The first step to leading an organisation into the future
It's very tricky trying to create the future while still dragging the past behind you.
I'm sometimes asked the question; "What is the first step a leader needs to take to better steer an organisation into the future?"
Firstly though, it's important to recognise the frightfully scary undertones of this seemingly simple and innocent question.
What the person is actually asking is - "What could possibly inspire a mad idiot to take on the responsibility to choose to lead a seemingly successful organisation away from all that is 'known', headlong into the unknown?"
Putting the question more honestly like that, leads weirdly to the answer that, over the years, I have come to recognise as the appropriate one.
The first step is that the leader needs to feel enough pain in the act of consciously holding onto the past in order to take on the personal responsibility to actively and continuously focus their full attention and intention towards creating the future that they desire instead.
It's very tricky trying to create the future while still dragging the past behind you.
Without a 100% personal commitment to embracing change and wholeheartedly exploring what the future 'could be' - you're guaranteed to be wasting your time as a futurist hired to assist with this transformational journey, if that first crucial step hasn't been consciously taken.
A leader needs to want to be more future-focused - no amount of great foresight work is going to magically wave that wand for them.