Thomas Klaffke
on Trends as Meaningful Opportunities
“We are stuck in our thinking. The systems around us influence our viewpoint and almost shackle us to thinking inside the box. This prevents real imagination and the emergence of truly new and disruptive ideas.”
Thomas Klaffke is right: when we’re analyzing different people and what their idea of the future is, it also shows us the ideologies and the belief systems that stand behind that.
Thomas eats trends for breakfast. In his early twenties, he spent a lot of time doing social work, followed by leaning more and more towards foresight and innovation management, studying futures studies. He is now mapping out the latest consumer trends and insights from around the world, writing industry-specific reports, and providing strategic advice to TrendWatching’s clients.
He also takes good care of the Business of Purpose sister-company: his mission is to guide, inspire, but also empower business professionals to bring to market sustainable and inclusive solutions by turning trends into meaningful opportunities.
Can you guess the three essential elements of a trend?
Guidance. Usefulness and… Inspiration!
A trend should trigger new ideas - new thinking. That means inspirational sustainability and regeneration should be “trending”, right?
Creative Destruction, Thomas’s newsletter, explores out-of-the-box ideas and perspectives to open minds, build a better future and help you see the world around you in a different light through his innovative articles: Pleasure Activism, Why we lost our groove and how to get it back, Seeing Wetiko, or A Crumbling Old World.
As Thomas says, “don’t just follow the herd and go directly into it. In order to learn something new, we must first unlearn. Firstly, reflect on your situation and your viewpoints right now. See what you need to unlearn - culture, ideas, opinions, goals - and only then commit to and start your sustainability journey. Be aware that it is a journey, and not a destination.”
Thank you, Thomas, for being a Creative Destructor!
#INSPIRATORS QUESTIONNAIRE
Name: Thomas Klaffke
Company / Institution: TrendWatching; Creative Destruction
Title: Head of Research; Founder
Website: creatived.substack.com; www.trendwatching.com
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasklaffke/
Country of origin: Germany
Country you currently live in: Germany
Your personal definition of Sustainability: I prefer Regeneration, as I think we not only need to do less harm, but also regenerate what has been harmed or destroyed.
Regeneration is really about building systems that have a symbiotic relationship with nature where both parties win. For example: a beer grain grown in a way that regenerates the soil, thereby enhances biodiversity, empowers the nearby community (jobs, relationships, purpose…) and, lastly, creates delicious beer, enhancing festivities and cultural rituals.
Main business challenge you face: Building out my Creative Destruction newsletter and finding that perfect, super aligned product-market-fit for my subscribers and deliver something to them with true and massive value.
Main driver that keeps you going: I believe that we are stuck in our thinking. The systems around us influence our viewpoint and almost shackle us to thinking inside the box. This prevents real imagination and the emergence of truly new and disruptive ideas. And I am, of course, all about combating and dismantling the (in my opinion) very exploitative and destructive systems that dominate our world, and specifically business (e.g. the infinite growth or competitive logic).
The trait you are most proud of in yourself: Unconventional thinking and the ability to step (even immerse) into others’ shoes.
The trait you most value in others: Tolerance, compassion and humbleness.
Passions & little things that bring you joy: Hiking, running, being in nature in general, cooking, and getting my mind blown by new ideas or experiences.
The #inspirators who determined you to take the sustainability path:
Maturana & Varela
Patagonia
Hartmut Rosa
…and many people I meet on the street or on travels.
A hint or starting point for companies or professionals that are taking the first steps in the sustainability journey: Don’t just follow the herd and go directly into it. In order to learn something new, we must first unlearn. So, firstly, reflect on your situation and your viewpoints right now. See what you need to “unlearn” (e.g. processes, culture, ideas, opinions, goals) and only then commit to and start your sustainability journey. Be aware that it is a journey and not a destination.
Most used and abused clichés in sustainability that bother you: Carbon credits, carbon tunnel vision (it’s also about biodiversity and so much more), green growth logic. Not thinking about sustainability’s link to social inequality.
An honest piece of advice for young people who lose hope: Read more about history, especially biographies or diaries from people who, for example, were born in 1900 and had to live through two world wars + the cold war, the Spanish flu, the great depression, authoritarianism, lots of social injustices. Quit the (daily) news and manage your social media intake!
Books that had a major impact on you:
Simon Sinek - Start with Why
Beau Lotto - Deviate
Humberto Maturana & Francisco Varela - The Tree of Knowledge
Jason Hickel - Less is More
Must-reads for any Sustainability professional: The IPCC reports and Ernst Schumacher’s Small Is Beautiful.
Movies / Documentaries you would watch all over again:
CODA
Kiss The Ground
Shooting Dogs
Blogs / Websites / Podcasts etc. you visit frequently:
So many: www.resilience.org and www.noemamag.com are great, and https://annehelen.substack.com/
Music that makes you (and your heart) sing: Soul and Blues music.
Places you travelled to that left a mark on you: Indonesia (love the people), Hong Kong (crazy city, huge skyscrapers…), South Africa (amazing nature, but also crazy how visible the “aftermath” of apartheid still is).
Global Sustainability Voices you recommend us to follow:
Erin Remblance
Jason Hickel
Trends in Sustainability we should keep an eye on: Degrowth in terms of macro-trend. Linking social justice with sustainability. Regenerative business practices. Repairing and upcycling (within circular economy). People-powered reclaiming (e.g. community solar, community buying, food cooperatives).
Best places for business networking (online or offline): Any co-working space, specific, closed online communities that relate to your field or interests.
Events we should attend: I am not a big events guy!
Associations, business clubs, tribes you belong to – and why: The Business of Purpose community, which I also manage. We are connecting purpose-driven business professionals who are eager to champion sustainability, equity and well-being.
Reasons to feel optimistic about our future in 2030: Younger generations will hold more roles of people and bring new ideas and worldviews into the “board rooms”. In many topics (sustainability, well-being, inequality), we are on the verge of going from an awareness that what we have done so far has been destructive to actually imagining and experimenting with new systems that strive to be more regenerative. All these ideas and experiments will transform into actual things, processes, communities, new narratives and systems in the next years. So much exciting new stuff will come!
Reasons to feel pessimistic about our future in 2030: We are, of course, failing the 1.5 degree goal. People in power still often haven’t really understood the problem. The new ideas that we are going for (e.g. green growth) aren’t revolutionary or transformative at all. It’s not what we need (e.g. entirely new value systems). We’ll likely see quite a lot of natural catastrophes in the coming years that will hurt millions of people.
Regenerative Leadership qualities much needed today: Systems thinking, being humble, focus, innovative thinking.
Quotes that inspire you:
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
(Buckminster Fuller)
“Every year that we head closer to catastrophe […] the old narrative loses its hold on the collective consciousness.”
(Jeremy Lent)
Your own quote that will inspire us:
