Kevin McCann
Culture, Change, Strategy, Working Life, Leadership, Communications, AI
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Kevin McCann
culture

7 shifts in culture and communications that will mark 2021

A 2021 deck on trends. What a time to be alive.
7 shifts in culture and communications that will mark 2021

We’ve lived a decade in a year and laying bets on trends is either audacious or foolhardy. Yet here we are, seeing the patterns emerge. What follows are seven shifts in culture and communications that might be helpful in your own planning and reflection. 

For context, the deck embedded here is intended as a thought-provoker at the outset of alignment and strategic planning sessions. A light touch with few words, meant more for a conversation than lecture. Drop me a note if you’d like to chat about these themes, strategic planning, or team alignment. 

1. COVID-19 impact

First, the COVID-19 asteroid and the turmoil in its wake. Three quarters of us have reported sustained disruption, and Groundhog Day has become a little too real. Virtual life has exploded, but masks, distancing, and just not being able to do what we typically do has thrown us all off. Careers, jobs, life milestones, memory making, education, have all been disrupted. This has been felt the hardest in vulnerable populations, and the effects will continue long after the apex of the pandemic. 

One implication: Mental health and balance need to be central for organizations, as does ongoing issues and crisis management. Change is a core competency.

2. Acceleration

Second: things accelerated as much as they stopped. E-commerce, online grocery, workforce flexibility, logistics, vaccine research, vaccine social dynamics, virtual healthcare: all jumped ahead years in 12 months. And one would hope science literacy. COVID-19 has been devastating and undeserved, but the accelerated transformations it has caused will have some enduring silver linings. 

One implication: Any digital funnel for customers and audiences is wider, longer, more direct, with higher expectations from users and consumers.

3. New world of work

Third, the new world of work. It’s not just work-from-home life, it’s the emphasis on brand and organizational purpose and a new energy behind diversity, equity and inclusion. New office dynamics will emerge with distancing, wearing masks, to meet or not to meet, hybrid meetings, and vaccinations. Organizations need to continue to manage with empathy and normalize new habits and new expectations. 

One implication: Companies need a deliberate internal communications plan steeped in empathy, but they must also normalize new habits and expectations stemming from the past 12 months. HR, communications, and senior leadership must work together. Great virtual collaboration is achievable and expected.

4. Data reckoning

We continue our reckoning with data and the attention economy that feeds it. Internet companies (to the extent that’s a category) represent the largest industry to avoid regulation, and this will continue to change in some form. We’ve hit a critical mass of understanding the negative effects of our great invention, thrust forward by political polarization and outrage in the last four years. The Internet and how we think about it and use it will continue to change. 

One implication: Company self-regulation, brand investment over targeting investment, cyber breach readiness and acceptance.

5. Imperative of diversity, equity, inclusion, and change

Fifth: there is a new imperative of inclusivity, change, and action. Black Lives Matter is watershed, as significant and enduring as 9/11. Organizations are beginning to realize that change is required, and it must go deeper than communications. The expectations have evolved, and consumers are not afraid to take action, from changing their purchase habits to boycotting brands. 

One implication: Change is required, and it must go deeper than communications.  

6. Sustainability

Sustainability has become a more robust conversation every year, and it too has leapt ahead, spurred by the fragility that COVID-19 has exposed. The B-Corp movement, the theology of perpetual growth and consumption, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (including addressing systemic inequalities), have become a central priority for many organizations, with a lot more work to do and to come. The early 2020s will see issues like climate change, inclusive growth and consumption move closer to real action versus brand positioning.

One implication: Sustainability and language of sustainability will become more of a central expectation for brands—for shareholders, governments, and consumers.

7. Marketing and creativity

Finally, marketing and creativity. As I said last year, there’s a return to brand and story, usurping marketing technology as the priority focus for communications teams. We are instead more focused on being purpose-driven, reflecting the culture changes around us, thoughtful consumption, standing up and acting for values. 

One implication: Purpose, vision, values, minimalism, humour, authenticity, vulnerability are appreciated brand characteristics.

And we can’t forget nostalgia; that isn’t going away.

Originally published on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/7-shifts-culture-communications-mark-2021-kevin-mccann/

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