May 2, 2016 by Jeff Hurt
This is part four of a series on being more future focused in our planning. See part one here, part two here and part three here.
So how do we develop, foster and leverage future focused leadership?
How do we encourage our committees, volunteers, staff and customers to laser focus on what’s next, what’s coming and co-creating a future together? It’s so hard to look ahead when we are often struggling with the past.
Leaders need to look farther out than anyone else. Too often they have a bias toward fiduciary responsibility—stuck in rearview mirror gazing. This causes our organizations to become prisoners of the past.
Encouraging our leaders to provide foresight, oversight, and insight instead of just dilly dallying with daily operations is critical to success. We can foster a culture that embraces future focused leaders equipped with forward thinking insights. Then our organization has the strategic advantage it needs, especially as it plans for extraordinary results.
We can invite our leadership to climb the virtual fire lookout tower. This will provide them the strategic perspective to see what’s next, what’s coming and plan for the future.
As the climb and observe from that virtual tower, they can see any disrupting fires coming their way. And they can scan the horizons for the cool breezes of opportunity.
McKinsey Quarterly authors Christian Casal and Christian Caspar say that the best organization leaders act as sparring partners, effective coaches and curious challengers for their top team, staff and customers. Here are five tips—some amended from Casal and Caspar’s recommendations—to practice future focused foresight.
Challenge your leadership to develop an outside-in-view of the industry or profession. Invite recognized experts and professionals from various fields—technology, economics, learning, science, etc.,—to present at their board meetings. Then ask leaders to connect the dots of society’s backdrop to their field.
One of the central roles of the board of directors is to converse, collaborate and ultimately co-create the organization’s strategy. The board should debate, discuss, refine and ultimately agree on that strategy. Staff then can prepare a menu of options that present varying degrees of resources and risks. Thus the board and staff co-create and define a broad strategic framework.
This is a critical first step that is often overlooked by leadership. Frequently, leaders embark on great ideas for programs, products and services before the organization identifies their target market. They plan the what and how before they ever discuss the who and why.
Or they copy their competitor and try to compete on the same level.
Regardless, this thinking requires a heightened awareness of current and potential customers, their needs and how to mobilize resources to develop their capability and capacity. Then leaders must scan the horizon and identify the business objectives of potential customers 12-24 months in advance.
Part of a leader’s strategic DNA is to understand their customer’s business objectives. Then they guide the organization to fulfill those business needs through their services and offerings. If not, they risk missing the mark for their customers’ business growth and ultimately creating with loyal customers.
Usually boards are good at identifying and evaluating the normal competitive risks. They know who their opponents are.
Yet rarely do boards anticipate the risks of staying the same. Savvy leaders evaluate the consequences of average and repeating the past.
And future-focused leaders don’t forget to consider the risks of today’s world like technology security breaches, viruses, economic decline, terrorism and natural disasters.
What foresight approaches have you seen that helped leaders focus on their organization’s future success? What tips do you have regarding implementing future focused planning methods?
Filed Under: Ramblings
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