely one of them. So that does show up pretty often. But ergonomics always is something that's fascinated me. And it was spurred though, I can't give away too much because I'm gonna give away the signal that I might use, but I attended something that had to do with it and it spurred something in a topic. And so you can almost say that in this case, the signal kind of led to the theme in my case with choosing the theme. So yeah.

Sue: That is becoming more and more frequent as we build on these signals. There might be an episode that we did. I'm just thinking of the future of chocolate, for instance, that we had talked about coffee before, which led us to think about what other food is in peril. You know, and that leads to another signal we might wanna talk about in the future. So that's been fun too, that progression.

Lana: Yeah, definitely. I think that too, when I find a signal and then I'm like, oh, I wanna suggest this as a topic. So I can talk about this, um cool find. You two have touched on some of the things that I was thinking about, which was looking every day. And so, you know, I've definitely increased my investment in different news sources that I subscribe to now, like lots of different newsletters, Substacks, I guess curators, like people who I find interesting and then the things that they find are interesting. And I'll say for me, my personal beliefs, I don't spend a lot of time on social media, which I would imagine to be like potentially rich with signals. I more go for trusted sources that I respect and follow and then try to find things there.

[8:21]

Another thing that I wanted to ask about was, you know, so in a few weeks, we are planning to get together in LA in-person. And one of the things that we wanted to do as an activity is, you know, go look for signals together, you know, in real life. It's one thing to do, to look for signals in like a desk exercise, right? Looking online, using our AI tools, doing Google searches, reading the news. But Raakhee mentioned a really good example, which was, you know, potentially like a conference or an event. And so I wanted to see what other ways that you all have found signals, not at your computer. Either ways that you've found them or examples of times when you've seen a signal in real life.

Raakhee: I'll share, I think that's such a, again, such a great question, Lana. You said this earlier, it's finding signals, it's almost about a mindset. And when you flip the switch, particularly in real life, again, you'll start to, you just see things differently. Because you were always seeing the information and the data. You just didn't realize you were seeing a signal. And then you see something, you're like, ah, okay, you know there's something more behind it. And I think for me, one example is the two primary schools in our neighborhood closing. And when the first one I saw, I was like, oh, that's so interesting, like primary school is closing--why? And then I heard about a second one and I was like, oh. And then it was having that signals mindset where I put that together to go and Google and research, you know, primary schools closing because obviously less kids, you know, I mean, we are becoming an elderly and aging population. So yeah, I mean, with the birth rate kind of dropping, it's just less kids to take up all these schools. So it was very interesting because these things happening real time in front of your eyes. As much as it's sometimes hard to believe, like a big part of me was like, I was like, this doesn't make sense. You know, like it's still doesn't entirely, but the signal is clearly there. 

Sue: So yeah, it's that switch, right? And once you turn it on, it's really hard to turn it off and your eyes are just open to then questioning what you're seeing, which I think is good.

I think a lot of the signals, because one of my interest areas has been food, a lot of it comes from just seeing new things in the grocery store, or especially when I'm traveling, seeing new things on the menu, which I wouldn't expect. For instance, recently going to Italy, where like the last time I went to Italy, prosecco just seemed to be everywhere. And now they're offering different types of sparkling wine, which made me think--this was not on the menu 10 years ago. What is happening? Why is there this other region that is now offering like an alternative sparkling wine, right? So it just makes you start thinking, oh, huh, that's interesting. Like that's always usually the first sign that you should investigate a little bit more.

Lana: I mean, I guess what I'm hearing from both of you is combining observation, right, with the curiosity, right? That's, you're seeing something, you're saying, hmm, and it's sparking a question. And then in that question is kind of this investigation of like, oh, why is this changing? And what is this pointing to, right? Not just from the past to the present, but what could this mean from the present to the future? 

You know, we have our Air Table, which is how we collect our signals in our database. And in our Slack channel, we have #everyday signals, where when we go and see signals in real life, we post them there and share them with each other. One place to find signals I'm gonna share from Sue, like when Sue went to an art exhibit and saw some evidence of things that we were talking about, seems looking ahead. I think this was like about biodiversity. And you know, sharing from there. And so, you know, I think artists are people who are exercising, right, their imagination and questioning the norms of our society, imagining things happening in a different way and a lens of possibility. Art exhibits can be a great way to see signals of the future before, maybe before they're realized today.

Yeah, and I think traveling to a new country, you know, I felt like I was just in Barcelona. When you're in a different place, you understand like how much cultural programming we're under, right? To see like what our definition of “normal” is, because that's our day-to-day life and that different people are living in a different normal. And I think those things can also open up new possibilities to say like-- this is not a signals example-- but like they don't use dryers in Europe. It's like, oh, we don't have to dry all of our clothes in a dryer, we can hang them on the line. You know, even those kinds of experiences, I think also open us up to seeing the world in a different way.

[13:43]

You know, I think our goal is to build community as well, right? So is there anything else we wanna share about what this practice means for us? And why do we do it?

Sue: One reason why I like we do it together is that normally a signal also is, yes, it's that observation and kind of questioning what it is, but it's also provoking like some kind of visceral reaction or feeling. What I love about the group is that we get to talk it out about why we feel either hopeful or we're feeling a bit of dread based on this signal and what we can do about it.

And so I think that's also a good space to say, what is the signal portending? Do we like it, do we not? How do we all feel about it? Sometimes we don't agree on how we feel, right? And so I think it's also good to get all those different perspectives going forward.

Raakhee: Yeah, I love that. So right, Sue. And I think what we bring, you know, each of us, the different signals, the different lens of how we perceive things, it's such an interesting way to learn. And I think, you know, if I had to kind of submit what it brings Lana, it's such a richness of learning and imagining, you know, what the future can look like in a positive way and how much power we actually do have in our hands. In our small little hands and the little things of choices we make every day, we do have some power. And I think one of the first places to start is to have these conversations. So it's really, really powerful. It's really rich, really rich learning that I get from each of you every week in how you see the world and what you find and what you share.

Lana: Love that, I totally agree. No, I think, yeah, I feel like we are living our values in terms of, you know, a belief that the future is collaborative, right? And so we collaborate to do this work. I totally agree, Raakhee. I think in terms of learning, I'm always amazed at the things that you two are able to find and what is strong, not just a compliment, but I think it feels very expansive. And it is a joy also for us to have kind of the space to, like Sue said, to process it. And I think, you know, one of the things with the amount of change that we're experiencing in real time, it's, I think, easy for it to feel overwhelming or scary, right? And so, but I think our goal is that we are facing it, processing it, but also taking some action in terms of, like, moving towards a future that we're excited about and want to be in.

Yeah, well, thank you both for this, giving some insight and on our approach and why we do this work. And so it's been really fun. Thank you all for joining us. And please join us next week when we discuss the future of ergonomics. In the meantime, please continue to follow us, tell your friends about us if you enjoy the show and check out our website, horizonshiftlab.com. And we will see you next week. All for now. Bye.

[17:16]