Every year, I spend the first couple of weeks quietly preparing for the year ahead; looking back at how our businesses performed last year, and reading the previous year summaries and the new year predictions that generally do the rounds. I’m in full-on Boundary Scout™mode, scanning for changes and things I need to be aware of for the new year.

Boundary; ‘an edge or limit of something’ 
Scout; ‘a person sent out ahead of a main force to gather information about an area’
(Source : Oxford Languages)

This time, as I reflect on the year past and wonder about the year to come, I can see threads weaving together and I’m more aware than ever of the power of physical connection and how important it is to us all.

It seemed to be slightly lost over the past few years, but I can see a groundswell towards grappling it back into our lives.

Is it something that we lost during lockdown, in the corners of a time when hiding in our homes was the norm?

Or were we already on the roller coaster of disconnection, led there by the enchantment of a screen that plays to our every whim and a life that demands the next move at every turn?

And now, that screen represents safety to us, a gateway to knowledge which in its own peculiar way, reassures us and makes us feel safer.  Knowledge is power after all…

Or is it?

Knowledge used to be unobtainable, go back a few hundred years and reading was not a common skill, writing was even rarer.  Knowledge was the preserve of a privileged few and with that came power.

But that didn’t stop the world turning for people who couldn’t read, the knowledge they needed to live was held within the community and communicated by people from village to village, generation to generation.

These days, the gadget in their hand gives everyone access to more knowledge than they could ever absorb in their lifetime, in fact, in many lifetimes.

Knowledge is no longer power…

If you then add in the dawn of Artificial Intelligence, which brings some good things, but can pull knowledge from questionable sources at times, you have the dawn of an era that will cast even more doubt over what we see or hear on line.

Knowledge is no longer the answer…

I think that curation is the new knowledge and connection is the new power…

Tribes are the the new community and stories are the new currency…

Learning by participating, connecting by being in the same place at the same time is seeing a resurgence, we’re craving connection and finally we want to be in the same room together again.

Knowledge curated and distilled down to bring us what we need, in a way that isn’t overwhelming.

Examples shared in stories and then onward recounted to others, in a time honoured way.

A feeling of belonging to a tribe and most importantly, a flash of connection as eyes meet over a shared task.

So in 2024, I encourage you to physically reconnect to the humans around you, they are incredible beings, you just need to look up and find them…