CHAPTER 11FUTURE NOW – THE ULTIMATE STRATEGIC MINDSET
For individuals, communities, and organisations, the biggest risk we take in an uncertain and non-linear world is to walk backwards into the future, extrapolating from the past, assuming that what was true yesterday will be true tomorrow. The future now mindset helps us to achieve that trickiest of all balancing acts; to hold the tension between the needs of today and tomorrow. It inspires us to feel open and curious and to bust the assumptions that short termism is our only option.
The frame we typically hold up to think about our future, however, is the past present, where historical assumptions and beliefs define what we see as possible or desirable. In most mature organisations, the ‘past present’ mindset is deeply rooted in its goals, measures, values, processes, systems, structures, and habits.
FIGURE 11.1 The ‘future now’ mindset
Source: Jean Gomes
For the individual, the future now mindset helps us see who we might become by embracing a non-linear path. For some, this is achieved with a side-hustle run in parallel with their career giving them future options, but also a wider perspective on the problems they currently face. A friend of mine, who runs a data science business and who studied mathematics and computer science, took up learning philosophy as he finds the questions have ‘expanded my situational awareness ...
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