Check out the stunning numbers recently cited in a New York Times article: 1 percent of Baby Boomers claimed to be vegetarian, which then progressed to 4 percent of Gen X’ers saying no to meat, and onward to an even bigger bump with roughly 12 percent of Millennials saying they are total vegetarians. But remember, that’s not the end of the story; it’s not as black and white as just claiming to be “carnivore” or “veg.” Millennials don’t love labels; they see how much trouble being one thing or the other can cause, how limiting it can be. …They would rather trust their own gut feeling and experience over that which is dictated to them by parents, government, or big corporations. Millennials and A Plant-Based Diet. Better Food, Better Choices, nutritionstudies.org, October 5, 2016.

I love the”stunning numbers” phrase. Of course the numbers are small but if one works with numbers for a living they do pop out as an interesting trend. It is also the case that I have millennial kids and that I converted to a plant based diet about four years ago.

The article illustrates some lessons I’ve learned in working with organizations and managing projects. The first is that some trends can take years to develop so we have to be patient and nurture them so they continue to grow. The second is that even given a trend we want to continually be open to what is going on and what will happen next and not be captured by the current trend as some absolute unchangeable truth. Finally, we can often see a trend growing years ahead of time which means now is often a good time to start preparing for it

I’m rooting for the millennials to succeed in taking this world one step further into a better future (I have to remind mine of the Billy Joel song “We didn’t start the fire” when they complain about the mess). If I was going to bet a project on a long term future trend, it would be on Millennials and a plant based diet.

Is your project based upon a long term trend or is it just milking the current trends?