by Building on my Change is slower than we think post, can we take it a step further and revisit the futurist value proposition? The setup is the perception among the public, our clients, and even some of our futurist colleagues that the rapid, breakneck, acce
lerating, exponential, unprecedented, etc., etc., speed of change is why we need to pay attention to the future — or we will fall even further behind. It taps into fear, which can be an effective strategy, but I would challenge this on two grounds.
- There is so much fear about the future already!
- Is the “speed of change” argument really accurate?
I’ll take #1 as self-evident.
On #2, my 30 years of experience reveals again and again: when analyzing change, we see that indeed the rapid change of today has roots that had been evident for years if not decades and WE SIMPLY WERE NOT PAYING ATTENTION. Is the futurist value proposition is simple as:
- “Pay attention…and you won’t be surprised?”
- Or “Do your foresight homework…and you won’t be surprised?”
It sorta like eating your vegetables. Do the hard work of scanning and monitoring as part of your overall foresight work, and you will not be swallowed up by the “rapid speed of change.” Rather, let’s suggest a more positive message of building confidence about the future. Let’s nurture the feeling that you will be prepared if you pay attention and do your futures homework. The messaging needs work, but I think this is the direction we need to go. What do y’all think? – Andy Hines
Helping people pay closer attention to what’s going on around them and then developing a consciousness as to how that might unfold into the future is a useful skill, but a futurist’s value is in the ongoing coaching and application of that mindset within organisations.
Those foresight abilities need to translate into good long-term decision making, applied innovation practices, agility coaching and culture transformation – the value of a futurist is that they hold the mandate to constantly be driving the change agenda – they are the guardians of what an organisation could be.