{Radio} The best of 2021
In this week’s on-air chat Hong Kong radio 3’s James Ross and I chat about all things good, positive and encouraging in a year that for most of us we’d otherwise like to forget.
It was the first year that electric vehicles outsold diesel cars in Europe – a sign of what’s to come worldwide, as we respond both to the environmental and social desire for less emissions and the practicality that around the world car manufacturers are phasing out diesel and soon petrol car production.
It was also the year in which BCI Brain Computer Interfaces took another leap forward connecting a human brain wirelessly to a computer and despite its Frankenstein overtones imagine what joy that technology might bring to people who are unbale to have their bodies respond to the signals the mind puts out.
We also chatted about United Airlines first 100% flight using sustainable fuel made from sugar, water and corn and continuing the aviation theme the first helicopter / drones flight on Mars.
Have a listen now to why these and other 2021 inventions / innovations made what was otherwise not such a great year, at least a good year.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What were the most significant foresight signals from 2021?
The year confirmed several trajectories that the pandemic had accelerated: remote and hybrid work as permanent features rather than temporary adaptations, the genuine shift in worker power that became the Great Resignation, the maturation of vaccine platform technology with broader implications for medicine, and the beginning of serious geopolitical fracture around technology standards and supply chains.
Q: What did 2021 get wrong that we can learn from?
Several things: the assumption that supply chains would normalise quickly (they did not), the belief that office work would simply resume (it did not for most knowledge workers), and the prediction that crypto would continue its 2020-2021 trajectory indefinitely. Trend extrapolation without second-order thinking produces confident wrong answers.
Q: What from 2021 is still playing out today?
The labour market reorientation that began in 2021 is still unresolved. The supply chain diversification investment triggered in 2021 is still being built. The geopolitical technology competition that crystallised in 2021 has intensified. 2021 was a year of structural shifts, not cyclical ones — the ripple effects are multi-year.
Q: Can Morris Misel provide an annual foresight review for our organisation or event?
Yes. Year-in-review foresight briefings are a regular format for corporate and association clients. Book at morrismisel.com.
In this week’s on-air chat Hong Kong radio 3’s James Ross and I chat about all things good, positive and encouraging in a year that for most of us we’d otherwise like to forget. It was the first year that electric vehicles outsold diesel cars in Europe – a sign of what’s to come .
When signals like The best of 2021 emerge, organisations that engage early have the advantage of choosing their response rather than reacting to events. That gap between those who prepared and those who did not is where competitive positioning is actually made or lost.
The most important question is not whether The best of 2021 will matter, but how quickly it will matter in your specific context. Leaders benefit most from mapping the ripple effects early — not just the direct impact but the second and third-order consequences that arrive later and hit harder. That is the practical work of foresight.
