Retail Operations & Construction magazine reports: "New concepts in value retailing, sporting goods stores as anchors, the addition of multi-screen cinemas ­ they’re all trends that are shaping the development and design of shopping centers and stores."

According to members of the International Council of Shopping Centers’ CenterBuild committee, other retail trends affecting design include shopper’s desire for excitement and a general dissatisfaction with enclosed regional malls. The number one trend affecting shopping centers today is the desire on the part of the customer to return to the open-air, Main Street/village shopping experience. They are no longer satisfied with the same old ‘if-you’ve-seen-one-you’ve-seen-them-all’ enclosed regional malls.

The second most influential trend today is the lifestyle approach to both retail and shopping center design. The visitor to today’s shopping centers expects to have a comfortable environment that offers the entire family a place to call home.

Making the store environment more inviting and exciting for young people is also important. Generation Y is considered a large and important group to draw into the stores. Establishing a separate environment or ‘world’ for these customers is recommended. Using different materials, colors, video and combining accessories, cosmetics, fragrances and other merchandise targeted to this age group will enable this customer to stay in the store.

Transforming tomorrow

Pierce J. Howard PhD, author of The Owner’s Manual for the Brain shares tips for developing your brain, "Chaos theory maintains that life, in its minute detail, is essentially chaotic, without order. It is only when we back away from the detail that we can find the patterns. This new theory, is integrated, along with several major breakthrough scientific theories, into a work that examines their implications for leadership. This work, Leadership and the New Science, by Meg Wheatley argues that leadership for the twenty-first century has a different priority than it had in the past.

 According to past theories, leadership (or management) served the task of "getting things done through other people." The new task of leadership, according to Wheatley, is to maximize information flow. Only through observing the massive storms of information that surround us can we see the "strange attractors" and "turbulence" among the data. It is from such massive displays of data that patterns emerge. Identification of these patterns leads to improved planning, decisions making, and problem solving."

Are you allowing enough information to be analyzed to determine the patterns that are affecting your work and your life?