It’s that time of year when we are overwhelmed with trends and predictions about what will happen in the future.

Like many other people I was recently made redundant.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin. For thousands of years people have used stories to entertain, educate and inform. Stories contain powerful metaphors and images that have a profound effect on how we view the world. And more and more people have been stressing the importance of storytelling in business – whether that be in pitching for business, making a presentation or selling yourself.

Alice asked the Cheshire Cat, who was sitting in a tree, “What road do I take?”

Technology is changing the world around us and one of the area where this change is most visible is our relationship with money and payments. Last year debit card payments overtook cash payments in the UK and increasingly card payments are becoming contactless payments.

I recently discovered this beautiful designed ad from a 1950’s edition of Vogue. The picture is a little unclear so it is worth quoting the copy in full.

There is no doubt that technology is changing the world of communications. And hundreds of blogs and opinion pieces will tell you about the latest trends and what we are going to see in the future. But they can often be theoretical; talk of what might happen is often very different from what actually happens.

I’ve been consuming too much. My brain is overwhelmed by the volume of information and the need to sift through it to extract some meaning.

Trend predictions can be frustrating with many being no more than a review of a few blogs and tech announcements followed by some spurious guesses. In the worst cases trends aren’t contextualised and little effort is given to sizing them or assessing their rate of travel.

There is no doubt that technology is changing the world of communications. And hundreds of blogs and opinion pieces will tell you about the latest trends and what we are going to see in the future. But they can often be theoretical; talk of what might happen is often very different from what actually happens.