Remember ten years ago when you had that one friend who was convinced the government was spying on him? Leaning into the cafe table, he would whisper that national security was listening to everyone’s phone conversations. “Crazy,” you thought. “Why would the government be interested in anything I’m up to?” You tried your best to comfort your obviously disillusioned friend. Perhaps you even suggested a professional to help him get in touch with reality.

The trouble is that he was not delusional at all. It turns out the National Security Agency is listening to your phone. That crazy idea? Not crazy. Reality these days has become a series of accepting the once fringe as mainstream. And while this is evident to a large extent in our national political and social discourse, it is true also in your business.

In 2007, Amazon was still understood as a book retailer. Fast forward to today and it is a retail, technology and logistics superpower that is likely going to somehow take over your industry. The entire business world, your company included, is knit into our accelerated culture. The diffusion of innovations is growing at an exponential rate. If you look back over the last ten years in your company, you can likely see that what once was only a distant trend is now an integral part of your daily life. It is enough to make you feel crazy.

Both the good news and the bad news is that you’re not crazy. Things are accelerating at a rate that we could not predict. And that has, in turn, increased the chances that seemingly unlikely realities are happening.

The pain of this acceleration is felt acutely when you are trying to plan for your next year. Where will our biggest opportunities be? What kind of vision ought we set forward? How do we look forward together? These questions are exceedingly difficult when things feel uncertain and crazy.

Here is better news: Things have always been and will always be crazy. The future has never been certain. But you can find a fresh approach to looking forward with your team if you can incorporate ways to think like futurists.

One way to begin:

This is not an attempt to predict the future. Don’t try that. Vision is less about predicting the future and more about your ability to articulate multiple futures. This allows your organization to have the flexibility to meet the new crazy realities.

Around this time of year, financial organizations will invite you to their economic forecasts. You pull up a chair with Styrofoam coffee in hand to the Powerpoint, and the presenter will click a series of bar graphs. There is a trend line, talk of contrarian economic indicators and thinly veiled attempts at not being politically partisan.

With a five-year horizon, it seems there is little influence you can have on shaping our economy. However, according to some economic forecasts from around the world, there is one metric over which you can have influence, and it has a deep impact: our need for new ideas.

This need is made apparent in the analysis of what economists call productivity. That is simply the amount of inputs required to produce outcomes. Globally, productivity has been dropping for years. Currently, there is increased human capital and expenditures for small or incremental rewards.

It is likely you have experienced this trend within your business. We focus on implementing within the constraints we establish.

New ideas are not just cute or fun. The health of your business in the future is dependent upon creating an environment in which innovation can occur.

New ideas are not just cute or fun. The health of your business in the future is dependent upon creating an environment in which innovation can occur. It is a mindset — a way to think that will shake loose creative notions about the future of your business.

They rarely come from thinking harder about the same circumstances. Often, they seem to materialize out of nowhere. We leave new ideas to chance. Or we believe that new ideas are the responsibility of visionaries. However, there are many frameworks for generating ideas.

You can try this one on and see what happens. It is a scaled back version of an exercise we do at Bigwidesky called Transpiration. Here is how it goes:

Do not be concerned with performing this perfectly. The point is to develop the muscle memory for unlocking creative vision. By creating rituals like this, organizations can become more agile. They can also create visions of the future that have depth and weight.

It was likely at some innovation-y conference some years ago that I heard this piece of inventor folklore: Previous to the Wright Brothers’ experience at Kitty Hawk, a group approached the Santa Fe Railway with a proposal for investment. The group who represented Samuel Langley, a well-known inventor and physicist, told the executives about the fact that the next innovation in transportation would be through the air.

According to the fable, the railroad executives took little time to deliberate. “We are a railroad company. That is what we know how to do. Sorry. We don’t fly.” Their decision likely seemed prescient at the time. After all, there was “nothing broke.” The railroad was king at the end of the 19th century. So why would they change? Of course, none of us would be as myopic as the Santa Fe executives in this business fable. Of course not. All of us knew to invest in an internet-based decentralized form of currency in 2012 right? Well, maybe not. But, today, a single Bitcoin is valued at over 7500 US dollars.

The point is that most of us are like the railroad executives. We do not possess a cultural openness to innovations, the critical component for new growth.

Having an openness to innovations is not about having the ability to predict the future or make the right investments. Not at all. It is about an openness or disposition to consider change. And the edge of a new year is the best time to get the humans in your organization ready for change.

Today, with the rate of innovations and the fact that, one day, Amazon will own your industry (if it does not already), making openness to change a deep value is of critical importance. Disruption feels like the new normal. If you want to better create an attitude of openness in your organization, you can try something we do at Bigwidesky, a Force-Field Analysis.

The purpose of a Force-Field Analysis is to expose the systems that are at work around a proposed change. It makes transparent the forces that support and cripple change. And, most importantly, it creates a deep alignment among stakeholders.

The best time to use a tool like this is when you have been considering a change — a new department, business process, growth strategy. The detailed process for a Force- Field Analysis is well-outlined in Gamestorming, a most insightful book from Dave Gray, Sunni Brown and James Macanufo. Generally, it works like this:

You now have a basis for discussing change that is further removed from preconceived notions about change as a concept. The idea is to address the feasibility of innovation on a quantified basis. This framework also allows for you to determine strategies to overcome obstacles should you decide to go through with a change. Using this approach, you can make change feel transparent, natural and human instead of forced and mechanical.

“I want something just like this, but not this,” is one of the phrases most often heard by anyone seeking to design something new. That something could be as simple as a business card or website and as complex as a new city block or business strategy. The phrase is generally uttered by well-meaning people who are attempting to express some outcome that remains inarticulable with current tools.

The trouble is this: The future is a space that is nebulous and abstract. And creating a prototype for the expression of those ideas about the future is largely the job of business visionaries, design thinkers and organizational leaders. That task is, at best, tough.

Here is what we need: A useful way of interpreting and communicating visions of the future that can inspire creativity.

“There are people we often call ‘visionaries’ who do this work intuitively,” said Jeremy Nulik, evangelist prime at Bigwidesky. “However, every human, by virtue of being human, is capable of vision. Playing a game like this can help you create a framework for articulating vision.”

To more involve the design-minded community in taking on widespread crises of vision, Bigwidesky hosted a special lunch and learn (How to Unlock Creative Vision: A workshop on applying design futures thinking to your biggest creative challenges during St. Louis Design Week. The week was an all-too-fitting time to have the conversation since it gathers the best minds in the design, communications, business and entrepreneurial communities.

It was standing room only as Jeremy Nulik facilitated a workshop with dozens of business leaders and design thinkers. He outlined why thinking like a futurist can help anyone to articulate vision. The attendees were then set in motion on playing The Thing from the Future — a game based upon the work of renowned futurist and friend of Bigwidesky, Stuart Candy.

Participants then create an artifact to represent the scenario.

The goal of The Thing from the Future is to create the muscle memory for how to interpret visions of the future. And it serves as a way to expose the broad possibility space of multiple futures. During the lunch and learn, the attendees were divided into groups and given a scenario based on their four cards.

If you want to download the cards used during the lunch and learn, you can print and play them from here. Also, you can use the ones developed by Stuart Candy here.

If you play using Bigwidesky cards, you are encouraged to post your artifacts to Twitter or Instagram and tag them with #bigwidesky.

PRO TIP: Do not be concerned with playing the game perfectly. The point of the game is to develop the muscle memory for evaluating the possibility space of the future and for unlocking creative vision. By creating rituals or games that seek to “play futures,” organizations and individuals can become more agile and intelligent thinkers. They can also create visions of the future that have depth and weight — two ingredients that increase the likelihood that others will align with the vision. (If you think your organization would benefit from playing the game, send an email to Angela.)

Special thanks to the St. Louis Design Week, Mike Spakowski and Tara Nesbitt.

Many decades ago, an artist and deep-pocketed co-conspirators thought it wise to erect an homage to some of their characters in the middle of a Florida swamp. The stated motivation for this effort was to create a place where anyone could find inspiration. Visitors unlock imagination and have a great time.

Today, the Walt Disney Corporation is in the business of making family fun (and a great deal of profits via a diversified portfolio).

I took my first-ever trip to Walt Disney World just a few months ago. Their creative investment in making fun is like nothing else I’ve ever experienced. However, not every visitor to “The Most Magical Place on Earth” feels the same.

Upon entering the Magic Kingdom, we were slowly moseying through a makeshift Main Street America. Costumed Imagineers roamed among filigreed buildings. The kettle corn and stuffed animals rounded out a county fair feel. In the distance, the minarets of Cinderella’s Castle became visible. Instantly, I was transported into a state of childhood wonder.

“All right you two, smile! This is supposed to be the ‘Happiest Place on Earth.’ C’mon. This is for Facebook,” said the phone-wielding woman backing away from her two boys. I had not seen her reverse approach toward me. She had stepped on my feet, and I nearly fell. Her boys had clearly been crying. It was the beginning of the day, and it seemed to me they had already had all the fun they were going to have.

This scene was a microcosm of something I had witnessed repeatedly in the park. Despite the investment in manufactured fun, there are lots of slow-moving people and strollers in tight areas. There is the Florida heat. This setting exposes the nerves of 20 years worth of backlogged family drama. And it is played out for every Mickey-painted face to witness.

This is how well deep investment performs at making happy. And how many times do we try to create Disney-like fun experiences in our companies? And how fair is it to expect we will be more successful sans deep-pocketed investors?

Workplace experts have clogged conference schedules with happiness seminars. While the intentions are righteous, there is little evidence to support manufactured happiness is effective for increasing productivity. Recent studies cited in the Harvard Business Review have found that happiness doesn’t increase productivity. It can be exhausting and damage your relationships with your team. It can even make you appear selfish.

The reasons for the focus on workplace happiness — despite this evidence — are largely aesthetic. No conscientious leader wants to create an unhappy environment. So, in reaction, most companies will do their utmost to make happy. These efforts fall flat. Why? If you think about the most meaningful moments in your life, they were rarely characterized by just happiness. They were full of fear, sadness, anticipation and challenge. Requiring that people be happy is essentially asking them to not be humans.

Amazing customer experience and an aligned workforce have been shown to create more productivity and profits. If those sound appealing, then offer your people the chance to be challenged and to grow. It is likely this will not make everyone happy. That’s okay. If you put the focus on accomplishing something great together, you unlock the potential for spontaneous joy and fulfillment. You allow people to be more human.

Try this: Gather your team, and share your vision for where you want your business to be in 20 years (Note: That means you have to craft a vision first). Allow them to create personal challenges that will allow them to make a difference in your team to get there. And then provide them the needed resources for them to accomplish their challenges.

As dubious as you likely feel about Taylor Swift, she represents something important in our culture. And no, this is not a column about the “Ten Business Lessons You Can Learn from T-Swift.” What I mean is that she is the most visible pop culture variety archetype of adolescent pain — the precious currency of pretty much every piece of art and music since we drew on cave walls.

If you can remember back to when you were a teenager, you know that angst. It seemed so unique to you. The most compelling part of this phenomenon is that this angst is, in fact, not at all particular. It is the pain we all feel at some point.

If you think of business as a human, you can rest assured many are like a teenager. High performing business people I have interviewed for the past decade tend to be convinced that the problems they face only happen to them. No one understands them, so how could anyone have a solution to their troubles?

These angst-ridden business people are the same ones to whom you have been trying to market and sell your wares. And its likely you have run headlong into their mindset. When you try to provide these people with solutions — just on an information basis — they will not hear it. Because they are cloaked in terminal uniqueness.

The best way to reach angsty decision-makers is the same way pop musicians reach teenagers. You need good stories. By using the proven formulation of effective storytellers, you can break through that tough visage. A storytelling model can be used in a conversation, a sales presentation or in a meeting.

The concept of using stories is not new in the context of marketing and sales. While a lot of us know narratives can help to change minds, it is not always obvious how to structure your story for the most impact. The following framework is based upon Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth — it is the same structure that guides the narrative of popular films such as Star Wars.

1. The Call. Begin the narrative with a hero character. Describe him. The hero character can be you or another former client or a colleague. Your hero is successful, but they are facing a tough crossroads and don’t know which way to go.

2. The Crossing. Illustrate how the hero dealt with the kind of change you are proposing. Emphasize how it felt when they first started something new. For the hero, there will be growing pains and difficulty, but you will explain how he overcomes the hurdles.

3. The Atonement. Show how the hero acquired your proposed solution and how your solution unlocks an entirely new understanding of how to face their problem.

4. The Return. After they have the solution, the hero is forever changed. They find a way to integrate the new solution they found into the way they do business.

While it may seem simple enough as a framework, most business people skip the first parts and go straight to the solution phase of the story arc. The person to whom you tell this story must first feel an authentic empathy before they will be willing to listen. If you can master this ability to couch your branding and solutions into short narratives, you can more easily speak in a medium that will allow others to really hear you. You can reach them where they are, and you can inspire transformation.

This article originally appeared in the June issue of St. Louis Small Business Monthly.

A few years ago, I interviewed Joe Edwards, the visionary and developer behind much what is now the Delmar Loop in University City. Between bites of seasoned fries at Blueberry Hill, we spoke of the origins of the area. When Edwards arrived in the 70s, the Loop did not exist as it is now known. The area was not at all friendly to pedestrians. A good number of the storefronts were boarded up. Biker gangs and violent ne’er-do-wells ruled the streets.

It was in the context of these Escape-from-New-York-like circumstances that Edwards crafted a vision for a business district that was unlike anything that the region had known. His idea was an urban Mayberry of sorts — an organic reflection of the diversity of the region complete with widened sidewalks, homegrown shopping and restaurants.

Fast forward to today and much of the vision that Edwards created 40 years ago has come true. The Loop continues to evolve and has a buzz unique to St. Louis. The transformation he saw is now our reality. Edwards has been successful in creating a culture that supports his vision.

As a person who leads your business, you are often in the role of visionary — someone who must articulate a future and create a culture that will support that vision. This is not an easy task. But the good news is there is a framework you can use to craft vision — one around which you can build a supporting culture.

Joe Edwards, the visionary and developer for the Delmar Loop in University City, was able to create a culture around his vision and break conditioned responses. Photo by Bill Sawalich (www.barlowpro.com)

In light of Edwards’ example, it appears a fundamental element to fully realizing a vision is to break your audiences’ conditioned response — to allow them to see something bigger than their circumstances. Edwards looked at boarded up buildings and saw a future that was vibrant. It was an unexpected thing. And that is the stuff of cultural inspiration.

Few things make us more human than our ability to break our preconceived notions about the future. And few things are harder for most in business — particularly those who have been successful — than doing just that. However, if you hope to create alignment with others around your vision, you must first break your own conditioned response.

Jim Dator, director of the Hawaii Research Center for Future Studies, is famous for saying, “The future cannot be predicted because the future does not exist.” This quote may sound like something akin to Yogi Berra. But how many of us live as though we know what the future will be. And we attack each day with that kind of certainty about something that is truly imaginary.

In Dator’s 40 years of studying the way humans look forward, he developed four distinct categories for visions of the future. For your purposes as a business leader, I would submit to you that they offer a framework for putting aside your conditioned responses and, in turn, inviting others to lay down their preconceived notions.

In thinking about the future of your company or division or career, you can use this framework as a way to explore the possibility space of the future. It will uncover narratives you may not have considered and gets you in the mindset to break preconceived ideas. If you can make this a working part of your mind, you will find it easier to help others break their conditioned responses and join. They will want to join with you on your vision.

Try this: Put yourself ten years in the future and write a narrative (no more than three sentences) for each of the four categories of vision. If you really want to have an interesting experience, invite others in your leadership to do the same. You will find, almost immediately, that you can much more easily enfranchise others in a vision that will become realized.