It’s amazing what you can accomplish in two decades. It took NASA about 20 years to get a man on the moon. Then, in 1997, Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy, but by 2007, it had a market cap of US$1 trillion and something called the iPhone. In the case of Pollinate, which ticks over 20 this year, we’ve managed to rack up well over 50,000 focus groups. 

Sure, it might not sound as impressive, but two decades of observations almost certainly qualifies as ‘wisdom’ and given the current market challenges, there just might be something we can learn from history. 

So, what are the biggest trends from two decades of human insights?

Most people don’t listen, including you

We get frustrated because we see what we think is clearly a brilliant idea or an obvious insight, but we can’t work out why the decision-makers just won’t act.

There are lots of reasons people don’t listen but the biggest reason I’ve learnt is they just can’t hear you. 

You probably aren’t speaking their language. They don’t see it the same way you do. First work out a shared dialogue and a shared understanding. Then conversation can begin.

Everyone talks strategy but it’s mostly all talk.  

Twenty years ago, strategic decisions were based on insights and took months on end to plan; while further research was designed to measure and evaluate success. 

Today, tonnes of constant data replace genuine insights and success is all about showing impact on the “one number you need”. Transformational strategy has been replaced by incrementalism. Strategy has been neutered by risk aversion. 

Australia’s productivity growth is now about 1.2 percent a year, which is so low it is projected to reduce our living standards in the future. Strategy should be difficult, not quick and easy.

The ‘fair go’ has long got up and gone

Australia is riven with both comfortable duopolies and a culture of conformity. The current level of inequity should be deeply disturbing in terms of implications for youth, marginalised people and First Nations peoples.  

Australia now rewards wealth, not work. It’s making Australia a little more selfish and a little less open-minded every day. Australia isn’t alone in this, many countries face similar or even worse inequity.  But only Australia has based its cultural identity on the idea of mateship and a ‘fair go’.

Technology doesn’t make as much difference as everyone thinks

At the pointy end, technology has been transformational: cochlear implants are literally life-changing for people with severe hearing issues. But wifi? Mobile phones? Sure, they’ve sped things up by an incredible factor of 60.

But the metal wire strung on wooden poles from Darwin to Adelaide that brought telegraph to Australia in 1877 sped up communications by a factor of 6000. 

Faster change does not mean more impactful.

We have got our priorities wrong

I used to do research on ‘convenience’ foods and new technologies to help ‘time-poor’ people eat on the go and do more and more. 

In all this time, fundamental human needs haven’t changed one iota, but society’s overall wellbeing is in steady decline: reported mental health has doubled in the last 20 years.  

Most companies have made a lot of money on products and services to help us to do more faster and easier, but most people have not become any happier or healthier, quite the reverse in fact.

If that truth-telling has made you gloomy, fear not – there is a bright side.

First of all, AI will never grow a carrot. AI actually stands for ‘awfully inflated’. It will make a profound difference when it is finally applied to what matters but most people will still have a job in the future.

Second, Australia is a triumph of bread and circuses. We are literally world leaders in tolerating mediocre management and government in return for ever-increasing apparent wealth and satisfaction. Deplorable as this may be to cultural critics, it means we will likely remain stubbornly content and socially stable. Ironic, sure, but cultural stability is quite a rare thing in these times of global turmoil.

Third, young people are revolting. Isn’t it wonderful! 

The youth of today recognise that the entire system is the problem. Not one side of politics or the other, not this brand or that brand – the whole deck of cards has become a self-serving perpetuation of entrenched failure. Luckily, because the system now literally locks young people out of having hope, or a realistic chance of reward or recognition, they will hopefully tear down the house of cards.

The destruction of the current system by today’s youth is inevitable because they already own it. This is why the change you most fear or desire won’t happen quickly, but far more change than you can imagine will eventually happen. Whatever you do, create, fear or hope won’t have the impact you’d like, but it will change the system in some way. 

In time you will look back from a different place and realise that the small change did influence a much larger shift. And hey, since 29 June 2007 it’s likely that even if you are speaking the same language, your audience isn’t paying attention to the change you made anyway. They are on their phone.

Howard Parry-Husbands is the founder and CEO of Pollinate, one of Australia’s leading strategic research consultancies. Parry-Husbands is also a director of Social Soup and non-executive director of Planet Ark.