In her presentation at this year’s State of the Industry Summit, Crystal Washington, an author and futurist, said we’re in a renaissance, a time full of possibilities—but also one during which things that have historically worked well are breaking apart.

People today are living in a period that, generations from now, will be remembered as a pivotal point in history, Washington said.

Her message: Time frames are compressing as the rate of change is rapidly increasing, so everyone needs to innovate. But companies must figure out what actually matters to their customers, rather than just innovating for the sake of innovation.

Business cycles are shrinking, so companies are having to reinvent themselves in an accelerated way. Technology innovation is accelerating. And humans are “stressed-out cyborgs,” affecting their ability to connect—she cited an annual study called “Stress in America” by the American Psychological Association, which found that 27% of adults in the U.S. report that, on most days, they’re too stressed to function properly.

We have not caught up biologically with the world we’re living in.”

Washington said this time of upheaval is “uncomfortable for everybody” but is showing people that they have an outsized opportunity to influence what is happening around them.

She added, “The ideas that we held, the systems that we use for support, we’re starting to see fractures, and people are waiting to be told what to do. My friends, no one is coming to save us. We have to put on our own capes.”

Hence her idea of futureproofing yourself. “There are so many things in the future that we cannot control. But what we can do is not bury our heads in the sand.”

While looking toward the future is crucial, it doesn’t mean innovating willy-nilly, she said. Washington has seen a lot of companies innovating out of fear. They’re making updates and changes and innovations that don’t serve much of a purpose except for being able to be touted as innovation.

Instead, companies should relentlessly focus their innovation: Who is this going to help? What is this going to do? How is this going to be done?

At the SOI Summit, Washington said that there’s no one big trend everyone can discover to be futureproofed but offered three goals for those in the convenience store industry: to diversify revenue streams beyond fuel and quick food, to make your store a destination where customers come because they want to be there and to use technology to improve the employee experience.

While c-stores are all about convenience, Washington said that if you want to be a destination, it’s “not about getting people in and out faster; you want them to feel comfortable in your stores.” She said she keeps accidentally ordering c-store food off food delivery apps and sees opportunities for diversification there.

C-store operators should think about where they’re seeing a need that isn’t being fulfilled. That might require talking to your employees to know what’s happening in the day-to-day operations on the front end. “Listen to what challenges they’re having,” Washington said.

She said most companies already focus on improving the customer experience, so they should make it a priority to improve the employee experience. She has seen companies keep employees happy by, for instance, investing in apps for mental health and providing daily payments/microchecks.

As a whole, Washington thinks the c-store industry is in a good place.

“No one is better equipped to steer this industry in a new direction than those of you in this room,” she said. “You have the experience, you have the talent, and you have the passion for it.”

But that will require people looking for the “Easter eggs of the future.” Washington cited both Blockbuster and taxis as industries that didn’t listen to the people who had boots on the ground. “The problem is, Blockbuster listened to their c-suite. All they had to do was ask their cashiers,” Washington said. These frontline workers could have shared how frustrated customers were about not finding the videos they wanted and paying late fees. “Your frontline people have the data you need to make good decisions,” she said. “You just have to be open to hearing it.”

Your frontline people have the data you need to make good decisions.

To futureproof, she said, organizations should be scanning the horizon—reading industry publications and blogs; listening to podcasts and employees; and watching the world for trends or signals. “Signals are those little whispers. They’re not trends yet,” she explained.

Companies should also engage in scenario planning by identifying three unwanted future scenarios—for example, the CEO gets ill, the world falls into a deep recession or another pandemic breaks out. Analyze how that affects your company and your employees. Then companies should map out three actions they can take now to be ready for each alternate future. “Three solutions for each of those scenarios. Three times three, you’re going to end up with nine solutions total,” she explained. The magic happens, Washington said, when you look at all those solutions and identify steps that would work across all those unwanted scenarios or that would be helpful to prepare for a range of possible situations. “Take action on that,” she said.

Maybe most importantly for futureproofing, companies need to take action—now—so they’re prepared against unwanted futures.

“Be kind to yourself and don’t hold yourself to an impossible standard,” Washington said. “Surviving this period of constant change requires that you adopt that mentality of just being curious—‘Really? Why? How might this work?’” She recommended putting yourself in the mindset you had when you were eight years old and were open to any and all ideas.

People are inclined to resist change, Washington said. “The only reason any of us are here right now is because our ancestors’ brains evolved to recognize change as danger. … We have not caught up biologically with the world we’re living in now of constant change.”

She ended her session with a reminder to get frontline employees involved in discussions about innovation and to ask them, customers and clients open-ended questions.

“At the end of the day, you already have access to much of the data you need to make smart decisions about futureproofing yourself,” Washington said. “All it’s going to take is you being open and curious and ensuring that you maintain that childlike innocence.”