In a company far, far away, a team of science fiction writers is working on a set of stories about what that company’s customers are doing and how they’re living their lives.
Seriously. And that’s a good thing.
Science fiction is increasingly referenced in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Design research (Jordan et. al 2018). A quick Google search reveals that within the business world, there are calls to incorporate science fiction into the thinking and best practices of business. Still, the advocation and adoption of science fiction within the business world is nascent and far from ubiquitous. In this article, I argue that using a sociological lens to understand why we should incorporate science fiction into the business world makes it seem less out there than at first blush.
Dane’s Conversation with Susanne: An Impetus
In Dane’s most recent podcast, Dane and Susanne Conrad of Lightyear Leadership briefly ventured into sci-fi, outer space politics, and the future of teamwork. During the podcast, Susanne mentioned that when experts in the field consider space law – laws that govern outer space – they look to Star Trek to think about space regulation and the planet earth. For example, they ask questions like, “Who is responsible for all the trash in space?” This led to a lively discussion on how businesses can incorporate science fiction into their practices as a way to imagine new forms of teamwork.
Incorporating Sci-Fi into the Working World
As previously mentioned, Dane and Susanne are not alone in advocating for the incorporation of science fiction into the business world. Many large companies, like Visa, Lowe’s, and Hershey’s, are hiring science fiction writers to consult on the future of their business. For example, Lowe’s recently launched their Holoroom at a Lowe’s in Toronto. Holorooms combine 3-D and augmented reality technology to allow customers to visualize how a renovation will look once complete using the customer’s selected choice of Lowe’s products.
This idea came from Lowe’s partnership with SciFutures, a team of writers who write science fiction for their clients that helps them innovate for the future. In this instance, SciFuture wrote about a couple who use 3-D and augmented reality to design their home renovation. Kyle Nel, previous executive director of Lowe’s Innovation Labs, argued that home owners struggle to fully visualize what a completed renovation looks like and the Holoroom helped them do just that (Lowe’s 2014).
This example highlights the manner in which businesses are beginning to incorporate science fiction into their strategy. However, the incorporation of science fiction into the business world is not ubiquitous and its use could come off as a bit wacky. Perhaps this is a result of the business world struggling to properly articulate why this strategy makes sense.
Advocating for the Incorporation of Sci-Fi
Advocates of incorporating science fiction into business practices seemingly rely on two reasons for doing so. First, they state that the utilization of science fiction allows us to reimagine possibilities, which is true. But they don’t really break down how or why it works. Rather, advocates for sci-fi in business tend to focus on criticizing businesses for speculating on future needs and strategies by relying on today’s data. They argue that making assumptions about tomorrow are bound by the realities of today and, therefore, mistakes are made. Imagine trying to plan for 2020 bound by the realities of 2019.
Second, advocates for incorporating sci-fi argue that it brings in creativity. The implication here being that creativity is always a good thing. However, were I to produce a diorama for this whitepaper, our Marketing department would likely not appreciate my misguided use of creativity. These two reasons provide the logic for incorporating science fiction into the business world, but they don’t provide a lot of detail to explain how incorporating science fiction into business helps them imagine the future.
A Sociological Approach
Using a sociological lens to explore why we should incorporate science fiction into business practices helps us better understand why advocates are right to do so.
Social scientists utilize the term path dependence to describe using the past to make future decisions (Greener 2019). It’s easy to see why organizations gravitate toward path dependence. When congress revisits the idea of changing the tax structure, they don’t start from scratch. They rely on previous tax codes, historical trends, tax laws, and even their constituents expectations to envision a new tax structure. And this makes sense. If congress started from scratch every time they wanted to change things, congress would be stalled forever (yes, I can hear the quip we all want to make here).
Science fiction writers approach their writing without path dependence. As the old adage would have it, the world – or galaxy – is their oyster. Science fiction writers are not bound by past behavior and societal norms. Thus, a cornucopia of possibilities come into play because they no longer rely on history, trends, values, or beliefs to think about what is possible. Science fiction writers then are the anti-sociologists. They suspend social norms, established rules, and expectations to imagine possibilities that, to us, are a world away.
In thinking about the incorporation of science fiction into the working world, it isn’t that businesses suddenly need to revitalize their models and consult with science fiction writers to improve their practices. Rather, businesses need to continue doing what they have always done – hiring experts to bring their expertise to bear on company solutions. When attempting to think about the solutions for the future, companies need to leverage science fiction writers and their ability to suspend norms, rules, and established patterns of behavior to imagine new possibilities and boldly go where no man has gone before.
If you haven’t had the chance to listen to Dane’s most recent episode of the Future of Teamwork you can do so here:
Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gqMPNdYB
Apple: https://lnkd.in/gP2EmQ7V
Casted: https://lnkd.in/gWkCdPXy
References
Greener, Ian. “path dependence”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 9 Jan. 2019, https://www.britannica.com/topic/path-dependence.
Jordan, P., Mubin, O., Obaid, M., Silva, P.A. (2018). Exploring the Referral and Usage of Science Fiction in HCI Literature. In: Marcus, A., Wang, W. (eds) Design, User Experience, and Usability: Designing Interactions. DUXU 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10919. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91803-7_2
Lowe’s. 2014. “SCIENCE FICTION INSPIRES LOWE’S HOLOROOM AND HOME IMPROVEMENT INNOVATION” https://corporate.lowes.com/newsroom/press-releases/science-fiction-inspires-lowes-holoroom-and-home-improvement-innovation-06-11-14