The DUMPLING Method: Nine Principles for Reading Change in Asia
Our principles
We read trends, foresight and culture through the I-Ching 易經, the oldest framework on change from Ancient China. We've turned it into working principles and a strategy tool.
Whole
A HOLISTIC VIEW 系統智慧Every part of a system is connected. Before we work on a brand, product or market, we look at what else it’s connected to and what our work might affect.
Balance
COUNTER-FORCES 反力策略Every force breeds its counter-force. When something becomes popular, some people react against it, and the next opportunity often comes from the tension between the two.
Renewal
CYCLE OF TRENDS 再生規劃Every ending carries the seed of what comes next. Most things in a market eventually decline, but something new usually starts forming before they’re gone.
Emergence
EARLY SIGNALS 信號偵測Big changes usually start small. Big shifts tend to appear first in small places, like one street, one shop or one group of people.
Clarity
BRAND CONVICTION 品牌自覺Be clear about who you are, and act on it with conviction. Brands that know what they stand for make decisions faster and hold their ground when the market gets noisy.
Timing
MARKET TIMING 時機判斷Good timing matters as much as a good idea. The same idea can fail in March and do well in September, because markets have their own moods, calendars and moments.
Cycles
RECURRING PATTERNS 週期規律What ends tends to come around again. Trends often return in a different form, and knowing what came before helps you see what’s likely to come back.
Limits
TIPPING POINTS 臨界思維Anything pushed too far starts to turn. Most strengths have a limit, and going past it turns them into a weakness.
Vitality
REGENERATIVE GROWTH 永續共生What you give back keeps you growing. Healthy brands contribute something to the people, places and partners around them, and that support keeps them growing over the long run.
What is the Signal
Mapping Tool?
The Signal Mapping Tool is DUMPLING’s map of the signals of change we track across Asia, each placed by the kind of change, how far it reaches and the counter force pushing back on it. We built it on these principles, and we use it in all pillars of our work. Please feel free to play around with this demo below.
The DUMPLING
method
A signal is one real thing happening now that points to a bigger change. Every signal on the DUMPLING Signal Mapping Tool goes through the same six steps, including the ones people send us through our open call.
The method comes from the I-Ching 易經, the ancient Chinese book of change. It reads every change as part of a cycle, and every force as held in balance by its opposite.
Spot
We start from something we can point to, such as a shop, a menu, a law or a search trend, and we keep the source so anyone can check it.
FROM THE SIGNAL MAPPING TOOLShops and shared spaces in Southeast Asia built around neighbours relying on each other.
Name
Each signal gets a short name, so people can repeat it and remember it.
FROM THE SIGNAL MAPPING TOOLKampung Spirit, from the Malay word for village.
Place
We tag the kind of change it is and how far it reaches, from one person to the whole world.
FROM THE SIGNAL MAPPING TOOLKampung Spirit is a social change, seen across the region.
Counter
Every signal has a counter force, big or small. We name it, say which of the four kinds it is, and score how hard it pushes back, from 0 to 1.
FROM THE SIGNAL MAPPING TOOLPlatform Reliance pushes against Kampung Spirit at 0.95, because people now ask an app for help they used to get from neighbours.
Cycle
We place each signal in a cycle of three stages, where it is emerging, growing, or renewing in a new form.
FROM THE SIGNAL MAPPING TOOLDUMPLING first mapped Kampung Spirit in 2019, when it was emerging. Today it is growing.
Act
Then we ask what the signal and its counter force mean for the brands, hotels and founders we work with.
FROM THE SIGNAL MAPPING TOOLA neighbourhood café that designs for regulars who know each other, not only for app orders.
The shape is the kind of change
Each shape is one of the five STEEP forces: social, technological, economic, environmental and political. STEEP is a classic way to sort what kind of force is moving.
The size is how far it reaches
Six scales, from one person to the whole world. They come from the Confucian line 修身、齊家、治國、平天下: nurture the self, align the family, govern the state, bring peace to the world. Read more ↗
The cycle
Every category moves through the same cycle. It emerges, it grows and then it renews in a new form. At every stage we look for the counter force that will push back on what is rising. The hexagram above each stage comes from the I-Ching. It names the kind of change.
SIGNAL
What is counter-force? Four kinds
of counter
A counter force is whatever pushes back on a signal. Every signal has one, big or small, and it comes in one of four kinds.
Opposes
It competes for the same act by a different method, so a person can do one or the other.
Corrupts
It grows inside the signal and empties it out from within.
Absorbs
It delivers the same result in a way that removes the signal.
Succeeds
It takes over the ground as the signal fades.
Asia-Forward
You don’t have to be Asian to be Asia-forward.