William Higham is a leading behavioural futurist and one of the UK’s most sought-after future of work speakers, renowned for helping organisations anticipate consumer trends and future-proof their strategies.

As the founder of Next Big Thing, William has advised global brands such as Amazon, HSBC, and Spotify, guiding them on how to adapt to shifting behaviours and stay ahead in competitive markets. In this exclusive interview with Champions Speakers Agency, he shares his insights on building innovative workplace cultures, re-engaging modern workforces, and understanding the deep emotional drivers shaping consumer behaviour today.

Many business leaders talk about fostering innovation, but few achieve it. From your perspective, what are the essential ingredients for creating a workplace culture that truly embraces innovation and change?

I think it’s really about people seeing change and volatility as a positive. People often say, “Oh, no one likes change,” but we like good change.

If you were working for me and I offered you a promotion or a raise, you’re not going to say, “Oh, that’s too much change, I don’t want that.” On a personal level, you wouldn’t want to stay single if there’s an opportunity to have a loving partner. So, actually, change can be a real positive — it’s just that we’ve got very used to the idea that change is negative. We’re stuck in our comfort zones and want to stay there, but actually, change can be positive.

As I said, if you look back at the classic economists, most of them say — and prove — that the best time to get ahead is during a volatile time. It’s those changes that can put you forward. If everybody’s able to identify what’s going to happen ahead, then everyone will move at the same pace and do the same things. But if you can identify what’s changing ahead of everybody else, that’s how you can gain competitive advantage.

It’s about showing people within your company — from the boss all the way through to the whole workforce — that change is positive. That’s really important. And rewarding people who can change well, rewarding those who come up with good ideas, rewarding those who can identify new needs, and so on.

I call it positive resilience — it’s not just about bouncing back, it’s about bouncing forward. When businesses are preparing for an uncertain future, yes, of course, you need to anticipate threats, and that’s important. But the most important thing — the smart companies know — is that the key is to seek out new growth opportunities and not worry so much about the threats.

As you’ve worked closely with both consumer trends and HR leaders, what do you see as the deeper risks businesses face when dealing with a disengaged workforce — and how can they actively reverse that disengagement?

When I started in this business, I was very much focused on the consumer — what consumers’ future needs would be, what their future expectations would be. So, when I was looking forward and predicting, it was about them.

Over the last few years, although I’m still doing a lot in that area, I’ve also been working with HR departments, looking at how to restructure the organisation itself, because I can see not just how business is likely to change in future but also how employee needs — not just consumer needs — are likely to change.

If you look at the workforce, it’s so important to have an engaged workforce, to have a team that shares a vision and works together, no matter where they are. It’s absolutely possible to have a workforce spread across the country or across the globe — some working from an office, some working from home. You can now have more and more of a mix of freelancers and full-time staff. But if there’s a vision they can all share, that’s the way to bring them on board.

That’s one of the keys. If you have a disengaged workforce, you’re simply not going to be able to create the sort of productivity you need to generate growth.

Let’s turn it on its head and look at what you can achieve with an engaged workforce. If people can work together, you can create so much. There’s so much knowledge within your team. You can create a knowledge hub to give advice to your customers; you can build an efficient workforce that makes life smoother for your consumers, and so on.

The key is to try and engage your workforce. Again, if you look at the statistics, it’s clear that the most profitable companies are the ones with the most engaged workforces.

I think part of the reason for the disengaged workforce right now, not just here in the UK but across Europe and other parts of the world, is that many workplaces are stuck in fairly outdated practices. People spend their weekends on their phones, doing everything via mobile — they’re out and about, messaging friends to say, “Shall we go to the cinema? What should we watch? Can I order this online via my phone?”

Then they come into the office — and more and more people now have to return to the office — and suddenly they’re faced with a fixed desk and a fixed phone, and it’s all back to an older era, as it were. I think it’s essential that we change not just the way the workforce is structured but also the way businesses and office spaces are set up.

We’ve got an anniversary coming up — in the last couple of years, it’s been the 300th anniversary of the opening of the first ever office. It was actually opened in London, at Admiralty House on the Strand.

If you look at that, I’ve seen the plans, I’ve seen some of the diaries of the people who created it — and it’s really not that different to the office of today. If you took someone who was the office manager of that first office 300 years ago and brought them forward in a time machine, they’d recognise the present-day office. They might not understand computers, but they’d know the meeting room, they’d recognise the sales department and the accounts department.

That’s not good. If you look at the transport we had 300 years ago, or the fashions, or the medical knowledge we had back then, all those have rightly changed massively over time. It’s time the office space caught up.

We need to create an office space that is right for tomorrow’s business. Yes, we need little booths where people can concentrate, but really, it’s about finding space for cooperation, space for collaboration — because that’s what you want your people in the office to be doing.

Understanding consumer behaviour has never been more complex, with emotions and social factors shifting rapidly. What strategies or frameworks do you recommend for businesses that want to stay ahead of evolving consumer needs?

It’s really useful to understand some basic human psychology. Whatever department you’re in, if you’re consumer-facing, it’s really important to try to gain some understanding of that.

I’ve learned so much over the years on this, and it’s really helped me. I think the key is that typically, any human is motivated by their emotions — whether that’s fear, happiness, loneliness, embarrassment, or whatever it might be.

If you can pick up on some of those emotions and see — and this is how I work out the process — in order to predict what customers’ new needs and expectations will be, you first need to understand what emotions are motivating them right now.

Try to identify what might affect those emotions — for example, the economic situation might generate more fear; the geopolitical situation might bring a bit more confidence; some of the new personal technologies coming through might spark excitement.

If you can pick up on what some of those future drivers might be, then you can understand what the new emotions will be, and therefore what the new attitudes are, and therefore what the new behaviours will be.

It’s really key. I feel like sometimes I’m a cross between a journalist and a psychiatrist — understanding what’s happening in the world, looking at the news, and understanding how that’s going to affect customer attitudes and behaviours.

This exclusive interview with William Higham was conducted by Louisa Hayes.