Future Design Inquiries. September 2024

Hello from your friends at enso, a future design company.

For anyone new here, we’re sharing the things that make us think, bring us joy or shift our perspective. And we welcome your reactions, additions, and suggestions – reach out news@enso.co.

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What we’re reflecting on

These nuggets are curated by enso partners Hanna Siegel (HS) and Sebastian Buck (SB).

A future worth fighting for

Kamala Harris’ DNC speech included the line, ‘The future is always worth fighting for’, and she drew a distinct contrast between going forwards versus backwards, or stasis. In business, the temperature is typically a little lower, but how many leadership teams have really articulated a future worth fighting for? There are a couple of studies that I can never get out of my head: Edelman’s Trust Barometer, the latest edition of which said only 53% of businesses are trusted in the US, and Gallup’s Global Employee Engagement index, which says only 23% of employees are engaged in their work. In other words, as a category, business leaders have a failing grade at articulating a future worth fighting for. This is one of the greatest conundrums I’ve come across: humanity’s most effective vehicle for the creation of prosperity and progress is so woefully bad at its most basic act: creating, and living into, stories people can believe in. But then again, changing that is the future we at enso are fighting for. (SB)

Watching the Olympics was good for your health

A new study shows that watching sports is actually good for your health. Whether you’re watching on a screen or in person, people self-report an increased sense of wellbeing and MRI imaging shows increased activity in the parts of the brain associated with wellbeing. Which isn’t so surprising when you think about the fact that we already know shared experiences and connection are a huge part of healthy living. And increasingly, there are fewer opportunities to share in something, and believe in something, with people different from you. Most people no longer go to church. Many community organizations have shrunk. Loneliness is a dangerous epidemic. In fact, one could argue that sports are the biggest remaining space where different kinds of people can come together around a shared experience. Which begs the question – how can we harness sports as a tool to boost societal wellbeing? (HS)

How we win

If there are two mindsets to winning: one is from joy, where the journey is about finding your best, enjoying the ride, embracing the people around you; Shine Theory. The other is from aggression: it’s about beating others, being the one, getting to the destination, taking the prize. Of course, the Olympics had both mindsets on display, but it’s the joy path that stole hearts and defined the games, particularly the iconic moment of Simone and Jordan bowing to Rebecca. The women’s skateboard park final was another beautiful example. How did Emma Hayes turn the USWNT around, from World Cup disappointment to Olympics gold medals in a few months? ‘Just love’. Nike’s campaign chose the win-from-aggression path: statements like ‘winning is always the answer’, ‘they didn’t lose, they got a lesson’, etc. It feels outdated, a sensibility that’s a relic of the 80s, when ‘radical’ meant sticking it to the world, a rebellion against conformity. Today, rebellion is love in a time of chaos. Not only a relic, it turns out the aggressive, ‘win or nothing’ path is deeply unsatisfying too — people suffer from an ‘arrival fallacy’, expecting to be happy after that next milestone. Thankfully, we now have a presidential campaign embracing the idea of being ‘joyful warriors’. Let’s win with joy. (SB)

Listen to your emotions → make better decisions

Throughout history, Western culture has pitted reason against emotion. And yet, as David Brooks notes in his piece, You’re Only as Smart as Your Emotions, “Modern neuroscience has delivered a body blow to this way of thinking. If people thought before that passions were primitive and destructive, now we understand that they are often wise. Most of the time emotions guide reason and make us more rational.” In fact, it’s our body that reacts first to whatever is happening (increased heart rate, clammy hands, churning stomach), and then our mind that constructs the experience we know as emotion (excitement, fear, anxiety). Emotions, as Brooks says, actually change your mindset, shifting it accordingly depending on the circumstances. So as we think about what we want out of the future – and as we assess our potential leaders – it’s worth thinking: how do they make us feel? And do they understand that a sound comprehension of, and respect for, our emotions is what ultimately leads to good decision making? (HS)

Curiosity vs. distraction

Curiosity is a value and practice we hold dearly at enso; our days are spent learning about new markets, exploring new possibilities, learning from smart people. But curiosity can easily tip over into rabbit holes of unsatisfying distraction. What’s the dividing line? This is a problem AI researchers deal with; many learning models operate on the reward system of learning new things, but those models can also be distracted by ‘the noisy TV problem’: a distracting array of new content, but mostly empty calories. Tim Harford wrote a fascinating column on this challenge, and it basically comes down to avoiding randomness: “the curiosity zone is next door to what you already know … thoughtful curiosity builds knowledge, and knowledge builds thoughtful curiosity.” In other words, it might be best to choose your curiosity rather than let algorithms serve you those cat memes.  Or maybe not? 🐱(SB)

12 things that made us think, gasp, share and laugh:

• “My favorite creative outlet was always thinking differently about what's possible.” – enso friend and collaborator Sarah Kay, whose substack is excellent.
• Michelangelo said he just needed to remove the superfluous marble to reveal the sculpture; for years now, the insanely talented Alexandre Farto (@vhils) has been revealing beauty inside walls.
• Japanese artist Raku Inoue’s pop culture figures, made entirely of flowers.

• A fascinating insider take on what led Nike astray in recent years. A lot to learn here, for all companies. In particular: the shift from an athlete-driven culture (with sports-based divisions, like basketball, running, soccer, etc) to a more generic data-driven culture (with divisions based on usual apparel lines: men, women, kids), a shift from buying vs. earning customers (performance marketing over brand), and a shift from trusted partner retailers to owned channels … these shifts do not seem to have worked well. 
• People experiencing depression or anxiety who focused on therapy to enhance positive emotions reported more improvement than those whose therapy focused on reducing negative emotions. Psychologist Jenny Taitz recommends these ways to ‘stretch positive feelings’: 
  • Expand your joy vocabulary
  • Share your highlight reel
  • Find silver linings
  • Forecast future wins
• The 2024 iPhone Photography Award winners, including Glenn Wilbert who won First Place for this shot, Lifeguard Camp, taken at Huntington Beach, CA.

• Designer Henry Kaye is drawing LA’s restaurants 
• NBC’s ratings and revenues from the Olympics are ‘way up’. Why? They designed for a good experience rather than ‘gate keeping’ content (how often do we see that choices made to optimize revenue have the inverse effect??)
• If you’re feeling unmotivated 
• The Case Study program changed architecture in the 40s and 50s by letting architects create their vision of a future; Solo Houses is a similar project in Spain, with stunning results. 
• The greatest books of all time. With so many ‘best of’ lists, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. This clever idea brings together 300 different lists to create a meta-ranking of books worth our time. Then The Economist appended ‘time to read’ for each, so we can plan accordingly. Fun fact: you could read four of the GBOATs in under two hours.
• Ben Thouard’s surf photography is always inspiring, but surf photography from below is exquisite.

What we’re working on

enso is a small, senior team so that we can work on just a few initiatives at a time. This allows us to go deep on some of the biggest challenges/ opportunities. Recently, we’ve been working on a few main missions with our partners:

1. The business case for work wellbeing: Showing how companies that prioritize employee wellbeing outperform the market – and spreading the word. 
2. Design The Future book: Distilling wisdom from those actively designing and creating the future, from a wide variety of fields. We hope to complete this in 2024.
3. A brand to radiate optimism: We think restoring optimism in the world is essential. We're exploring building a product, content and community brand around this idea.
4. Radical leap stories in Mexico: Uncovering the stories of Mexicans creating and solving with technology. 
5. Reforming the world of work: Bringing the world’s talent leaders together to build a better world of work.

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enso • 115 W California Blvd #9101 Pasadena, CA 91105