Great leaders have farsightedness and a foresight strategy. They learn to pick up on cues and warnings from the work environment, allowing them to act before it’s too late. In addition, the foresight strategy provides for proactively hiring resources to mitigate expected problems and challenges. It is also a means of turning hopes for a better future into reality. Thus, enabling leaders of all types of organizations to develop a foresight framework to help guide the organization toward wise decisions and a bright future.
Practical Steps to Develop a Foresight Strategy
Step One: Realizing that the future can be different from the present or the past
A foresight strategy requires realizing that the future can differ from the past regarding society or business. For example, when we look at the preferred end concerning society’s issues. We can expect our future society to be more oriented toward maximizing the moral values that sustain and grow society. Regarding business issues, we can look forward to creating better products and services. That meet customers’ needs in the future, where our goals will be achieved, the public image of our business will improve, and we will have better relationships with competitors. Thus, developing a foresight strategy increases the chance that current and future efforts will be worked on regarding organizational processes, systems, culture, and staff training and development in a way that achieves the vision of societies and organizations.
Step Two: Understand the impact of the past and future on present decisions
To understand what the future seems like, leaders must understand the influence. And driving forces of the past and the future on today’s decisions. More specifically, leaders must consciously try to understand the root causes of change. They note that these influences and driving forces include technological innovation, social ideas, political efforts, and expected economic or financial policies in the future. For example, in an era of technological development, a leader may consider the motivation behind this force. And want to understand the current and future implications for the organization if this trend continues. The result in the workplace may be stress and burnout. This makes it more difficult for employees to be productive, creative, and energetic to keep an organization operating in turbulent, dynamic, and uncertain environments.
Step Three: Understanding the current and future environment
By understanding the current and future environment and its implications for the organization, leaders can, through a foresight strategy, discover, invent, examine, evaluate, and suggest a possible, probable, and preferred future. In considering each of these types for the future, the organization will likely find a way to develop strategies and tactics that will cover the possible future. Only when we have a plan for dealing with a potential future is it possible to incorporate into the strategic plan a preferred future. Which might or might not look like the possible and probable futures.
Step Four: Identify the gaps between future and current mental scenarios
After developing a preferred future, the leader is better positioned to determine if there is a gap between future and current mental scenarios, values, practices, processes, or decision-making models. These gaps are not alarming because they give people a purpose to strive for. Efforts to achieve these goals are worthwhile. But are a source of creative energy that provides tension to move the organization toward the vision. Furthermore, “what vision does” creates the power for change, not “what vision is.”
For example, the organization needs to reach more people with its services. However, it needed more resources to achieve this expansion. Knowing where the organization was going and where it was operational and financially, they were able to brainstorm ideas to make this expansion possible. Over the next year, the organization sought accreditation to help reach more people and provide funding for growth.
Step Five: Bridging the gaps between the present and the alternative future
When gaps are identified, leaders can develop a plan to bridge them between the present and an alternative future. By doing so, the leader has accomplished the task of working backward, starting at a desirable alternative future rather than working towards the future. The latter approach can lead to tunnel vision, which limits the vision of the future environment, and, thus, the opportunity to create an alternative future at this stage of development and implementation of the necessary strategic plans – including goals, tactics, structures, processes, systems, culture, and people requirements of Where the skills and abilities needed to achieve the future vision – that the work towards the vision has been accomplished.
The Leadership Of The Status Quo Needs To Create Change.
The status quo leader cannot create the necessary environment that revives the individual talents and skills of employees. In addition, employees in this environment usually need to be more creative, innovative, energetic, or enthusiastic about their work. When leaders provide a worthwhile vision formulated using a foresight strategy, they implement continuous organizational transformation. The leader moves the organization beyond the status quo. And into an ongoing pattern of transformation driven by the inherent hope, meaning, inspiration, and drive created by the organization’s vision.
Organizations with such a vision that is acted upon proactively are more likely to have employees who view this vision as a rescue from the day’s problems. They are also more likely to view the organization as a channel of hope for future renewal, restoration, and change in the society or life that the organization touches. When an organization demonstrates that its inspiring vision can only be achieved through the skills and abilities of all its employees. Employees feel that their work is meaningful. Thus, the foresight strategy is vital in creating synergistic and vibrant environments. Where people believe their skills and abilities contribute to the organization’s overall well-being and those it serves.
The foresight strategy is not a dream. But a helpful management tool that can give the organization and its members an opportunity for creativity and innovation. Thus, leaders have the skills of anticipation. They can act before a problem occurs and apply the system before a disaster occurs.
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