Jeremy Gutsche is one of my favorite futurists. He’s the super smart Canadian behind TrendHunter.com. He has established a template to help innovators bring the future forward faster!

Mr. Gutsche has identified Six Innovation Limiters:

6  Neurological Shortcutting

5  Learned Behavior

4  Cultural Conformity

3  Traps of Success

2  Linear Thinking

1  Blindness to Trends

#6  Neurological Shortcutting

This is a natural human brain tendency. We narrow down to things we’ve already decided before.

To break out of neurological shortcutting, you need to be methodical about creativity.

1 Reset Your Expectations

2 Kill Your Ego

3 Throw Away Your First Ideas

4 Use Patterns And MegaTrends

5 Deep Dive Your Curiosities

#5  Learned Behavior

To break free from your learned behaviors, be open to possibility:

1 Encourage Play

2 Stop Knowing The Answer (And Ask Questions)

3 Assume You Are Incorrect

4 Break Rules

5 Diversify Your Team

#4  Cultural Conformity

Inspire a culture of action!

1 Simplify The Plan

2 Engage Your Team

3 Put The Customers First

4 Invest In New Opportunity

5 Force The Discussion Of Competing Alternatives

#3  Traps of Success

Mr. Gutsche uses the comparison of the traps of a farmer vs. the instincts of a hunter:

3 Traps of a Farmer     3 Hunter Instincts

Complacent                   Insatiable

Repetitive                       Curious

Protective                       Willing To Destroy

To be be a good innovator, think like a hunter.

#2  Linear Thinking

Of the 500 Fortune 500 companies in the year 2000, half are gone here in 2019.

Another half will be gone in 10 years.

People are terrible at forecasting 3 to 5 years out!

Understand that the intervals of change are accelerating.

To combat linear thinking, internalize the pace of change:

1 Track The Amount Of Change In Your Market

2 Brainstorm Your Super Future

3 Shock Yourself Into Action

4 Prepare Scenarios To Disrupt Or Avoid Being Disrupted

#1  Blindness to Trends

Blindness to societal trends is the biggest limiter to innovation of all.

Thank goodness for Jeremy Gutsche and his amazing team at www.TrendHunter.com. They give away a tremendous amount of insight on their web site. Be sure to check it regularly.

And if you think that is amazing, you should see their paid work!

There you have it, a template to help you and your organization be great innovators!

With all the commotion in D.C. this week around the start of impeachment hearings, you’re forgiven if you didn’t see the OTHER huge news out of Washington, D.C. this week.

The U. S. House of Representatives passed the SAFE Banking Act, a bill that if it becomes law, will allow legal marijuana businesses access to the banking system. The bill now moves on to the Senate, where it faces a less certain fate.

For sure, this is a historic win for the cannabis industry! Additionally the bipartisan nature of the overwhelming margain of victory, with 91 Republicans joining all but one Dem, sent a rare signal of legislative cooperation in a time – and week – of bitter partisanship.

There’s no denying this is yet another win for the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA), perhaps the pre-eminent voice of the cannabis industry.

“This is a sign the time has come for comprehensive cannabis reform,” said Morgan Fox, a spokesman for the NCIA. “The fact that we got almost half the Republicans is a huge sign we’re moving in the right direction toward sensible policies.”

The next step is clear. The cannabis industry needs to contact the U.S. Senate in general, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in particular. And there is reason for hope in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Last week the senior Senator from Kentucky “pressured” the FDA to go easy on hemp-derived CBD. Admittedly a small step. But small steps are how we lead the loyal opposition down the path.

If you or anyone you know lives in Kentucky, call the Senator and tell him cannabis is nothing to fear. In fact, it’s medicinal!

Today is National Voter Registration Day.

Home

If you or someone you love isn’t registered to vote, please encourage them to do so! Visit https://www.usa.gov/register-to-vote to check your voter registration.

Good, sound public policy starts with a highly engaged public. Make sure you’re registered to vote – and be sure to vote in your local elections this Novemeber!

Here’s a great definition of public policy, written by Mark Riso, in an article he had published in a trade magazine:

“The vast majority of Americans don’t have a specific expertise in medicine, law enforcement, or health and safety (to name a few), and we go about our lives, relying on those who create public policies to “have our backs” and create an environment conducive to the best interests of our families, our friends, our communities and ourselves.”

This is why we at 20/20 Growth give awards to government officials. Because we want to recognize those who “have our backs” and protect our families, friends, communities.

Thanks to Mark Riso for such a great definition!  www.markriso.com

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote one of the great works of business when he penned his famous Law of Compensation.

I encourage everyone, from grizzled business veterans to first time sales people to read the pearls of wisdom in Emerson’s words.

I love his essay so much, I tweeted out the whole thing! Here’s a sample tweet:

The longer the payment is withholden, the better for you; for compound interest on compound interest is the rate and usage of this exchequer. The history of persecution is a history of endeavours to cheat nature, to make water run up hill, to twist a rope of sand.

I encourage you to look up @EmersonsLaw on Twitter, see if you can find something that moves you.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but a recession looms. In fact, we may already be in a recession and just don’t know yet. Let me briefly explain why recessions are natural, why this is nothing to fear, and why the longer we put it off – assuming we can with interest rate cuts and “stimulus” deficit spending – the worse it plummets and hurts in the long run.

Recessions are a natural, even mandatory, part of any economic cycle. Good times lead to excess. Excess can lead to greed and over-extension, and inevitably, the economic cycle will bring it back into balance.

Fact: The US economy goes into a recession every 5 to 8 years.

Fact: The US economy has been without a recession since summer 2009. Over 10 years. And counting.

Let the “and counting” part worry you. The bigger they grow, the harder they fall. The “good” news is that the economic contraction has probably already started, artificially, due in no small part to Trump’s tariffs. Trump’s tariffs have been a government imposed softening of the strong economy that has run for so long it risks overheating into something worse than a run-of-the-mill recession.

Don’t fear a recession. Many will ride through it unscathed, so why fret or worry for them? And for the worst suffers, the bankruptcy process and welfare programs like SNAP are designed to ease the transition that comes with failure.

Failure is good. Growth comes from failure. Failure beats inaction any day.

And you can make money in a recession. And not just in foreclosures.

But most of all, why fight it? It would be like standing guard at a hurricane with an umbrella and a big industrial fan arguing that you can beat it back. You can’t. Not even if you’re President of the United States.

The important takeaways:

• Recessions happen. Let them happen.
• Look for opportunity in the downturn. I bought my house in 2009 for $201,000. It’s value has dipped some over the last year. It’s down to around $350,000. I expect that value will fall in the short term and rise in the long term.
• Don’t panic. Stick to your plan. 
• Compared to the last recession, affectionately known as The Great Recession, why, this one shouldn’t be that bad at all. Easy for me to say.
• Long term, never bet against America. We’re the greatest country around, the greatest economy ever. We will not only bounce back, we will bounce back bigger and stronger than ever.
• Remember Warren Buffet’s old adage. Be fearful when everyone is greedy, and be greedy when everyone is fearful. Accumulating cash now could lead to some great deals in a few quarters.