Imagine having an oracle that will enable you to see the future before it happens. As a business owner, executive, or employee, wouldn’t it be great to know a bit more about the future? More information that can help you plan new initiatives and goals or even achieve existing ones.
When many organizations act or start a new initiative, it seems like they are reacting to a change or event. Their action or effort flounders or only manages to tread water until it sinks. Or, it may end up among other mediocre products and services in the current hyper-competitive environment.
You might find yourself asking: “How can we get ahead of an emerging trend or technology to drive us forward ahead of our competition?” And, “How do we become more innovative to achieve or even surpass the goals we currently have?”
The Modern-Day Future Tellers
There is good news. A few highly-specialized individuals exist that can help. These oracles and "future-tellers" are consulting futurists and foresight experts. With their help, you’ll identify short- and long-term future possibilities to decide where to make the best investments.
While not oracles, consulting futurists help organizations see and understand emerging changes. And how changes today can lead to very probable outcomes in the future. They take organizations, like yours, through a comprehensive process aimed at guiding future-thinking and forward-looking. The process creates perspectives to help gain the competitive edge you seek. Helping you get ahead of continuous reaction and shifting the focus onto seeing opportunities before they arrive and mitigate unwanted surprises.
Assessment of Your Mindset
By shifting to a future-thinking mindset, you will be able to foresee different opportunities and risks before they emerge. This mindset allows you to change your perspective and to make better-informed decisions.
The first step to this shift is to assess your current mindset. To start, you may think through the following questions that target your potential future. Consider how each relates to your present perspectives, actions, and business model.
1. What underlying assumption does your business rely on for success and what could jeopardize it?
2. How do you find indications or early warning signs of changes before they happen?
3. What actions do you take to prepare for changes before they arrive and who will act when it's time?
Understand that changes that haven't happened come with bias, uncertainty, and different probabilities. Could some of the items you identified as long-lasting changes fizzle out? Will they gain traction or speed up?
Getting ahead of things that have not yet emerged will allow you to expand your thinking beyond your current operations — helping you establish a future-focus to guide future actions and decisions. In time, you will be able to shape your preferred future rather than react to one that driven by the environment.
Engage with a consulting futurist and take the first step of becoming future-focused. Let our perspective and process work for you so you can shape your preferred future today. Contact us at contact@flagshipfutures.com.
